Jury selection begins in Salvation Army collapse civil trial

Sometime Tuesday morning, 120 Philadelphians will be led into City Hall's Courtroom 253, where a judge and lawyers will select 12 jurors to decide who - if anyone - should pay the victims and survivors of the most epic municipal disaster since the 1985 MOVE bombing.

It's styled "In re: Market Street Collapse," suggested last week by Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina as a neutral title to avoid singling out any person or organization as a target for blame.

To the public, however, it's the "Salvation Army collapse case" - a score of consolidated civil lawsuits filed on behalf of the six people killed and 13 injured on the morning of June 5, 2013, when an unbraced three- to four-story brick wall at a demolition site toppled and flattened the Salvation Army thrift store at 22nd and Market Streets.

In three days of pretrial hearings last week, lawyers for the plaintiffs stressed the trial's significance - perhaps the only chance for Philadelphians to learn the full story of what happened that sunny spring morning.

"It's an opportunity we have yet to experience, as the city of Philadelphia, to have everything brought before the jury and everybody's conduct gets evaluated," said Andrew J. Stern, the lawyer for Mariya Plekan, a regular thrift-store customer buried in the rubble for 13 hours, whose lower body was amputated at the hips.

"The citizens will get an answer to what happened and why it happened on a day that will live in infamy in this city," Stern said.

Stern's comments were made in court last Tuesday, and that's the only place he will speak until the trial is over. To prevent tainting the pool of prospective jurors and the 12 jurors and eight alternates selected, Sarmina imposed a strict gag order on the parties and their lawyers for the duration.

Some lawyers last week suggested that everyone should prepare for two days of opening statements to the jury beginning Sept. 12, followed by the start of testimony.

Sarmina, however, said that was "probably too optimistic." In fact, selecting a jury could take weeks.

One reason is the trial's expected duration. It originally was projected to last four weeks, but the lawyers last week told Sarmina that several months is more realistic.

Like death-penalty cases in Pennsylvania, the collapse trial will be divided into two proceedings. The first phase will determine liability: Did negligence by any defendant contribute to the collapse?

If the jury finds one or more defendants liable, the trial moves into a penalty phase, in which the jury will decide about awarding damages.

The plaintiffs include the families of the six killed in the collapse: Juanita Harmon, Borbor Davis, Mary Simpson, Roseline Conteh, Anne Bryan, and Kimberly Finnegan. A seventh person pulled from the rubble, Danny C. Johnson, died 23 days later of his injuries.

In addition to Plekan, 11 people injured in the collapse are suing: Nadine White, Linda Bell, Bernard DiTomo, Jennifer Reynolds, Felicia Hill, Rosemary Kreutzberg, Rodney Geddis, Shirley Ball, Betty Brown, Margarita Agosta, and Richard Stasiorowski.

Being sued are New York real estate speculator Richard Basciano and several of his companies, which owned the building that fell on the thrift store; the Salvation Army; Plato A. Marinakos Jr., the Center City architect whom Basciano hired to monitor demolition; demolition contractor Griffin Campbell; and Sean Benschop, hired by Campbell to use his excavator to expedite demolition.

But the city itself or employees of the Department of Licenses and Inspections are not being sued. A provision of state law immunizes the city unless a city worker actively helped cause the collapse.

Sarmina said the panel of 120 prospective jurors will first get surveys asking more than 60 questions in an effort to cull those who could not serve because of a significant personal hardship, who know some of the parties or their lawyers, or who cannot keep an open mind and fairly decide the case.

Lawyer Robert J. Mongeluzzi, who represents several of the victims' families, told Sarmina he thought the survey could reduce the panel to as few as 10 to 20 prospects.

Those prospects, said Sarmina, will be questioned individually by her and by lawyers for both sides. The lawyers may strike any prospective jurors for cause, such as bias, and a still-to-be decided number of peremptory challenges for which the lawyer doesn't have to state a reason.

Sarmina said she was considering giving each lawyer participating in jury selection four to six peremptory challenges. But even with a few lawyers representing the 19 plaintiffs and more than a half-dozen individual and corporate defendants, the odds favor a protracted jury selection.

A Philadelphia grand jury investigated the collapse for two years. But the District Attorney's Office ultimately filed criminal charges only against Campbell, a novice, unlicensed North Philadelphia demolition contractor hired on Marinakos' recommendation to raze a series of Basciano buildings in the 2100 and 2200 blocks of Market Street, and Benschop, whose 36,000-pound excavator was picking at the remains of the Hoagie City building when the unbraced wall fell on the thrift store.

Campbell was convicted last year of six counts of involuntary manslaughter and multiple counts of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison. Benschop pleaded guilty to the same charges and got 71/2 to 15 years.

Prosecutors said there was no evidence of direct actions by Basciano or Salvation Army officials to support a criminal verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

But a civil trial carries a lesser burden of proof - something is more likely than not - and the plaintiffs' lawyers say they can prove that all defendants participated in a negligent chain of events that led to the collapse.

jslobodzian@phillynews.com

215-854-2985 @joeslobo

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