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Foster has long history through the courts

Sixteen months ago, William Allan Foster told a Bucks County judge that he had turned a corner in his sorry life of crime and that he was finally getting treatment for heroin addiction.

William Allan Foster, held in killing officer.
William Allan Foster, held in killing officer.Read more

Sixteen months ago, William Allan Foster told a Bucks County judge that he had turned a corner in his sorry life of crime and that he was finally getting treatment for heroin addiction.

"My mother is dying," Foster told Bucks County Court President Judge David W. Heckler during his sentencing for theft and drug charges. "My mother might last until the end of the year. This might be my last memory of my mother, me being in jail having her see me in handcuffs, her dying."

Foster's fears might yet come true. His mother is still alive, living in Levittown. And Foster, 41, once again finds himself behind bars.

Police said that Foster, wanted for violating parole after being released from prison earlier this year, drove to Philadelphia's Port Richmond neighborhood Monday night to buy drugs. Afterward, police said, he slammed his Chevy Camaro into a patrol car, killing Police Sgt. Timothy Simpson, 46, a 20-year decorated veteran.

Foster is being held in Philadelphia after failing to post $2 million bail, charged with vehicular homicide, drug possession and other crimes.

Since the death of Simpson - the fourth Philadelphia officer to die this year in the line of duty - Foster's frequent passages through the criminal-justice system over two decades have come under close scrutiny and criticism.

In one of Foster's most recent encounters with the court system, earlier this month, a Philadelphia trial commissioner released him on his own recognizance after he had been arrested for failing to appear in court on a 2006 Philadelphia drug-possession charge.

While District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham has blamed lenient judges for setting Foster free, prosecutors from her office did not request higher bail for Foster on Nov. 4 because they had no idea of his extensive criminal history.

From their point of view, he appeared to be a small-time criminal wanted for heroin possession - one of thousands who pass through the courts every year.

Philadelphia officials did not know Foster was wanted in Bucks County and in New Jersey because that information had not been entered into an FBI database.

"We had no information on that," said Charles Erlich, chief of the district attorney's Municipal Court unit.

Though Philadelphia police found a dismantled 12-gauge shotgun in Foster's car when he was arrested, Erlich said that "police found that the gun was not illegal."

Police determined later, after Foster had been released by the trial commissioner, that the gun had been reported stolen. It belonged to Bucks County District Judge John Kelly, who said the $800 gun had disappeared from his pickup truck a few days earlier.

Foster's extensive criminal history was well-known to Judge Heckler in 2007 when he appeared in Bucks County Court in Doylestown.

At that time, Foster was serving a three-year prison sentence in New Jersey but was in line to be paroled. He needed to settle a pending Bucks County case for theft and drug possession before New Jersey officials would release him.

According to a transcript of the hearing, Heckler, a former Republican state legislator not known for being soft on criminals, asked the prosecutor to recite Foster's criminal history, which started when he was 18.

"Why, Mr. Foster, would I have any reason to believe that you're going to do any better this time than you have over a couple of decades?" Heckler asked.

Foster said that this time was different - it was the first time he was involved in an outpatient drug-treatment program. "I've never gotten involved in outside treatment," he said. ". . . I never asked for anybody's help before."

He even expressed a desire to make restitution for the power tools he had stolen from several homeowners.

Heckler expressed skepticism but decided to ignore the sentencing guidelines, which recommended Foster get 12 to 18 months. He instead sentenced Foster to 17 years of probation.

"So if you screw up, this matter ought to come back to me, please note, and I'm going to put you in the state penitentiary for probably about five to 10 years," he said. "Because that's what . . . I'd be thinking about. I'm hearing the song and dance and I'm buying it."

Foster thanked the judge.

Almost a year later to the day, Foster was arrested again, in New Britain Township, charged with stealing power tools from a plumbing contractor.