Philadelphia Injury Lawyer Blog

Just a few months ago, a Philadelphia area fast food restaurant manager was arrested on indecent and sexual assault charges after being accused of fondling at least three minor female employees. Police arrested Popeye’s Chicken manager Eduardo Tomasek, 50 years of age and from Bensalem, Pennsylvania, after an ongoing investigation. As well as being accused of sexual and indecent assault Tomasek was charged with unlawful contact with minors, and corrupting the morals of minors. The Popeye’s Chicken case, was not the end of sexual abuse cases showing up in local Philadelphia news this summer.

Suits for child sex abuse against the Philadelphia Catholic Archdiocese has been in the spotlight for quite some time now, and as of this past weekend, the scandal continues to grow in magnitude. Just recently, a local Philadelphia man filed a civil suit charging that the church let two priests and a teacher serially rape him as a young altar boy. Rev. Charles Engelhardt, Rev. Edward Avery, and teacher Bernard Shero, who all worked at St. Jerome Parish in Northeast Philadelphia, are all alleged to have sexually abused the plaintiff who is being identified as “Billy.”

Yet another disturbing case making Philly area headlines is that of a Pennsylvania squash coach that is now also facing sex abuse allegations. A coach from an area private school has been charged with having an inappropriate relationship with a player. James Civello, of Upper Black eddy, Bucks County was jailed after being charged with corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of a child. Investigators say Civello, 50, had sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl at the Shipley School.

If you or a loved one has been affected by sexual abuse or the emotional injury that comes as a result, it is important that you contact a Philadelphia lawyer like Edith A. Pearce who has the experience and sensitivity required for fighting for working on such cases.

Earlier this year, a long time Philadelphia police officer was arrested for allegedly assaulting and falsely prosecuting a businessman in Northeast after an argument. The officer was temporarily held on two charges of simple assault and unlawful restraint after the fashion in which he conducted the arrest of U-Haul store Dominic Catalano.

One week ago, Judge Frank Palumbo of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas reinstated the two charges against the officer, Aleksander Shwarz, pressed after they were already dismissed at an April 18 preliminary hearing by Municipal Court Judge james M. DeLeon. Judge DeLeon originally ordered Shwarz to stand trial on charges of obstruction of justice, unsworn falsification to authorities, filing false reports and official oppression before the charges were eventually dismissed.

Despite Sharz’s Philadelphia defense attorney’s pleas to let DeLeon’s findings stand, Judge Palumbo reinstated the charges after watching a 15-20 second video that was taken by a security camera on the evening of the March 10 incident at the U-Haul store on the 7700 of Roosevelt Boulevard.

According to a Philly.Com report, the video shows Catalano following the officers out of the store and passing Shwarz as the officer approaches the driver’s door of the patrol car. It also shows Shwarz reaching out his right arm to grab Catalano’s shoulder, a gesture to which Catalano responded by dipping his shoulder and proceeding to walk towards his store. On the surveillance video, Shwarz then follows Catalano and accosts him at the door, pushing him against the wall with enough force to possibly cause injury before cuffing him with the assistance of his partner.

Then Officer Scharz maintained an entirely different story than the video portrayed, telling detectives that Catalano swore at him and “shouldered him.” Catalano later testified that Shwarz told him “We’re going to teach you a lesson,” after pushing him into the police car.
On the video, Catalano follows the officers out of the store and passes Shwarz as the officer approaches the driver’s door of the patrol car. Shwarz reaches out his right arm to grab Catalano’s shoulder and Catalano dips his shoulder and keeps walking toward his store.
Shwarz then follows Catalano and accosts him at the door, pushing him against the wall as his partner comes from the car to help Shwarz cuff Catalano.

Shwarz charged Catalano with assaulting an officer and told detectives Catalano swore at him and shouldered him attempting to cause him injury. Catalano testified that he did not know why he was arrested but that, in the patrol car, Shwarz told him, “We’re going to teach you a lesson.”

Scharz, 55, was an officer with the Philadelphia Police Department for 21 years. Scharz’s partner was not charged with any crimes and the outcome of the case for Scharz is yet to be seen.

The current Catholic pope, Pope Benedict XVI, accepted the resignation of a Philadelphia archbishop this morning. Cardinal Justin Rigali was asked to step down after the archdiocese began facing accusations that it was covering up a sex abuse scandal for which the Cardinal attempted to improve the transparency of.

The Cardinal had been widely scrutinized by church officials for the way he handled the recent long-running sex abuse scandal. According to court reports, Cardinal Rigali testified on two separate occasions that he believed that Catholic Church officials were deliberately covering up sex abuse allegations against local priests. The testimonies were recorded in 2005 as well as recently in February of 2011.

Many believe that the Cardinal’s February 2011 testimony is largely responsible for the unprecedented criminal charges that were filed against a former secretary of the clergy for “allegedly transferring pedophile priests without warning new parishes.”

A grand jury ended up specifically accusing no less than 37 clergy in active ministry despite credible claims that they were responsible for the sexual assault of minors. Former archdiocesan administrator in Philadelphia, Monsignor William Lynn, was also charged with child endangerment for allegedly leaving the accused clerics in church jobs without warning parents or police.

Some say Cardinal Rigali went against the church official community grain by responding to reports of the charges by suspending 23 priests and hiring two former city prosecutors to review the abuse cases thoroughly.

Cardinal Rigali was an archbishop of St. Louis and spent three decades as a Vatican diplomat and high-level administrator before serving his eight year tenure in the Philadelphia area. Pope Benedict’s acceptance of the resignation this week sent the Philadelphia bishop into immediate retirement just before his 80th birthday.

Pennsylvania has one of the country’s oldest and most well known railroad systems, and its “City of Brotherly Love,” Philadelphia many commuters get to and from work as well as other destinations by train. In a state full of so many individuals who commute by train, news of a railroad accident is always troubling.

Earlier this week, such an accident occurred in Fridley, Minnesota. At around 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning a Northstar commuter freight train derailed when BNSF tracks failed near Fridley Station. The accident, which caused a disastrous site to see, spilled corn and diesel fuel into the Rice Creek at Locke Lake and injured two railroad workers.

According to a local Minnesota newspaper, The Fridley Patch, Northstar commuter rail service between the towns of Big Lake and Minneapolis has been cancelled since Saturday and is expect to remain out-of-service at least until Tuesday morning, July 19. The report stated that the reason for service cancellation is that the tracks are still impassable due to the derailment accident.

Although railroad companies are responsible for keeping the operations safe for employees, riders, and pedestrians, railroad crashes kill hundreds of victims each year and injure thousands of others. Pennsylvania’s rich and ongoing heritage of rail travel means that accidents like these could occur throughout the state.

Just days before the July 16th train accident, Twenty BNSF rail cars derailed outside of nearby Brainerd Minnesota. On July 10th, 2011 a train with 121 loaded coal cars and three locomotives originated in Montana and was traveling east to Superior, Wisconsin when it derailed. Fortunately, no injuries have yet been reported in the July 10 accident.

Since train accidents can often by difficult to litigate, you will need a Philadelphia injury lawyer with experience and expertise with train accidents. Edith Pearce, Esq. spent over ten years working as an attorney for an insurance company and defense firm and knows the “tricks of the trade.” Contact Edith Pearce, Esq. of The Pearce Law Firm in Philadelphia if you or a family member has become a railroad accident victim.

The father of a Philadelphia area man with severe Autism is suing his caretaker for wrongful death. The caretaker left 20 year old Bryan Nevins in a van in sweltering heat last summer, leaving him to suffer and die of hyperthermia.

Caretaker Stacey Strauss of Woods Services, a Bucks County facility for people with disabilities, left Nevins in the back of the van on July 24, one of the hottest days of 2010. That day, Strauss was assigned to take Nevins and three other Woods Services clients to Sesame Place. The trip was cut short when Nevins misbehaved. Instead of simply disciplining Nevins by ending the Sesame Place trip, Strauss inexplicably left him in the back of the van alone even after returning with the other clients to Woods Services campus.

Other workers on the Middletown campus of Woods Services found Bryan Nevins dead in the van more than five hours later, possibly of wrongful death. Prosecutors contended that Strauss may have been distracted by a 44-minute phone call with her boyfriend as Nevin’s suffered and died in the van.

Bryan Nevins lived at Woods Services and was diagnosed with autism, mental retardation, and other conditions. According to reports he functioned at the level of a toddler, and his file at Woods said he was supposed to be within reach of a caretaker went outside his residence.

Strauss, 41, of Northeast Philadelphia, is currently serving a two to five year state prison sentence after pleading guilty in March to involuntary manslaughter, neglecting a care-dependent person, and recklessly endangering another person.

Nevin’s father is now suing Woods Services saying Woods never should have hired Strauss and that the organization failed to adequately supervise her or ensure proper care for Nevins. The wrongful death suit was been filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia by William Nevins of Oceanside, N.Y.

Byron and Twanda Jones, the parents of Abiah Jones, the 11-year-old girl Philadelphia area girl who died after falling from a Ferris wheel in June, are now suing the amusement park. Abiah’s parents filed their suit against Morey’s Piers of Wildwood in the Common Pleas Court last Thursday.

Abiah, once a Pleasantville NJ resident was attending a class trip to Morey’s Piers during one of the park’s annual education fair along with her entire fifth grade class, teachers, and multiple chaperones. Abiah was allowed by park staff as well as school staff to ride in one of the Giant wheel’s gondolas alone. A report by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs speculates that Abiah might have fallen out of her Ferris wheel gondola after kneeling or standing on her set and then leaning out too far. Abiah was pronounced dead due to severe injuries shortly after the fall from the 160 foot wheel.

Abiah’s parents and their attorney will be making the case that Morey’s Piers was “negligent for placing the fifth grader in the Ferris wheel gondola alone and for failing to provide passenger safety restraints…” They are also noting that winds at the park, near the Atlantic Ocean “were high on June 3, the day of the accident.” Since the gondolas can swing 90 degrees or more, Abiah’s parents will argue that the ride should not have been operating that day.

The Jones family has chosen to file their suit in Philadelphia since Morey’s both does business and markets in the area. According to reports, spokespeople at Morey’s Pier have declined to comment on the lawsuit surrounding the accident.

Rock and Tiger Allen sustained serious injuries in a one-car accident recently in Montgomery Township, a Philadelphia suburb. The 29 year old twins were once the city's most promising young fighters. They were taken to different hospitals after being taken out of a Ford Explorer. Tiger Allen was driving the vehicle.

The car accident report states the car was on Bethlehem Pike when it left the road and hit a tree. A spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania stated Rock Allen was in serious condition. Tiger Allen was placed in the intensive care unit at Hahnemann University Hospital last week.

Both boxers have been mostly inactive in boxing in recent years. The brothers were U.S. Olympic boxing team hopefuls for the 2000 Olympics. Both boxers were disqualified from the boxing trials due to Tiger failing to make weight at 125 pounds and being accused of attempting to weigh in for his brother Rock in the 132-pound class. The accusation took Rock out of the boxing trials. However, Rock made the U.S boxing team at 141 pounds for the 2004 Athens Olympics. He was defeated in the second round after getting a first-round bye.

Tiger Allen became a professional boxer in 2006 as a junior middleweight and had a 3 and 0 record. He last fought as a cruiser weight in 2008.

If you've been a victim of a car accident contact a Philadelphia personal injury attorney right away. An experienced Philadelphia injury lawyer will ensure you get full and timely compensation. Work with a law firm that has expertise in protecting the rights of people involved in car accidents.

A young Philadelphia girl is suing her father for emotional distress after having had to witness him receiving gunshot injuries. Then 9-year-old Kaitlyn Timko was in the back seat of her father’s car when he began to engage in a road rage dispute. Sadly, the road rage dispute ended with the other driver shooting Kaitlyn’s father in the head.

Kaitlyn watched as her father was shot and sat bloody and injured slumping over the wheel of his car. Although Kaitlyn Timko was not at all physically injured during the incident, she was reportedly unresponsive and extremely emotionally distressed when a counselor interviewed her later that week. Her mother, Lori Hardwerk of Norristown, PA, states that Kaitlyn remains traumatized now, 2 years later, at 11 years old.

Kaitlyn’s lawsuit alleges that her father “set off a chain of events that led to the gunfire by cutting off the other driver.” She also feels that her father, Mr. Timko, further provoked the other driver and escalated the situation by giving him the middle finger.

The October 2009 incident took place near the Walt Whitman Bridge and left Kaitlyn’s father, Thomas Timko with permanent brain injuries, a disfiguring scar, and high medical debts. The shooter, Christian Squillaciotti, is a clinical schizophrenic and ex-Marine. He is serving 13-26 years in prison after being convicted on two counts of attempted murder and weapons charges.

The recent case against Thomas Timko has been moved to discovery, which is now under way according to NBC Philadelphia. The case is not expected to go to trial for at least another year. Kaitlyn’s case will require an expert Philadelphia injury lawyer to handle the case. In cases involving children, the injury lawyer must have special experience and sensitivity.