Is the undercurrent pushing the people running as write in candidates for Coatesville City Council part of an effort to fire Coatesville PD Chief Laufer and Detective Thompson?
Does Coatesville City Council President Linda Lavender Norris believe that Coatesville Police planted weapons on and near Andre Emmet “Needles” Fiorentino? That Andre Fiorentino was unarmed when two Coatesville, Pennsylvania, police officers opened fire on him? Or is Ms. Norris on a power trip?
For Linda Lavender Norris to fire Detective Thompson, Chief Laufer needs to go first. Chief Laufer will not fire Detective Thompson.
But before that could happen a majority of Coatesville City Council needs to agree to fire Chief Laufer. That can't happen unless at least 2 incumbent council persons are not re-elected and are replaced with "Thompson Must Go" city council members.
In Tuesday's Elections 1st. Ward Coatesville City Council Member Ed Simpson and 3rd. Ward Coatesville City Council Member Arvilla Hunt were up for re-election.
I believe that Mr. Simpson and Ms. Hunt would not go along with firing Chief Laufer or Detective Thompson.
Enter Lillie Lavender for Coatesville City Council 3rd Ward candidate and Cheryl Taggart for Coatesville City Council 1st. Ward.
Think it can't happen?
Keep in mind that the City of Coatesville has already canned or forced out City Manager Kerby Hudson, Public Works Director Don Wilkinson and Codes Officer Damalier Molina. All three had major shouting match disagreements with City Council President Linda Lavender Norris.
As far as Andre Fiorentino’s story that he was unarmed this is how his mother responded:
“Asked whether or not her son was armed, Jeanie responded, ‘I don’t know if he had a gun. There was a little gun in the street. I seen the police officer kick the gun away from Andre and then another officer came from the opposite side to pick up the gun.”
My take on this is that the evidence against Andre Fiorentino is overwhelming and all the stuff that is happening in Coatesville is creating false hope and more suffering for everyone involved. And that the political ambition and political power of the narcissistic, Machiavellian, psychopath who is the Coatesville City Council President is leaching on the compassion for black men trapped by racism and poverty. That's my opinion. Make up your own mind. But please don't depend on 2nd, 3rd, & 4th hand "whisper down the lane" "facts".
What interests me from the article just below is this comment from "James". Who is the “Old Head”?
“And he wasn’t looking in car windows? Who’s the old head that he got in a fight with a few nights prior? Who called Needles to tell him that the Old Head was sitting in the car down the street? This animal was out hunting and got what he deserved.
Live by the gun, die by the gun. Don’t blame the cops cause your brother got caught.”
Dispatches from the Underclass
by Rania Khalek on December 26, 2013
Andre Fiorentino, 32, says he was unarmed when two Coatesville, Pennsylvania, police officers opened fire on him last month outside his home. He was struck several times and nearly bled out while shackled face down on the ground in front of his mother and 14-year-old son.
Just one day after the incident, the authorities determined that the shooting was justified based on police claims that Fiorentino was armed with two guns and shot at them twice, prompting officers to return fire. Fiorentino has since been charged with attempted murder of two police officers.
But his family isn’t buying it.
Fiorentino’s sister, Arden Hunt, contacted me a few weeks ago about her brother’s case.
She pointed to several holes in the police narrative about what took place that night and expressed dismay at the authorities for spending less than 24 hours investigating the incident.
“They justified the shooting within 24 hours without talking to my brother,” Hunt told me.
“He couldn’t even speak. He was in an induced coma.”
On November 24, one day after Fiorentino was shot, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced that the investigation into the incident was complete and that the shooting was deemed justified. He praised the officers and portrayed Fiorentino as a career criminal who deserved what he got.
“Given the defendant’s conduct, the defendant was lucky he was not killed and Chester County is lucky that two police officers are not dead,” Hogan said in a statement. “In Chester County, we will not permit our police officers to be targeted. It will be a long time before this defendant sees blue sky again.”…
Shackled and Bleeding out
Fiorentino’s mother, Jeanie, was asleep in her bed when she awoke to 8 loud rapid-fire gunshots.
“When I came outside, the police officer had a gun pointed at my son’s head,” she told me, adding that he was face down, shackled and bleeding profusely at the time.
“
I was crying and screaming, ‘Oh my God, you shot my son!’ Then one of the policemen said, ‘Get the F— back’ and he told the other officer to handcuff me. My son was saying, ‘Mama, I’m okay.’ Then he said it again, a little softer. He could barely talk.”
She added, “I don’t think they called the ambulance. Someone in my house did.”
Fiorentino’s 14-year-old son was at the house that night as well. Upon hearing gunshots, he ran outside to the porch and was the first to see his father handcuffed and bloody. Jeanie is concerned that her grandson has been traumatized by what he witnessed. “I know that can do a lot to a kid because I see what it did to me,” she said. “I still see the whole thing right outside my window when I’m sleeping in my bed.”
Asked whether or not her son was armed, Jeanie responded, “I don’t know if he had a gun. There was a little gun in the street. I seen the police officer kick the gun away from Andre and then another officer came from the opposite side to pick up the gun.”
However, she does not believe her son shot at the officers, especially since the gunshots she heard were rapid and successive, meaning they came from the same gun.
As for the gun that was found on his clothing during transport to the hospital, Jeanie was skeptical. “They wouldn’t let me go to the hospital with him. I cried and begged. They sent a woman police officer with him.”
Hunt also expressed suspicion at the idea that a gun would be found on her brother after police would have undoubtedly frisked him.
The family has since hired a lawyer and plans to push back against police claims…
Fiorentino’s preliminary hearing has been scheduled for January 28.
UPDATE: Paul Hetznecker, Andre Fiorentino’s attorney, tells me that it is “unheard of” for a police shooting investigation as serious as this one to be settled within 24 hours.
“I am shocked that any major police shooting in any jurisdiction would resolve in such a short period of time. It calls into question the methods and results of the investigation conducted by the Chester County authorities,” says Hetznecker…
11 Comments
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Bob #
The investigation was so quick because the evidence was so overwhelming against the armed felon. He is a known violent felon. His family will try to get a payday out of this but I strongly encourage the county to fight them till the end so they get nothing (except for the welfare they’ve collected for years). I applaud the aggressive police officers for risking their lives to make this notoriously dangerous city a little safer…
Bob #
The investigation was so quick because the evidence was so overwhelming against the armed felon. He is a known violent felon. His family will try to get a payday out of this but I strongly encourage the county to fight them till the end so they get nothing (except for the welfare they’ve collected for years). I applaud the aggressive police officers for risking their lives to make this notoriously dangerous city a little safer…
pinbalwyz #
It’s hard to tell in a swearing contest from here. If the jury is presented with ballistics evidence where the police recover the alleged bullets fired by the young black man, they may well convict him. They should be looking for his fingerprints on the 2 guns allegedly in the defendants possession and the bullets fired for ballistics. If all that lines up pointing to the defendant, he’d have a lot of explaining to do. Self defense (he fired after they opened fire on him) might be a persuasive explanation but for the fact it’s too late since the defendant claimed he had no gun at all. Sometimes (almost always) it’s better to keep your mouth shut. By opening his, he eliminated a number of potential defense strategies. On the other hand, perhaps there are no fingerprints and incriminating ballistics/bullets in evidence?
-amicuscuria.com/wordpress-…
James #
The writer of this needs to follow up with the “young black men in Coatesville’s poorest neighborhoods” who have thanked the police department for getting Fiorentino off the street. Needles is an animal; not a human, and should be kept in a cage. His mother produced one son who is in jail for life for murder, this animal who, with 2 prior convictions for armed robbery, is running around with 2 stolen guns and shooting at police. And he wasn’t looking in car windows? Who’s the old head that he got in a fight with a few nights prior? Who called Needles to tell him that the Old Head was sitting in the car down the street? This animal was out hunting and got what he deserved.
The writer of this needs to follow up with the “young black men in Coatesville’s poorest neighborhoods” who have thanked the police department for getting Fiorentino off the street. Needles is an animal; not a human, and should be kept in a cage. His mother produced one son who is in jail for life for murder, this animal who, with 2 prior convictions for armed robbery, is running around with 2 stolen guns and shooting at police. And he wasn’t looking in car windows? Who’s the old head that he got in a fight with a few nights prior? Who called Needles to tell him that the Old Head was sitting in the car down the street? This animal was out hunting and got what he deserved.
Live by the gun, die by the gun. Don’t blame the cops cause your brother got caught…
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Dispatches from the Underclass
by Rania Khalek on December 26, 2013
Daily Local News
WEST CHESTER >> Before sentencing the man convicted of firing gunshots at two Coatesville police officers to a prison term that could keep him behind bars well into his old age, a Common Pleas Court judge on Thursday bemoaned how the defendant had smeared the city as well as threatened the lives of the officers.
“You have repeatedly let down the community,” Judge Patrick Carmody told Andre Emmet “Needles” Fiorentino as a standing-room courtroom filled with city police officers and members of the Chester County District Attorney’s Office sat and listened. “You have been in and out of jail like it’s a revolving door.”
“I have a great respect for the citizens of Coatesville,” Carmody said in his 15-minute long lecture to Fiorentino. “I think it gets a bad rap … because of the actions of a few.” He said that evidence showed Fiorentino chose to leave his home and his family the night of the shooting and “put the people who live and work in that city in danger.”
Reciting Fiorentino’s criminal history dating back to his teenage years, Carmody said the defendant was someone who could not control his impulse to commit violent crimes, mainly armed robbery. “You have had a number of chances and you’ve tossed them aside to go out and terrorize the community. We can’t tolerate people shooting at police.”
Calling Coatesville police the “soldiers on the home front” who protect the community, Carmody said that Fiorentino had by firing at them during a street stop in November 2013, “made the community a dangerous place. That is a crying shame.”
Carmody sentenced Fiorentino, 34, of Coatesville to 25 to 50 years in state prison, on the charges of felony aggravated assault on police officers and three weapons charges. He said he had tailored the sentence so that Fiorentino would “no longer be a threat to society” when he is freed.
Both of the officers that Fiorentino was found guilty of firing the revolver was illegally carrying spoke at the hour-long sentencing hearing in the county Justice Center. Detective Joseph Thompson and Officer Ryan Corcoran asked Carmody to sentence Fiorentino to the maximum term allowable, which was 35 to 70 years. They said the events of the night they were attacked had had a long lasting impact on their lives and careers.
“I will relive that night for all the time I work in Coatesville,” said Thompson, who said that as a longtime officer he had been in life-or-death situations previously but none that compared to Fiorentino’s attack. He said he felt Fiorentino had tried to make him the villain in the case rather than the victim, and had “played the system” to get a monetary reward.
“I want the defendant, and any other criminal to think twice before they attempt to shoot another officer,” Thompson told Carmody.
Corcoran, who had only served a few weeks as an officer in Coatesville when the shooting occurred, told the judge he had never dreamed he would be involved in an attack such as Fiorentino’s. “I had hoped that I would never have to use my weapon,” said the military veteran of wars in the Middle East. “But I felt like I was in a fight for my life.”
He urged Carmody to sentence Fiorentino to a lengthy sentence “to let other officers know that the judicial process will always be there for them.”
The case pitted the prosecution’s contention that Fiorentino had fired multiple shots at the two officers after they attempted to stop and question him as he walked along a street in the city’s East End, with the defense’s claim that the officers had overreacted and fired at Fiorentino without justification, mistaking a cell phone he had pulled from a pocket for a weapon.
The jury that heard the case during a week-long trial in June rejected the defense suggestion and found Fiorentino guilty on various counts of aggravated assault and weapons offenses. Carmody, in his comment before imposing the prison term on Fiorentino, said he considered the evidence against Fiorentino — including taped telephone conversations from Chester County Prison in which he implicated himself in the crime — overwhelming.
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Man gets 25-50 years for shooting at Coatesville policemen
By Michael P. Rellahan,
WEST CHESTER >> The attorney for a Coatesville man who was shot by city police after he allegedly drew a weapon and fired at them will not be permitted to question one of the two officers about a prior shooting he was involved in on I-95, a Common Pleas Court judge has ruled.
Judge Patrick Carmody, in a five-page order signed last week, granted the motion by the prosecution in the case of Andre Emmett “Needles” Fiorentino to bar defense attorney Paul J. Hetznecker of Philadelphia from asking now-Detective Joseph Thompson about the 2008 police shooting in Delaware County in which he was involved.
Hetznecker had signaled that he wanted to cross-examine Thompson about the shooting in order to attack his credibility and show that he had “a powerful and compelling motive to lie about the circumstances of the shooting in this case,” according to a brief Hetznecker filed in support of his efforts.
The prosecution, led by Deputy District Attorney Thomas Ost-Prisco, had countered that asking Thompson about the shooting, which happened five years before the shooting involving Fiorentino, would be improper character evidence of “prior bad acts” under the state’s rules of evidence.
Hetznecker argues that “because Detective Thompson used force in the apprehension of suspects in the past, in what (he) has labeled an unconstitutional manner, that Detective Thompson must have done the same in this case,” Ost-Prisco wrote. That, he said, was expressly prohibited by state rules.
Carmody agreed with the prosecution.
“The 2008 incident is wholly unrelated to the present matter,” he wrote in his decision, signed June 8. “Detective Thompson is not under investigation for the 2008 incident. He has been cleared of any wrongdoing and has never been disciplined as a result of the incident.
Further, the judge wrote, Thompson, who was hired as a part-time patrol officer in August 2013 and promoted to full time following the city shooting, subsequently becoming a detective, “does not need to ingratiate himself to his superiors by obtaining a conviction because the prior matter is closed, the investigation occurred years before (Fiorentino’s) trial is scheduled to begin, and it was resolved in Detective Thompson’s favor.”
Evidence of the 2008 shooting is “collateral” and “irrelevant,” Carmody wrote. He also precluded Hetznecker from asking Thompson about other cases in which the officer was involved in Coatesville arrests that drew negative scrutiny from Common Pleas judges in the county, including Carmody himself.
“We do not want this trial distracted into challenging Detective Thompson’s career rather than what happened in this case,” the judge wrote.
“The court notes that this was a difficult decision,” Carmody, however, commented. Even though he agreed with the prosecution that there was no connection between the 2008 and 2013 shootings, he said he would give Hetznecker leeway to question Thompson “extensively” about the circumstances surrounding Fiorentino’s shooting and arrest.
“This includes the propriety of the initial stop of the defendant (and) the facts and circumstances surrounding Detective Thompson’s status as a part-time officer at the time ... and his subsequent promotion to a full time officer a short time later,” Carmody said…
The Chester County District Attorney’s Office, after an investigation of the incident by police in the hours after it occurred, determined that the shooting was justified because Fiorentino had fired at the officers first and they were protecting themselves.
The 2008 incident involved a traffic stop that Thompson made while he was serving as a trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police, patrolling I-95 in Delaware County.
While questioning the driver of the car, Thompson said he thought he saw a gun under the coat of a passenger in the car. Thompson pulled his Taser on the passenger, who, according to Hetznecker’s brief, allegedly reached for the weapon, saying, “I’m just going to give it to you.” Thompson pulled his own weapon and shot the man in the leg.
The driver jumped back in the car and sped away, dragging Thompson from the scene.
The shooting occurred on Dec. 14, 2008. An investigation began, and on Feb. 10, 2009, Thompson, a 16-year-veteran of the state police, submitted a letter of resignation, effective March 6, 2009. On April 23, 2009, six weeks after his retirement, Thompson was cleared of the I-95 shooting.
“Needless to say, the timing of Thompson’s retirement, and the circumstances, raise strong suspicions about his departure from a job that likely paid him well over $100,000 a year with overtime,” the defense attorney wrote.
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Daily Local News
By Michael P. Rellahan,
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