I believe that when Lt. Fitzgerald of the Philadelphia PD was interviewed by Harry G. Walker at the King of Prussia Mall for the position of Coatesville Chief of Police, Walker was accompanied by Richard Legree. I think Lt. Fitzgerald said Walker demanded that Fitzgerald appoint Legree as his first Lieutenant or Assistant Chief. Lt. Fitzgerald said “would not hire Legree due to his ‘checkered’ background”. I think that Lt. Fitzgerald may have been referring Legree’s conviction of selling 145 bags of heroin and a separate conviction of selling nine bags of heroin to undercover agents in Coatesville in1975.
It may be a little thing but in my opinion Richard Legree appeared to be treated by the “bloc of four” as almost god like. For instance: the time limit rule for citizen’s comments is 5 minutes. Richard Legree went on as long as he wanted. I watched as the minutes went past 7 and Don Wilkinson laid the timing clock down on its face. Legree spoke for 22 uninterrupted minutes.
Richard went all over the country in his capacity as Administrator of the Laborers' Health & Safety Fund of the Philadelphia LECET. When he was in Coatesville he was at city hall.
Richard was also Chair of Area 14 of the Chester County Republican Committee (Coatesville, Modena, Valley North and Valley South).
Richard’s son is now awaiting sentencing on February 24th in his conviction of selling Crack Cocaine in Coatesville.
And From:
“UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : CRIMINAL NO. 06-504
v. :
RICHARD LEGREE, JR. :
GOVERNMENT’S MOTION FOR PRETRIAL DETENTION
1. Although the defendant has considerable ties to the Coatesville area, he is currently unemployed and has been captured on audiotape arranging drug deals while residing in his father’s house on home confinement.”
http://www.box.net/shared/6xa2stfhbo
Soon after Matthews was given the job as Chief of Police the word spread that the city was considering laying off Coatesville Police Officers. The lay off did not happen but did result in about 15 officers leaving. The officers that were concerned with job security looked elsewhere. You see before Walker and Matthews the Coatesville Police Department was the envy of small PD’s all across Pennsylvania. Five years of serving in Coatesville under former Coatesville Police Chief Dominic Bellizzie was said equal to a lifetime of extremely good training in most Pennsylvania small town police departments. Coatesville police officers could nearly double their salaries in another police department.
Lieutenant Matt Gordon, referred to by Chester County DA Joe Carroll as “the Coatesville PD’s very best narcotics investigator, a man who knew all the “players” in Coatesville”, was put on administrative leave for years and eventually retired. Even when 200 police officers and police chiefs from all over Eastern Pennsylvania paid a surprise visit to a Coatesville City Council meeting and District Attorney Joe Carroll pleaded that he needed Lt. Gordon for his narcotics and murder investigations; the city council and city administration would not budge. “I need Matt Gordon back,” he said to the council. “If you could handle that as soon as possible, it would be greatly appreciated.” “Schenk was the lone council member to voice his unequivocal support for Matthews”. I believe that the actions toward Lt. Matt Gordon were an effort to remove him and replace him with Richard Legree.
The bike squad was extremely effective in squashing drug dealer activity. The lookout system of the dealers did not work well against the Coatesville Police Bike Squad. The bike squad was squashed by Chief Matthews.
In my opinion the news that “the money is good again in Coatesville” spread all over the nation. We rapidly had dealers from Philly and New York taking up residence in Coatesville. SUR-13, KOD, Cripps and other gang recruiters came to Coatesville. The guns poured in with them. Gunshots were heard and people were picking bullets out of walls and vehicles almost daily. Armed robberies and muggings, nearly all of them unreported in the press, rocketed up.
At about the same time the arson began.
Take all this into consideration and then ask yourself why did the city administration resist implementing a Town Watch for more than 3 years?
Take all this into consideration and then ask yourself why is Matthews resisting implementing a curfew for adults?
See:
“Daily Local News
Pusher called "danger to community',
Friday, September 10, 1976
By BRUCE MOWDAY (Of the Local News Staff)
Richard "Stretch" Legree of Coatesville, named as the number one drug pusher in Chester County by District Attorney William H. Lamb, was convicted last night of selling 145 bags of heroin to an undercover agent in January.”
"DAILY LOCAL NEWS
04/24/2007
CHIEF NOT RULING OUT LEGREE
JENNIFER MILLER , Staff Writer
BUT WILLIAM MATTHEWS ALSO SAYS HE DOES NOT HAVE PLANS TO REORGANIZE COATESVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT “
COATESVILLE — One year has passed and the matter of an inactive police lieutenant remains unresolved.
http://www.zwire.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=19949657&BRD=1671&PAG=461&dept_id=17782&rfi=8
SOMEBODY IS GOING TO GET HURT
FORMER DETECTIVE CRITICIZES COATESVILLE CHIEF FOR PERSONNEL, SAFETY DECISIONS
Saturday, December 1, 2007 3:00 AM EST
By R. JONATHAN TULEYA and JENNIFER MILLER
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration revealed Operation Trickle Down in May.
It was the code name for a two-year investigation by various federal authorities, the Coatesville Police Department and other Chester County law enforcement agencies into a cocaine pipeline connecting Philadelphia to Coatesville…
’The sad truth is that although continuing drug investigations and arrests are necessary, Matthews wrote, they rarely make a real difference on the street. Simply put, we cannot arrest our way out of the illegal drug culture’,,,
Murrin, 41, worked eight years for the Coatesville police, including 3� years as a narcotics detective. Matthews’ reaction to Operation Trickle Down was not the only reason he left, but it contributed to his decision….
I was one of the guys (saying) ;don’t leave, don’t leave. It’s going to get better, Murrin said.
Seven officers, including Murrin, have left Coatesville’s department since Matthews took over in March. An eighth, former Lt. Matthew Gordon, remains suspended with pay as a result of a dispute with the chief about vacation time.
Murrin said he left reluctantly, and it was not until he felt concerned for his safety, mostly because of the Coatesville’s manpower shortage, that he made his decision. There were nightshifts, he said, being covered by only two officers.
‘That’s crazy. That’s scary crazy. Somebody is going to get hurt,’ Murrin said. The problem with that is you have to be reactive instead of proactive…
One former candidate for chief, Philadelphia Lt. Joel Fitzgerald, confirmed he met with Walker and Legree, who was not on the appointed search committee and is not a city employee, at the King of Prussia shopping mall.
During the meeting, Fitzgerald said, Legree tried to negotiate a position for himself in the police department as well as convince Fitzgerald to fire one of the department’s two lieutenants.
Roughly two months after the secret meeting, police arrested Legree’s son, Richard Legree Jr., on drug charges as part of Operation Trickle Down. Legree Jr., who earlier had been convicted of drug charges in the county court, still has pending drug distribution charges in federal court in Philadelphia.”
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2007/12/01/past%20stories/19941502.txt
Daily Local News
EDITORIAL
Wake up chief, you are putting the city in danger
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 3:00 AM EDT
People being kind would say Coatesville Police Chief William Matthews and Councilman Kurt Schenk are unrealistic; others would say they�re delusional.
We think it’s the latter.”
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2007/10/23/past%20stories/19943361.txt
DAILY LOCAL NEWS
10/03/2008
Police dispute still on
By JENNIFER MILLER, Staff Writer
http://www.dailylocal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20149013&BRD=1671&PAG=461&dept_id=635398&rfi=6 “
Daily Local News
Monday, September 11, 2006
Controller questioning transport
Eight constables provided security
By MICHAEL P. RELLAHAN
Staff Writer
…In addition to DiGiorgio’s concerns, the transportation arrangements for the defendant, Odell Cannon, are drawing some scrutiny from Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh. She said she was alarmed when told that Cannon may be related to one of the constables chosen by Davis to take him to the hearing, Richard Legree."
The criticisms of Chief Matthews were warranted,he was unqualified. But the criticisms from other law enforcement officials were not rooted in safety concerns, but rather from the fact that Matthews wasn't a good ol' boy that they came up through the ranks with. There was a double standard among Matthews and other department leaders. Matthews was blamed for crimes committed in Coatesville, as well as crimes committed outside of the city by Coatesville residents. Where as, The Downingtown and Valley Township chiefs were not blamed (Nor should they have been) for residents from each of their towns committed arson and murder in Coatesville.
ReplyDeleteDuring the same time that officers were leaving the Coatesville PD, South Coatesville Chief Lew Wilson said that Valley Township Chief Joe Friel hired officer Jeff Giannini against Wilson's advice. Wilson told Friel that "Giannini will get you mixed up in a law suit". A short time later Friel promoted Giannini to full time and caused 3 Valley township officers to resign in protest. According to Chief Wilson approximately during this same time period, Giannini was assisting a South Coatesville officer when Giannini assaulted a suspect and then told the other officer "now it's your turn!" Giannini was eventually hired by West Caln chief Curt Martinez. I was present when Martinez made the statement "I don't trust any officers in my department except Fries" (Fries was the only officer that Martinez did not hire, Fries was employed in West Caln prior to Martinez, which shows the lack of leadership and hiring skills of Martinez. Martinez said he was tired of hiring officers who have been fired, and giving them second chances. I guess Martinez hires officers who have been fired because they have something in common with him.
Matthews eventually left the Coatesville PD and was replaced by Canale. Canale was worse than Matthews. In fact Canale was the worst Chief in Coatesville's history. The department was plagued with sexual and racial discrimination law suits. There was a lack of disciplinary action on Canale's part. Which is not surprising. Canale had a reputation when he was lieutenant of being lenient with officers.
During the mid 1990's and early 2000's there were major white criminals in Coatesville and Valley township. Some officers in both departments were, at best, looking the other way, and at worst, involved. I brought this to the attention of the departments and the DA's office. My complaints were ignored. Valley township supervisors were aware of Friel's misconduct but they still promoted him to chief. James Bell was the prior Valley chief. He was previously demoted because according to Valley supervisors a chief was not needed in Valley township. Bell eventually resigned and just like Coatesville PD, Valley township replaced a bad police chief with a police chief that was even worse. Bell was incompetent, but Friel was a disgrace.
Chester County DA Joe Carroll openly criticized Coatesville police chief Matthews and as I said those criticisms were warranted. Carroll was blatantly silent about all of the other corrupt and incompetent officers. Not only was his office silent, they were hostile toward me when I had the"audacity" to complain about the police.