Philly woman sues a top city prosecutor and 9 police officers over alleged road rage incident on Kelly Drive

The Philadelphia woman arrested in September after a confrontation with the chief of the homicide unit in the District Attorney’s Office as they drove along Kelly Drive has sued him and nine members of the city Police Department.

Anthony Voci, who was replaced as homicide chief shortly after the incident, is the lead defendant in a lawsuit filed by Khasandra Franklin on Monday in Common Pleas Court. Also named as defendants are Deputy Police Commissioner Benjamin Naish, a sergeant in the 14th Police District, two police detectives, and five officers.

The suit accuses them of false arrest, false imprisonment, assault and battery, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, and civil conspiracy. The assault and battery claim arises from an incident in which the suit says a police sergeant struck Franklin and knocked her phone to the ground during the arrest.

Franklin was charged with aggravated assault, a felony, for allegedly trying to run Voci off the road while he was driving his motorcycle on Kelly Drive the evening of Sept. 16. That charge was later dropped, along with lesser counts of possession of an instrument of crime, simple assault, tampering with evidence, and obstruction of justice.

In February, the state Attorney General’s Office — which handled the case because of Voci’s employment with the DA’s Office — withdrew the remaining misdemeanor charges of recklessly endangering another person and reckless driving. Chief Deputy Attorney General Kirsten Heine said her office agreed to drop the charges after Franklin promised to comply with unspecified conditions in a pending DUI case against her in Montgomery County.

Spokespersons for the District Attorney’s Office and the Police Department declined to comment Tuesday.

Franklin, of East Mount Airy, denied trying to run Voci off the road. Lynn Nichols, one of her attorneys, said she never should have been arrested.

“This was a situation that was clearly unjustified and she has suffered consequences as a result of an individual who used his authority to have her put into the criminal justice system for a matter that he, frankly, took out of context,” Nichols said Tuesday.

Nichols said that Voci abused his authority and falsely told Franklin he was a police officer when he blocked her car with his motorcycle at an intersection before she drove off, and that while she was being arrested at home later that evening, officers told her that she was a suspect in a homicide.

“When she’s put in the car — she said to me — ‘I thought I was going to be Sandra Bland,’” Nichols said, referring to the Texas woman who died in police custody after being arrested for a minor traffic infraction in 2015. “When they put her in the police wagon she was that scared, because she didn’t know why she was being taken to the police administration building.

“All of this because this individual who is the chief of homicide decided to use his power and authority and badge to exact the police upon her,” Nichols said. “Here again, we have the police being weaponized on a black woman.”

Voci had headed the Homicide Unit since 2018, but District Attorney Larry Krasner replaced him in that post in November. A spokesperson for Krasner declined to say whether the decision to replace Voci was related to the incident with Franklin. Voci remains employed with the DA’s Office.

In addition to Voci and Naish, the defendants include Detective William Lackman, Detective Edward Davis, Officer Lucas Lesko, Officer David Dohan, Officer Khaleel Lindsey-McFadden, the unnamed 14th District sergeant, and two unidentified officers.

The suit seeks a jury trial and more than $50,000 in damages.