Trial begins in alleged assault of former judge

There is no question that on the evening of Oct. 17, 2009, Common Pleas Judge Leslie Fleisher was injured and bled inside her Old City home.

After Fleisher called police to the 3rd Street property, they found her with a bloody gash on the back of the head and bloodstains on her shirt. Blood was also found on a closet door, a door hinge and a dining-room rug.

Just how the judge suffered that head wound and the other multiple scrapes on her body is at the core of a trial that began yesterday at the Criminal Justice Center.

Fleisher, 48, who resigned from the bench in March, told the jury of eight women and four men that her ex-boyfriend, Lewis B. Palmer III, 49, slammed her head against a closet door, choked her and then chased her outside, where he pushed her against a brick wall and kicked her.

Palmer, who at the time was a detective assigned to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, is standing trial on charges of aggravated and simple assault and of violating wiretap laws for allegedly secretly recording six phone calls with the judge three days after the incident.

" 'Lew, I can't breathe, I can't breathe,' " Fleisher said on the witness stand, recalling her reaction during the alleged choking.

The attack, she said, came after Palmer had became "agitated" when she asked him to feed her cats and when she complained about him watching a college football game on TV when they were supposed to be getting ready to go out to dinner.

But according to defense attorney A. Charles Peruto Jr., Palmer, who has since been fired, was merely defending himself from a violent, drug-abusing judge who had jumped on his back.

"He is absolutely innocent. The only thing he did was defend himself from a kook," Peruto said during a break in testimony.

"When you jump on somebody's back . . . and he's spinning you around to get you off of him and you hit your head on a hinge, that's going to happen," Peruto said.

Peruto said Palmer contends that Fleisher's other injuries were self-inflicted. The case is being prosecuted by the state Attorney General's Office because of Palmer's former position.

Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General Bill Davis told the jury in opening statements that although the trial was unusual given that the defendant is a former police officer and the plaintiff a former judge, much of the evidence would be of the "he said, she said" variety.

"It was a volatile relationship. But he's the police officer, and he has no defense to his actions in terms of assaulting her and in terms of recording her conversations without her consent," Davis said.

In a police statement, Palmer admitted beating up Fleisher in the past, Davis said during an interview.

He called Palmer's assertion in the statement that Fleisher jumped on his back "ridiculous and self-serving."

Fleisher, dressed in a burgundy blazer, white ruffled blouse and black skirt, became emotional while viewing crime-scene photos.

Fleisher said she met Palmer in 2005, when he was a narcotics officer who would come to her courtroom on occasion for warrants. She said she asked her supervisor for permission to date him. They dated for about four years but were no longer a couple the day of the incident, Fleisher said.

Palmer, clad in a dark pinstriped suit, listened stoically and at times appeared to grimace.

Testimony is to resume today before Senior Chester County Common Pleas Judge Charles B. Smith, who was brought in to preside because of Fleisher's former position with the Philadelphia court system.