Thursday, March 24, 2016
In the statement Marks says Zappala is “the only DA in Pennsylvania to convict an on duty police officer of a criminal homicide shooting.” That was the John Charmo case. In Zappala’s statement, Charmo is referred to as a Pittsburgh Police Officer, however, Charmo worked for the city’s housing authority.
According to the statement: “Pittsburgh Police Officer John Charmo was charged with homicide in the April 6, 1995, shooting death of Jerry Jackson, 44. Jackson, was unarmed, died from gunshot wounds he received in the Armstrong Tunnels at the end of a five-mile high-speed chase. Charmo emptied his service weapon, and then reloaded and continued shooting — striking the Mr. Jackson 13 times. Stephen Zappala, who was appointed DA in 1998 and then elected in 1999, called for an independent investigator because he believed the previous prosecutor assigned to the Charmo case mishandled evidence.”
City Paper editor Charlie Deitch covered the Charmo trial as well as investigated potential investigatory mistakes by officers at the scene. In 1995, Charmo said the victim did a complete u-turn in the tunnel and began driving toward the officer before he opened fire. Charmo was cleared of wrongdoing, and the case was over for the next six years. A video taken the night of the incident proved Charmo’s story wrong; however, that tape and other discrepancies in the investigation weren’t discovered until Jackson’s mother brought a civil case, which she won.
The statement continues: “Stephen Zappala prosecuted Officer Steve Charmo (sic) for murder and manslaughter in 1999 (sic) when he obtained new evidence proving Charmo's original statement of what happened on that fatal night was untrue. A jury consisting of ten Whites and two African-Amercians failed to reach a unanimous verdict (the jury voted 9-3 to convict). Without a conviction, Charmo might have been able to rejoin the police force. Zappala negotiated a plea deal resulting in a conviction of Charmo for involuntary manslaughter. Charmo served more than nine months in jail, two years probation, and was permanently banned from the police force and from owning a gun.”
The plea deal was reached in October 2001, seven months after Jackson’s mother passed away. After Charmo was given credit for time served, he served less than two months in prison and was home by that Christmas. Zappala’s handling of the Charmo case and other police shootings was also examined in a 2003 CP story. According to that report, between 1998 and 2003, famed coroner Cyril Wecht said he recommended homicide charges five times. Wecht said in the CP story that Zappala only prosecuted two of those cases, and only a year of total jail time was ever served. And while Zappala blamed a former prosecutor for mishandling evidence in the Charmo case, many critics at the time claimed some officers in the other cases should have been held responsible. No on else was ever charged in the Charmo case.
Tags: attorney general , Stephen Zappala , Josh Shapiro , African American , police brutality , election 2016 , John Charmo , Pittsburgh , police , PolitiCrap , Image