Philly 'con man' surfaces at Convention Center

WHEN STATE Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams held a news conference Monday to call for the resignation of state Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin and others involved in the Porngate scandal, he was joined by representatives from the NAACP, the National Organization of Women, black clergy, an LGBT group and a Muslim group.

But . . . there was also a mysterious guy in a gold bowtie who stepped up to the podium at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and introduced himself as a "community activist" representing a North Philadelphia alliance.

Wait a second. Is that . . . ? No. Is that Lewis Thomas III?

"I would call on the law-enforcement community to call these jurists to the table to say, 'Listen, you are discrediting us at a time when we are working to build bridges with communities that we serve,' " Thomas said, echoing the statements of others at the news conference.

Discredited is an appropriate word.

In January, the Daily News exposed Thomas as a serial liar and former charter-school principal who reportedly claimed to have master's and doctorate degrees and to have been a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African-Americans.

Among other things.

Thomas, who was considering running for Philadelphia City Council when our story was published, has been bounced from jobs around the country as his backstory unraveled.

Tim Goler, for instance, headed the advisory board for the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy when Thomas was principal in 2005. He told the Daily News in January that Thomas is a con artist who "needs help." He stumbled upon one of Thomas' misrepresentations when he tried to give Thomas the Alpha Phi Alpha handshake and Thomas looked at him as if something was wrong with his hand.

"Probably the best place for him is in politics," Goler said. "People seem to get away with this stuff."

We also touched base with Sarah Darville, the New York bureau chief at the education website Chalkbeat. She reported on Thomas after he arrived at a charter school in Brooklyn and started yapping about his questionable accomplishments.

"The scope of his deception is really breathtaking," Darville said.

When we confronted Thomas, who grew up at 11th Street and Erie Avenue, he finally came clean - sort of.

"Obviously, I had embellished my resume," he said in January. "I should have been honest. I should have never done it."

And that was the last we heard of him. Until Monday!

We have no idea how Thomas latched onto Williams or who else he's been duping lately. And, to be honest, we don't really care. But our advice, Senator: Cut him loose. This guy's not exactly helping your cause.

Did you see that Inquirer story last week on the promotion of Officer Michael Spicer, the cop who recently was acquitted of corruption charges? Citing a law-enforcement source, the Inky reported that the Police Department had opposed Spicer's promotion to sergeant - for obvious reasons. So Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison arranged a special ceremony for him at City Hall.

Wow, we thought. How unusual. Especially considering that since 2012 the District Attorney's Office has refused to accept testimony from Spicer and other cops suspected of misconduct. And because Spicer et al have been named in "scores of federal civil-rights lawsuits," according to the newspaper.

That sounds like something we should ask about. So we sent an email Wednesday to Gillison and Mayor Nutter's supremely unhelpful spokesman, Mark McDonald, seeking more information about Spicer's promotion. Three hours later, McDonald responded: "It was a promotion swearing in."

That's it. So we asked for more details. McDonald responded: "The Dep Mayor declines to comment."

Cool, cool. Very enlightening, Mark. You overpaid hack.

So, we took a deep breath, and responded with a Hail Mary email, hoping to pry some information loose from the New Day-New Way super-transparent City Hall that Mayor Nutter promised.

"He's declining to comment on a ceremony he arranged at City Hall? Why?" we asked McDonald in an email. "What about the Deputy Mayor's boss, Michael Nutter? What about you? Is there a separate department where public officials actually answer questions about what city government is doing?"

This did not work. No response whatsoever from ol' McDonald. Which raises the question: If the mayor's press secretary doesn't field reasonable inquiries from the press, what exactly are taxpayers getting for $132,480 a year?

Some context: McDonald, a former Daily News reporter who seems to cling to the notion that journalism took a nosedive right around the time he put down his pen, is perhaps best known to the public as the perpetually angry guy behind @PhillyPressSec. He uses Twitter primarily to whine about the way the media cover the Nutter administration - oblivious, apparently, to the possibility that he is part of the problem.

Jane Roh, spokeswoman for City Council President Darrell Clarke, has a nickname for McDonald: "Rage flack." It's accurate. Daily News columnist Helen Ubiñas just calls him "McUseless." Also accurate.

And it's a shame, really, because Nutter has done a lot of good for this city: ethics reform, waterfront development, open data, new public spaces, population growth, bike lanes, decreased crime, etc.

Then you have McDonald and other folks in the administration who like to perpetuate the Transparency Myth while simultaneously finding new and creative ways to deny requests for the most basic public information.

But, hey, we're moving on.

We hope Mayor-elect Jim Kenney is smart enough to hire a few people (we can recommend some ex-reporters) who at least will make good-faith efforts to answer questions from the media, rather than trashing good journalists on Twitter. Or, as McDonald did following the Market Street building collapse in 2013, telling a TV reporter who visited him in City Hall that, "You're in my crib, and I don't like it."

It's all right, Mark. We're not mad at ya.

But, listen, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you. OK?

- William Bender

On Twitter: @wbender99

Email: benderw@phillynews.com

Phone: 215-854-5255