A Philly man was cleared of murder charges because of ties to 2 disgraced ex-homicide detectives
Neftali Velasquez’s conviction had already been overturned, partially because two key witnesses had given questionable statements to Philip Nordo and James Pitts.
A Philadelphia man who was convicted of murder seven years ago in a case built with the help of two disgraced ex-homicide detectives was released from jail Monday after prosecutors agreed to drop all charges against him.
Neftali Velasquez’s conviction had already been overturned months ago, partially because two key witnesses had given questionable statements to investigators who have since been fired and accused of rampant misconduct. One statement was taken by Philip Nordo, now convicted of sexually abusing witnesses and suspects in other cases, while another was taken by James Pitts, who is awaiting trial on accusations that he lied under oath about whether he had beaten a witness into providing false testimony.
The District Attorney’s Office said Monday that it no longer had confidence in either of those statements, and the witnesses who gave them have since recanted. Without that evidence, prosecutors said, they did not believe they had enough to retry Velasquez, 38, who was accused of fatally shooting Domingo Rivera outside a North Philadelphia bar in 2012.
Velasquez’s attorney, Karl Schwartz, cast the case as tainted beyond repair. “Every leg of the stool was corrupted,” he said.
Why did the DA exonerate Neftali Velasquez?
The decision marked at least the seventh time that the District Attorney’s Office has helped secure an exoneration in a case tied to Nordo, who was once considered one of the city’s most prolific detectives. Prosecutors for years have been assessing the validity of more than 100 convictions Nordo helped build, and they’ve previously thrown cases out over accusations that he sought to sexually abuse witnesses, propositioned suspects, and improperly steered reward money to undeserving informants.
Jane Roh, an office spokesperson, said in addition to the seven exonerations — instances in which a case was overturned and then dropped — three other convictions tied to Nordo have been overturned and led to new guilty pleas, while two cases are awaiting retrials. Prosecutors have also advocated for relief in three cases that have not yet been ruled on by judges, Roh said, and the District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit is still reviewing 13 other Nordo-related convictions.
In Velasquez’s case, prosecutors said Nordo had attempted to illegally get the probation department to detain a witness he was questioning about the crime. When the agency declined, prosecutors said, Nordo simply held the man in the Homicide Unit for nearly a day until he gave a statement implicating Velasquez.
Pitts was not accused of assaulting the witness he spoke to, prosecutors said, but his history in other cases nonetheless would have complicated their ability to use the statement he obtained had they moved forward with a retrial.
And the District Attorney’s Office said Velasquez’s case was further marred by evidence that was not disclosed before trial, including the fact that another witness — who allegedly told police she saw Velasquez commit the crime — later told a prosecutor that she hadn’t actually seen the killer’s face.
Relatives of Rivera, the victim, did not attend Monday’s hearing before Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Ehrlich. But Assistant District Attorney Michael Garmisa read a statement from them in court, in which they said the criminal justice system had repeatedly failed them.
“For a time we felt some measure of peace knowing the accused was convicted and would not hurt someone else’s loved one,” Rivera’s relatives wrote, according to Garmisa, “but here we are today reliving this nightmare.”
Schwartz said Velasquez was looking forward to being able to spend time with his wife, children, and extended family outside of prison.
As for Nordo, Schwartz said the ex-detective’s decadelong career in homicide was “a horrible disservice to the people of Philadelphia,” and a disastrous example of what can happen if investigators are able to ignore, or even flout, the laws they are sworn to uphold.
“The police officers who believe that this is just a waste of time — the fairness and procedural mechanisms to ensure that evidence is obtained properly — those police officers have no business being police officers,” he said.