Philadelphia Police Department
PHILADELPHIA – One of the accused murderers released from prison after it was revealed Philadelphia detectives arranged sex for informants is suing the city.
Andre Harvey is one of at least a handful of men who were sent to prison thanks to the “sex for lies” scandal, a federal lawsuit filed Oct. 8 says. He spent 41 years in jail for the 1982 killing of Fred Rainey before his conviction was overturned in 2024, allowing him to plead guilty to third-degree murder. The deal included a time-served punishment, and Harvey maintains his innocence.
Detectives Lawrence Gerrard and Ernest Gilbert, both deceased, were members of the Philadelphia Police Department’s “cold case squad,” and courts have found that they offered favors to informants in exchange for testimony that could help them clear unsolved murders.
In Harvey’s case, a heroin addict “desperate to be released from custody” agreed to say Harvey shot Rainey at the corner of 27th and Oxford streets in North Philadelphia. The man later recanted but that was hid from Harvey’s lawyers, he says.
Another man arrested for aggravated assault and a suspect in another murder allegedly arranged by Rainey, Charles Atwell, testified initially that he was at the crime scene but did not see who the shooter was.
Allegedly, Gerrard and Gilbert closed the murder investigation in which Atwell was a suspect in exchange for fabricated statements pointing the finger at Harvey. His bail was reduced on the assault charge, which was later dismissed.
“Atwell was also provided with improper jailhouse visits and other benefits in violation of PPD Directive 82,” the lawsuit says.
“Specifically, Gerrard and Gilbert facilitated at least eight visits, each lasting up to approximately three hours, between Atwell and his girlfriend… at the Police Administration Building for the purpose of sexual contact.”
Atwell’s “lackey” and alibi witness on the assault charge also claimed Harvey was a murderer, as did another witness who later recanted, the suit says.
Now with probable cause, Gerrard and Gilbert could enhance their investigation into Harvey, whom they had settled on as a target because of their “animus” toward him, the suit says. It alleges fabrications and omissions by the detectives resulted in Harvey’s conviction, which he fought unsuccessfully for years.
In 2021, Harvey’s lawyers were able to review previously concealed materials, the suit says, and finally obtained the homicide file of the case for which Atwell was the prime suspect in 2023. The suit claims Gerrard and Gilbert’s “sex for lies” approach was known to and tolerated by Philadelphia officials.
Mark Maguire and other attorneys at McEldrew Purtell represent Harvey.
