A look at Philly's D.A. candidates

To date, a total of seven candidates — six Democrats and one Republican, have thrown in their hat to vie for the role of District Attorney in the City of Philadelphia.

The crowded field, for which the Primary election takes place on May 16, includes former City Managing Director Rich Negrin, former federal prosecutor Joe Khan, former Assistant District Attorney Michael Untermeyer, civil rights attorney Larry Krasner, former First Deputy District Attorney Tariq El-Shabazz and municipal court Judge Teresa Carr Deni, all Democrats. Beth Grossman, another former Assistant District Attorney, is the only Republican in the race.

Each candidate offers his and her own view of the job and what they could bring to it.

Earlier this month District Attorney Seth Williams announced his decision not to seek re-election, due to a scathing federal ethics investigation.

Rich Negrin

“I want to redefine the role of the D.A.s office and really reimagine the role of D.A. itself,” Negrin said.

Negrin served as the city managing director, the right-hand man to the mayor, during former Mayor Michael Nutter’s administration from 2010 until 2016. Other roles Negrin held before that include the vice chair of the Philadelphia Board of Ethics and vice president and associate general counsel of Aramark from 2005 until 2009. He also worked as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia for five years.

During his tenure as managing director, Negrin, a first-generation Cuban-American, garnered two different reputations: one as a law and order, anti-protestor leader and another as a caring, community-oriented representative who found innovative ways to address neighborhood issues.

The first reputation, Negrin gained largely during the 2011 Occupy Philly protests. At the time, citizens protesting socioeconomic justice issues created an encampment at City Hall. When the protestors did not move, some of them were arrested.

“Don’t believe that,” Negrin said of the idea that he’s anti-protestor. “When you hear from that, it’s coming from the most extreme voices and those folks have no idea who I am and that my family fled Communism because there was no free speech. I take that incredibly seriously.”

The second reputation, Negrin can credit to his creation of PhillyRising, now known as the Office of Civic Engagement and Volunteer Service or SERVE. The initiative sought to improve troubled neighborhoods by utilizing the resources the neighborhoods already had, namely the people Negrin calls “hero,” organizers and leaders in the community.

“Those folks were the folks that helped us develop an action plan,” Negrin said.

One notable example of PhillyRising is the cleanup of Kensington’s so-called Needle Park. The park, actually called McPherson Square, was unusable because of drug activity. The PhillyRising cleanup turned it around.

As D.A., Negrin has said he wants to create a collaborative environment where the D.A.’s office works with other groups to help solve difficult socioeconomic issues, public safety issues and mass incarceration. He also wants to work closely with communities to create diversionary programs for children. Early in his campaign, Negrin vowed not to accept campaign contributions from criminal defense attorneys, to avoid any conflicts of interest.

According to the last fundraising reports, Negrin had raised $133,000 for his District Attorney from Dec. 5, 2016 until Dec. 31, 2016.

Michael Untermeyer

One candidate for whom money appears of little issue is Untermeyer. The former assistant district attorney, who eventually went into private practice and real estate development, loaned $250,000 to his own campaign on Dec. 31 and donated another $250,000 to his campaign on Jan. 4, 2017. As of Jan. 31, the campaign said it had raised more than $100,000.

Untermeyer came to the D.A.’s office under then District Attorney and former Mayor Ed Rendell. There, he helped found the Domestic Violence Unit. Afterward, Untermeyer joined the Philadelphia Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General where he focused on financial investigations and prosecuting major drug dealers and organized crime.

“The work we did to deal with the domestic violence crisis got results and gave me an understanding of how directly public service can impact the lives of citizens,” Untermeyer said in his candidacy announcement release.

In 2009, Untermeyer ran against Williams as a Republican, but entered the 2017 race as a Democrat.

Untermeyer has said he wants to reform the city’s current bail system, which he has called unjust and ineffective. His platform also includes tackling the opioid crisis by charging heroin dealers with homicide when their strain of the drug results in someone’s death, “no tolerance” for illegal handguns and more attention to seniors issues like financial scams that often target senior citizens.

The 65-year-old businessman, originally from New York City, drove an ambulance at the age of 18 and, more recently, volunteered in Mississippi with the American Red Cross after Hurricane Katrina.

Larry Krasner

One District Attorney candidate, who immediately gained the support of activist and attorney Michael Coard, has dedicated much of his career as an attorney to giving back and helping others.

Krasner, 56, graduated from Stanford Law School in 1987 and began working as a public defender for Philadelphia. He was inspired to become a criminal defense attorney, he said, after serving on a jury for a death penalty case. After five years as a public defender, Krasner opened his own practice working in civil rights and criminal defense.

Over the last quarter century, Krasner has represented protesters from the 2000 Republican National Convention, Occupy Philly and Black Lives Matter and others. He notably represented Askia Sabur in a police brutality case in which Philadelphia Police Officers were videotaped beating Sabur, who was charged with resisting arrest and assault. Sabur was cleared on all charges.

Krasner said his study of the U.S. Constitution through his civil rights work will help him bring the necessary change to the D.A.’s office.

“The first obligation of all law enforcement and all lawyers is supposed to be to uphold the constitution,” Krasner told The Tribune. He said his job as a civil rights attorney is to study ways citizens challenge the government when they violate the constitution.

“I can’t think of any context where the push back against the government is more important and more delicate than between the prosecutors who have the power to ask that you be executed or the power to ask that you spend the rest of your life in jail,” he said.

As D.A., Krasner wants to “de-carcerate,” he said in his campaign announcement video. He wants to end mandatory sentencing and institute more fair sentencing guidelines so that individuals don’t serve more time than necessary, or are sentenced to probation rather than jail time in some cases. Another huge platform for Krasner is the call to end the death penalty.

Krasner also wants to replace Philadelphia’s cash bail system with what he called “sweat bail.”

“The cash bail system has discriminated against the poor in my opinion,” Krasner said, “because there’s no good reason why a middle- or upper-class person should be out on bail with the same crime and same record while a poor person is in jail.”

Instead, Krasner said the city should institute a system similar to that in Washington, D.C. where individuals are required to check in at day centers that cater to the specific crime involved on a daily basis.

Joe Khan

On Friday, candidate Khan put out a release calling for the end of Philadelphia’s cash bail system.

Khan also wants to tackle the lead paint crisis in Philly with his “Lead Zero” taskforce and institute diversionary and rehabilitation programs for juveniles.

The son of a Muslim immigrant father, Khan also urged his opponents to support Philadelphia’s sanctuary city policy.

In a press release commending current District Attorney Seth Williams for announcing he would not seek re-election, Khan also addressed stop and frisk, a law enforcement policy known to unfairly target people of color.

Teresa Carr Deni

Municipal Court Judge Carr Deni, on “Wake Up With WURD” also told host Solomon Jones on Friday the stop-and-frisk policy should end “for the most part,” adding that officers should not stop anyone unless there is reasonable suspicion a crime has been committed or the individual is a suspect in another crime.

Carr Deni worked within the City Solicitors’ office, the Office of Housing and Community Development and the Board of Revision of Taxes before opening her own criminal defense and litigation practice.

She served as a municipal court judge for 21 years before resigning in December to run for D.A. In that role, Carr Deni came under fire from activists for her opinion in a 2007 case concerning the alleged gang rape of a sex worker. Carr Deni ruled it was theft of services. In 2013, an anonymous group of Philadelphia-based feminist activists mounted a campaign to vote Carr Deni out of retention.

Carr Deni has made two loans to her own campaign, including one of $35,000 made when she first joined the campaign trail.

Tariq El-Shabazz

El-Shabazz is the newest candidate to join the D.A.’s race. He formally announced his candidacy on Monday.

Most recently, he served as first deputy District Attorney to Seth Williams, where he worked for seven months before resigning to run for D.A.

El-Shabazz first worked in the Philadelphia D.A.’s office from 1988-1993. He opened his own criminal defense practice where he represented high-profile clients like drug criminal and murderer Kaboni Savage.

El-Shabazz has frequently appeared on radio and television programs for legal commentary, including local WURD. He appeared on Arise America International to comment on the Trayvon Martin trial and in 2009, El-Shabazz’s Germantown Masjid refused to bury Howard Cain, a main convicted of killing a police officer.

Ending mass incarceration is the focus of El-Shabazz’s campaign. He has said he wants to institute day reporting centers and eliminate cash bail, as well as reform the probation and parole system. El-Shabazz also pledged more transparency in investigations involving use of force by police officers and to bridge the gap between communities and law enforcement.

El-Shabazz’s young campaign has been plagued by questions surrounding his nearly $200,000 in tax liens, to which El-Shabazz has responded that there’s a payment plan in place.

Beth Grossman

The lone Republican candidate, Beth Grossman, has 21 years of prosecutorial experience. She served as an assistant district attorney and in 2007 became Chief of the Public Nuisance Task Force.

With the campaign slogan “Beth not Seth,” Grossman has identified as her primary issue combating public nuisance and corruption.

“I am now a Philadelphia Republican because that is how, the only way, I can most freely and strongly fight to sweep out corruption and complacency and bring in competence and compassion,” Grossman said in her campaign announcement.

The last Republican District Attorney elected in Philadelphia was Ronald Castille, who served from 1986 until 1991. The city is largely democratic, with only 15 percent of the vote in the presidential election going toward the Republican candidate.