Philadelphia Police Department
PHILADELPHIA – The City of Philadelphia will have to defend itself against allegations it failed to train detectives - claims made by people who had their murder convictions overturned following the fall of a detective.
Federal judge Jerry Pappert yesterday tossed most of the claims of 12 plaintiffs, 11 of whom were convicted of murder between 2012-16 but are free today after the actions of detective Philip Nordo came to light.
As a homicide detective, he was found guilty of sexually assaulting witnesses and informants and was sentenced to up to 49 years in prison.
These actions compromised his cases and led to exonerations. One such plaintiff is Sherman McCoy, a man with an intellectual disability sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder thanks to a confession obtained by Nordo.
Though no “rational jury” could find Philadelphia tolerated an unconstitutional custom of coerced and fabricated witness statements, it could determine Philadelphia failed to train detectives to “lawfully interrogate suspects and witnesses,” Pappert ruled.
To prove that theory, the plaintiffs will have to show Philadelphia’s failure to train showed a deliberate indifference with the rights of suspects. Case law says there is no reason to assume police academy applicants are familiar with “constitutional constraints on interrogation practices,” Pappert said, and novices must be trained.
“While comparatively scant overall, the record evidence raises for the jury a question as to whether the City failed to provide relevant training,” Pappert said.
“For example, John Verrecchio, a Philadelphia homicide detective, testified the Philadelphia Police Department had ‘no’ rules ‘about the method of questioning’ suspects and witnesses during the relevant time period.
“He said he was never instructed how to conduct interrogations, and he said he never received training on what ‘coercion’ means in the context of suspect-and-witness interrogations.”
A grand jury alleged in 2019 that Nordo groomed male victims to make them more susceptible to sexual assault. He targeted gay men recently released from jail, the grand jury found.
In 2022, after a two-week trial, he was convicted of rape, sexual assault, indecent assault, official oppression, stalking and other crimes. Lawsuits against the City have been consolidated before Pappert, with the earliest having been filed in 2019.
One was filed by Dwayne Handy, whose 2013 murder conviction was vacated in May 2022. Nordo accused him of killing two people and during the interrogation told him he could not leave until Nordo got something on paper.
He also asked Handy if he masturbated or had sex with his cellmate during a previous incarceration.
"Nordo eventually told Handy that he wanted to have intercourse with Handy and for Handy to participate in pornographic movies produced by people Nordo knew," Pappert wrote in 2024.
"The implication was that Handy would be allowed to leave once he signed a false confession, and Nordo would thereafter ensure Handy's freedom so that he could reunite with Nordo to have sex and film pornography."
