Family of 73-year-old man fatally beaten with traffic cone says they’re being harassed; judge issues stay-away order

The family of the 73-year-old man who was fatally beaten by teens with a traffic cone last month said they have been harassed and taunted by kids showing up outside their house in recent weeks.

On three occasions in the last two weeks, a group of kids has gathered outside the home of the 84-year-old sister of James Lambert Jr., who died last month after two teens hit him multiple times with a traffic cone.

Tania Stephens, Lambert’s niece, said the kids stood outside her mother’s Strawberry Mansion house, pointing and laughing, making the family feel intimidated and harassed.

» READ MORE: 13-year-old girl shot Friday was at the traffic cone beating of a 73-year-old man, DA said

In response, Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Joffie C. Pittman III on Tuesday approved a stay-away order requested by the District Attorney’s Office, ordering all defendants, their families, and any third parties related to them to stand down or face arrest.

Stephens said the first incident occurred July 16 just after 4:30 p.m., when she and her mother were outside and three teenage girls approached them.

“You look like my teacher,” Stephens said a girl told her. She felt suspicious, she said, so she asked: “Where do you kids live at? I don’t recognize you from the neighborhood.”

When they said their street name, Stephens said, it clicked — it was close to where her uncle was killed. Then, she said, she noticed that the girls shared the same streak of bleached hair as the 14-year-old girl charged in the crime.

She told them to leave, she said, and they did. Then she called the police to report the incident and gave them photos she’d taken of the girls.

The second interaction, Stephens said, occurred the morning of July 18 when her niece was coming by to check on her mother. When she arrived, she noticed a group of about five kids standing across the street, “laughing and pointing” at the house, she said. The niece immediately called relatives, who rushed over, but the kids had gone. They again called police.

The third and most recent interaction was the morning of July 22. Stephens said she had just arrived at her mother’s home when she noticed two groups of kids — about a dozen in all — on either side of the block. She recognized a few of the girls from their first visit the week before. Again, she said, they were pointing and laughing. She called police again to file a report.

On a few other occasions in between, Stephens said, her mother told her the doorbell rang or there was a knock on the door, but when she went to answer, she saw kids running away. They did not report those incidents to police, Stephens said.

» READ MORE: There’s more to the story of the kids who fatally beat a 73-year-old man with a traffic cone, lawyers say

Lambert was like a father figure to Stephens, she said, and her mother raised him after their parents died when they were young. Lambert had left his sister Elsie’s house a few hours before he was attacked around 2:30 a.m. on June 24 near 21st Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

The family feels harassed and frightened, Stephens said, and relatives are now staying with her mother 24 hours a day.

“It’s intimidation of a witness, if you ask me,” she said.

According to Lonny Fish, the lawyer representing Gamara Mosley, one of the two 14-year-olds charged with third-degree murder in the case, some of the girls photographed outside the home are believed to be sisters of a 13-year-old girl who was present during the incident but was not charged with any crimes. It is their understanding, Fish said, that the kids had been on their way to the pool nearby and stopped by the house spontaneously.

The girls were friends of Mosley’s up until her arrest, he said, but Mosley’s family has nothing to do with the visits to Lambert’s relatives’ home, which he called “indefensible” and wrong.

“My client is 14, and she’s incarcerated right now,” Fish said. “Whatever it is, it’s not at the behest of any of the people supervising my client.”

Donte Mills, who represents the 13-year-old girl, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Attorneys Caroline Turner — who represents Richard Jones, 14, also charged in Lambert’s death — and Rania Major — who represents Jones’ 10-year-old brother, who was present during the incident but not charged — said their clients’ family had nothing to do with the incidents at the Lambert family home.

The 10-year-old has been staying outside of Philadelphia, trying to recover from the trauma of the incident, Turner said, and his family is “trying to keep their heads down.”

Stephens, for her part, said she was frustrated that it took three reports to police before the stay-away order was issued Tuesday. She also remains frustrated that not all of the children present that night are facing charges.

The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the incidents. Police said they are investigating.

Meanwhile, Mosley and Jones remain in custody at the Juvenile Justice Services Center, and have preliminary hearings scheduled for Sept. 14.

Fish, Mosley’s lawyer, said he is seeking to have the case resolved in juvenile court. As part of that effort, he said, Mosley was prepared to admit that she struck Lambert that night.

What happened to Lambert was criminal — a “clear-cut murder-three case,” said Fish. Still, he said, Mosley has been through some significant trauma in her life, and she and her family are now trying to accept and make peace with the consequences of her role in the tragedy.