James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse in Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA – A former Philadelphia prosecutor has lost a defamation lawsuit against the New York University School of Law over a report published by a researcher that criticized the prosecution of an accused murderer.
Dontia Patterson for years fought his conviction, which he eventually got vacated. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office decided he was “probably innocent,” Philadelphia federal judge John Murphy wrote Monday, and chose not to prosecute him again.
His story was one of 55 reviewed by Patricia Cummings, who was the chief of the city’s Conviction Integrity Unit while also a research scholar at NYU School of Law. She and the school published a study on prosecutorial misconduct in Philadelphia in March 2024.
This irked Beth Ann McCaffery, who worked on Patterson’s case during his first trial, which ended in a hung jury. Patterson alleged exculpatory evidence was withheld from him, leading to his conviction after a second trial.
McCaffery sued Cummings and NYU School of Law last year over the claims made in the report, but Murphy ruled Cummings’ study fell under New York’s fair report privilege. She had cited findings when she submitted a nol pros motion that indicated Philadelphia would no longer prosecute Patterson after finding misconduct including hiding evidence.
That motion said there was evidence a different person was the shooter. McCaffery claims the ensuing media coverage dragged “her name through the mud.”
“That Ms. McCaffery disagrees with, and finds scandalous, the allegations in the nol pros motion, and those reported on in the various media articles, cannot change the result,” Murphy wrote.
“Her disagreement, even accepted as true, ‘does not affect whether the statement is a fair and true report of the allegations it paraphrases.’”
Patterson was accused of shooting 18-year-old Antwine Jackson in Philadelphia in 2007 and charged with first-degree murder. Patterson was there, said to be standing over his friend in disbelief, and witnesses identified a shooter by name.
Patterson said Jackson had been shot for selling drugs in the area and refusing to either relocate or give up his money. Witnesses who pointed at Patterson said he had been dressed in black, so prosecutors alleged Patterson shot, went home to change and came back in khaki pants and a brown shirt.
Cummings’ report contained a fair representation of what happened in the DA’s office and wasn’t required to include McCaffery’s take.
“It would require more than a reasonable inference to understand how proceedings brought six years prior to a university-sponsored report – when that university had no connection to the proceedings at the time they occurred – could be brought solely for the purpose of defaming an individual or individuals involved in those proceedings,” Murphy wrote.
McCaffery was cleared of any misconduct charges last year.
