Lieutenant Gordon and "Lieutenant Legree"

There is an article about Matt Gordon and his new position in the West Pikeland Police Department. "Ex-Coatesville cop takes on new role in West Pikeland":
http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2009/08/19/news/srv0000006155363.txt

First off let me explain that, I don't think that Richard Legree was directly involved with drug trafficking, let's just say I think he "called some of the shots".

District Attorney Joe Carroll said that Lt. Matt Gordon is one of the most knowledgeable investigators of drug trafficking and the individuals involved in Chester County. I believe that when Walker and Matthews took him out of operation it was a cause for celebration among Chester County drug traffickers.

At the about same time Matthews proposed laying off at least 6 officers, eliminating the Detective Division and Narcotics Division. After the police began leaving the Coatesville PD there was an almost immediate reaction by the local drug traffickers; gunshots were heard here almost every day. I received word that drug dealers from Philly moved into Coatesville. The word was “business is good again in C’ville”.

I believe that plans to eliminate Lieutenant Gordon were in operation well before Matthews started in Coatesville. I think that Richard Legree planned to step into the Coatesville PD as a Lieutenant and considering Gordon's importance in the prosecution of drug trafficking I think it was killing two birds with one stone. I think the plan was; after Legree was a police Lieutenant for some time Matthews would retire and Legree would be Chief of the Coatesville PD. I believe that a plan B was for Legree to run for Coatesville District Court.


This is part of one of the news records concerning the hiring of Matthews:

From the Daily Local News Friday, October 3, 2008:

Police dispute still on 

By JENNIFER MILLER, Staff Writer 

POSTED: 10/03/08, 12:01 AM EDT |

“The motivation behind Matthews' decision to place Gordon on inactive duty becomes murkier when applying information from a Philadelphia police officer who competed with Matthews for the Coatesville chief position.

Following the appointment of Matthews, Philadelphia Lt. Joel Fitzgerald said the city offered him the chief position and the city drafted a contract.

During the interview process, Fitzgerald said City Manager Harry Walker and prominent resident Richard Legree informed him that, as chief, he would need to fire one of the city's two lieutenants. Fitzgerald never identified the lieutenant.

Fitzgerald said that when he made clear he wanted complete control over department staffing, the city passed on Fitzgerald and instead hired Matthews.

The city has denied any wrongdoing.”

The full article is here:
http://www.dailylocal.com/article/DL/20081003/TMP01/310039976 

I think this is not over and we may be hearing much more about it.

Live recordings from the Coatesville City Council February 22, 2007 Two hundred police officers and police officials attended that meeting.

“I need Matt Gordon back” DA Joe Carroll

Joe was responding to Coatesville City Councilperson Kurt Schenk. Joe Carroll is a very easy going person. Joe’s hands were shaking as he said this. I have never before or since seen Chester County Joe Carroll as angry as he was that evening.

Ed Simpson going head to head with Harry Walker at the Coatesville City Council meeting
Ed Simpson, “People are getting hurt in this community and it’s because we don’t have enough police officers and it’s time for it to stop. Harry Walker’s response was, “we had no intention to let police go in the City of Coatesville, it was said publicly it was said privately it was said thorough the Daily Local there are no plans to let police go in the City of Coatesville.
16 minutes 47 seconds
Listen here:

I believe Walker was lying.
There is proof in writing in a letter from Chief Matthews to District Attorney Joe Carroll dated May 18, 2007 William H Matthews Chief of Police City of Coatesville, ”I have been told that personnel reductions in the police department must be made. I am confident that the City Council is aware of this situation…Because of the lay-off we will lose six (6) patrol officers.”

This is what Joe Carroll reacted to; Kurt Scheck:

“Mr. Matthews, if nobody elsein this room supports you I will support you…Our department before you came here was a mess…For too long the old boy network has been going on here… soon as you were hired I can’t tell me how many people come up to me and said, your police department is not going to work for a black chief… well our City is 70% black and if they are not willing to work for a black chief then they need to go someplace else; because they’re working in the wrong community. They need go someplace else.”

4 minutes, 6 seconds
Listen here:

Some previous actions of Coatesville Police Chief Matthews and Coatesville City Manager Harry G. Walker:

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."

Under former city manager Harry Walker’s watch COATESVILLE BURNED.

Below is a portion of the resignation letter of former Coatesville Assistant City Manager Tarron Richardson. He refers to the Walker Administration:

“Continued association with the cesspool of corruption and misconduct created by the majority of council and its political appointments may subsequently jeopardize my future professional, personal, and political endeavors. Such inappropriate behavior has caused a mass exodus of city personnel, many who carried with them substantial institutional knowledge of the organization."

I believe Coatesville City Council thought the FBI would discover evidence linking Harry Walker to at least some embezzlement and bribery at city hall. But Harry Walker worked partly from home. The FBI failed to get a warrant for Walker’s apartment.

After whistleblower former Director of Finance Stacy Bjorhus was fired she allegedly left boxes of files at city hall that had allegedly had incriminating evidence concerning several workers at city hall but not necessarily evidence that linked Walker directly with a crime. The boxes of files were allegedly destroyed.  Incidentally Ms. Bjorhus never signed a non-disclosure document.

I believe that embezzlement and bribery were rampant during Harry Gordon Walker IIIs stay in Coatesville. But I believe the City of Coatesville should not bring up any charges of alleged bribery and embezzlement at the City of Coatesville finance office in defending itself in Harry Gordon Walker III's lawsuit.  

I think is a non-starter anyway because it might incriminate others still employed at Coatesville City Hall.

Maybe Walker bribed and embezzled money as Coatesville City Manager and maybe he didn't but that's not why everyone but Chester County's drug dealers wanted to get rid of him.

======================================

Richard Legree had a dream of being the Chief of Police of the City of Coatesville. Everyone that knew him well knew his dream.

I believe Harry Walker helped Richard Legree realize his dream, in part. I believe that under Harry Gordon Walker III’s leadership of the city, Richard Legree could have virtual control of Coatesville's police department.

I believe the result was the "drug business was good again" in Coatesville.

=============================

As a new Coatesville City Manager Paul Janssen first plan was to make the streets of Coatesville safe. To do that he hired Dominick Bellizzie as the Coatesville Chief of Police and doubled he staff of the Coatesville PD.

When Chief Bellizzie first saw the City of Coatesville he described the streets as "an open-air drug bazaar". Some streets were impassable because of drug sales.

I believe that elements in and around the City of Coatesville set plans to get rid of Paul Janssen and Chief Bellizzie as soon as the crackdown on drug sales here began.

=============================

Former Coatesville City Manager Jean Krack would not fire Chief Bellizzie, Jean Krack had to go.

One of the "Bloc of Four" and Harry Walker's first acts was to make it impossible for Chief Bellizzie to stay in Coatesville.

=============================

The choice of the selection committee for a new chief to replace Chief Bellizzie was Police Lt. Joel Fitzgerald, from the Philadelphia Police Force Narcotics Strike Force. 

"City Manager Harry G. Walker III instead chose William H. Matthews, 59, a deputy director of the Police Foundation, a nonprofit headquartered in Washington, D.C...."

Although he denied his plans to lay off police in public "Chief" Matthews sent a letter to District Attorney Joe Carroll saying he intended to lay off police officers:

I believe that to the extent that it was possible Harry Walker allowed Richard Legree to control the Coatesville Police Department.

"The candidate who believed he would be named chief at the City Council meeting on Feb. 12, Philadelphia Police Lt. Joel Fitzgerald, 36, said he was "flabbergasted" when he got a call earlier that day saying the job was going to somebody else...." 

"Fitzgerald, who works in the city's narcotics strike force, was the top choice of the selection committee. 

"Fitzgerald said Walker told him that he was "the number one candidate." Now he thinks that his refusal to hire a longtime political figure was the reason Walker changed his mind. 

Walker went to an interview with ( Philadelphia Police Lt. Joel)  Fitzgerald earlier this year accompanied by Richard Legree, a city constable, Republican party leader, and a man whose run-ins with the law go back three decades. 

'Walker told me he wanted me to bring this guy [Legree] on board,' said Fitzgerald during an interview yesterday. "No way am I going to hire somebody like that guy." Legree's involvement was first reported Sunday in the Daily Local News of Chester County."... 

"Carroll said Fitzgerald's selection was derailed by the meeting with Legree."

FROM:
 D.A. calls hiring of Coatesville's chief 'deceptive'  

By Nancy Petersen INQUIRER STAFF WRITER 

POSTED: March 27, 2007 

Chester County District Attorney Joe Carroll yesterday called the process for selecting a new police chief in Coatesville "deceptive."

Under former Coatesville City Manager Harry Walker's watch: 

• The Narcotics Division was disbanded and its officers transferred to patrol. 

• The bike unit was disbanded. 

• The community relations officer was put on regular duty. 

• Non-uniformed office staff was laid off. This added to the regular officers duties. 

In all 15 Coatesville Police Officers left the 32 person Coatesville Police Force.

 Lt. Matt Gordon was described by Joe Carroll as the most knowledgeable narcotics investigator in Chester County. 

Lt. Gordon was removed from the Coatesville PD and put on “administrative leave” by Chief William Matthews in October of 2007 and has not been on the force since then.

District Attorney Joe Carroll said, "I need Matt Gordon back!" while Harry Gordon Walker III pretended to listen.

Below is a live recording from the Coatesville City Council February 22, 2007 Two hundred police officers and police officials attended that meeting.

Joe was responding to Coatesville City Councilperson Kurt Schenk. Joe Carroll is a very easygoing person. 

Joe’s hands were shaking as he said this. I have never before or since seen Chester County District Attorney Joe Carroll as angry as he was that evening:

https://app.box.com/s/7nfrdxcven5m3ci8nv8d

With Walker and Legree in control we had ONE police officer on duty on Friday and Saturday nights in Coatesville.

The results of all the tampering with the Coatesville PD were predictable; armed robbery, muggings, and shootings all increased dramatically. The news spread that the drug business was good again in Coatesville.

There were regular traffic jams on Lincoln Highway because of drug deals in the street.

Gunshots were heard several times daily. People dug bullets from their walls and sat far away from outside walls and windows.

The Crips, Bloods and SUR-13 were recruiting Coatesville's youth.

THE GENERAL LAWLESSNESS PRESENTED AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ARSON

=============================

UNDER WALKER'S WATCH CRIME FLOURISHED IN COATESVILLE BUT THAT WAS NOT THE BIG REASON EVERYONE BUT DRUG DEALERS WANTED HARRY WALKER GONE.

The BIG reason EVERYONE but drug dealers wanted Walker gone was that UNDER HIS WATCH COATESVILLE BURNED!

The City of Coatesville possibly joined by the citizens of Coatesville should mount a lawsuit against Harry Gordon Walker III because UNDER HIS WATCH COATESVILLE BURNED.

ULTIMATE CHUTZPAH - From Harry Walker’s Linkedin:

Senior Associate

Emerging Africa 

January 2011 – Present (3 years 2 months)Greater New York City Area
Responsible for deal flow and structure of creative financing solutions for publicly traded companies in Africa and foreign investment capital
  

City Manager 

City of Coatesville PA 

May 2006 – February 2010 (3 years 10 months)
Spurred economic development; balanced budget after years of deficit; upgraded Police Department
  

Director Economic Development 

City of Wilmington, DE 

October 1997 – March 2001 (3 years 6 months)
Created $300MM in funded projects including waterfront development, mixed use hotel/office/retail parking complex

Interested in Richard Legree of Coatesville's Legree/Trowery family? You can find part of it here:
http://articles.philly.com/keyword/legree