Pa. court rules against family in Ellen Greenberg case; finds Philly investigation ‘deeply flawed’

In a 2-1 ruling Wednesday, Commonwealth Court judges said they had “no choice under the law” but to grant the city’s appeal to prevent a civil suit filed by the parents of Ellen Greenberg — whose 2011 death by 20 stab wounds was ruled homicide, then switched to suicide — from going to trial.

Greenberg’s parents, Joshua and Sandra of Harrisburg, filed their 2019 civil suit against the city Medical Examiner’s Office and Marlon Osbourne, the pathologist who conducted their daughter’s autopsy, seeking to have the manner of their daughter’s death changed back to homicide or undetermined.

In approving the city’s appeal, the Commonwealth Court did not rule on whether the manner of death could or should be changed, but instead, limited its decision by saying the Greenbergs did not have standing to bring their claim in the first place.

Despite ruling in the city’s favor, the judges were explicit in how they viewed authorities’ handling of the case, writing that “... this court is acutely aware of the deeply flawed investigation of the victim’s death by the City of Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) detectives, the City of Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO), and the MEO [Medical Examiner’s Office].”

Before delving into their 39-page opinion, which included a review of the investigations, the judges wrote that they did so “in the interests of justice” and “with hopes that equity may one day prevail for the victim and her loved ones.”

The Greenbergs said they were “disappointed but not surprised.”

“I’m more surprised what they wrote in our favor than they ruled against us totally,” Joshua Greenberg said. “It seems like somebody has a conscience here. They may have been judges in the judicial sense, and they didn’t want to change the law, but they definitely feel something is wrong.”

Center City lawyer Joseph Podraza, who represents the Greenbergs, said he was “shocked.”

“As I read all of the opinions, the majority and the dissenting, everyone seems to agree that there’s a homicide here,” Podraza said. “It is very distressing when you hear a court say there is nothing that can be done about it.”

Ava Schwemler, spokesperson for the city’s Law Department, said the city is pleased with the ruling but disagrees with the court’s assertion that the investigations were flawed.

“The city defended against this action based purely on the existing law,” Schwemler wrote in an email. “The police file was not a part of the record in this case.”

Greenberg, 27, a first-grade teacher, was found by her fiancé, Samuel Goldberg, in the kitchen of their Manayunk apartment with a 10-inch knife lodged in her chest on Jan. 26, 2011.

Investigators on the scene treated her death as a suicide because the apartment door — which Goldberg said he broke down — was locked from the inside, there were no signs of an intruder, and Greenberg had no defensive wounds, police have said.

But the next morning at the autopsy, Osbourne discovered a total of 20 stab wounds to Greenberg’s body, including 10 to the back of her neck, and ruled her death a homicide.

Police publicly disputed the findings and Osbourne later changed his ruling to suicide.

The Greenbergs retained numerous forensic experts who have questioned authorities’ findings, as first detailed in a March 2019 Inquirer report.

In October 2021, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Glynnis D. Hill ruled that the family’s suit could proceed to trial, which the city appealed.

The Commonwealth Court took up the appeal in February 2022, saying it would consider whether the Greenbergs had standing to seek a revision in their daughter’s manner of death and whether relief was available to compel a revision of the death certificate.

Arguments in the appeal were heard by a panel of three Commonwealth judges — Patricia A. McCullough, Ellen Ceisler, and Lori A. Dumas — in November. Nearly 10 months later, they issued their decision.

Despite that “the facts surrounding this matter are extremely disturbing,” Dumas and Ceisler ruled that the Greenbergs did not have standing to bring the suit in the first place and therefore, said they didn’t need to rule on the second issue.

McCullough wrote the dissenting opinion.

The Greenbergs and Podraza said they’ll discuss whether to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

A second civil suit they have filed against members of the Medical Examiner’s Office, the Police Department, and the DA’s Office seeking monetary damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress remains ongoing.

An independent investigation into Greenberg’s death also remains ongoing by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office, which received the case in August 2022 on a referral because of a conflict of interest because DA Larry Krasner had represented the Greenbergs in their fight for answers in the case while he was in private practice. A spokesperson for that office did not immediately respond to a request for the status of that investigation.

When asked whether the city would reopen the case, given the judges’ assertions that the initial investigations were flawed, Schwemler said that the city stands by its suicide ruling and that the authority to reopen the case now lies with Chester County.

“The city is now, and has always been, deeply sympathetic to Joshua and Sandra Greenberg’s pain and deep grief over the loss of their daughter,” Schwemler wrote. “If Mr. and Mrs. Greenberg have new evidence about their daughter’s death, we urge them to present it to the investigators in Chester County.”