Pa. Supreme Court has reinstated criminal charges against an acquitted Philly police detective
Now-retired Judge James Murray Lynn had found Robert Redanauer not guilty based on a technicality that puzzled legal experts. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court this week reinstated the charges.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/SW2IEDT5SZFQ7C6PCKTQCXXZSQ.jpg)
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered that charges of assault and making terroristic threats be reinstated against a former detective whose acquittal three years ago raised questions about whether police officers receive favorable treatment from some Philadelphia judges.
Robert Redanauer, 54, who was terminated by then-Commissioner Danielle Outlaw after his arrest, will now have to return to Common Pleas Court to determine whether there is enough evidence for the case to move forward.
Everything about the case has been unusual.
The arrest: Internal Affairs alleged that Redanauer had threatened a 16-year-old boy and pulled a gun on his 23-year-old brother while naked and stumbling around their mother’s Northeast Philadelphia home in April 2021.
“Come here. ... I am going to shoot you,” Redanauer allegedly said while aiming a handgun at the man’s face.
» READ MORE: ‘Please, don’t shoot me’: Complaints and lawsuits piled up for years before a Philly detective was arrested
The acquittal: In July 2021, Judge James Murray Lynn, based on a procedural technicality, acquitted Redanauer of all charges and retroactively ruled that the Municipal Court preliminary hearing that had just taken place was, in fact, the Common Pleas Court trial.
Legal experts who reviewed the transcript told The Inquirer at the time that they were perplexed by Lynn’s ruling, describing it as “weird” and “stunning.”
The prosecutor, defense attorney, Lynn, and the stenographer each described the proceeding as a preliminary hearing. The title of the transcript was “preliminary hearing.”
The state Supreme Court agreed in the opinion it issued Monday, quoting Lynn himself during the proceeding: “We are at a preliminary hearing.”
Lynn, however, had accepted an argument by Redanauer’s attorney, Raymond Driscoll, for changing the preliminary hearing to a trial after the fact, based on Driscoll’s assertion that the DA’s Office had improperly filed one of its requests for a Common Pleas jury trial. Lynn has since retired.
District Attorney Larry Krasner on Wednesday described that argument as “bizarre” and welcomed the state Supreme Court’s ruling.
“We cannot tolerate a justice system that operates unequally, like a caste system,” Krasner said in a statement. “My administration fully intends to bring this case back for a preliminary hearing soon and pursue evenhanded justice, just as we do in all cases.”
The high court ruling came just days after the Common Pleas Court filed a “notice of intent” indicating that the old charges against Redanauer would be expunged.
Court documents, interviews, and previously confidential Police Department records examined by The Inquirer following Redanauer’s arrest in 2021 revealed years of erratic behavior, including at least six settled lawsuits.
He is alleged to have opened fire on an unarmed suspect and shot a fellow officer in the leg; smashed a car windshield in what police say was an act of vandalism; made wrongful arrests; and attacked a firefighter outside a bar, among other alleged assaults.
“When officers behave in a way that does not honor their oath to protect others from harm, and in fact, create harm, it is made clear that the individual has no place within our ranks and must be removed,” Outlaw said in a statement after Redanauer’s arrest.
Redanauer’s attorney did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.