Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is running for reelection next week. It appears that most of the Philadelphia media, most noticeably the Philadelphia Inquirer, supports Krasner. One major exception is Ralph Cipriano, a Krasner critic who is the proverbial thorn in the DAs side.
Ralph Cipriano is a veteran muckraking reporter who has exposed corruption in city and county governments, the Philadelphia D.A.’s office, local police departments, Ivy League football, and the Catholic Church.
He’s a former newspaper reporter for the Albany Times Union, Los Angeles Times and Philadelphia Inquirer who now works as an author, blogger, and freelance journalist.
Ralph Cipriano is the author of Target: The Senator; A Story About Power And Abuse of Power, published in November of 2017. The book is about the rise and fall of the “Vince of Darkness,” former Pennsylvania Senator Vincent J. Fumo, who personified a bare-knuckles, take-no-prisoners style of politics, and reigned for nearly a generation as a power broker.
In December of 2008 Cipriano published Courtroom Cowboy, The Life of Legal Trailblazer Jim Beasley.
The book is about Jim Beasley, a legendary Philadelphia trial lawyer who, before he went to college on the GI Bill, was a high school dropout driving a Greyhound bus.
Cipriano also wrote The Hit Man; A True Story of Murder, Redemption and the Melrose Diner in 2012.
The book is about the life of John Veasey, a former Mafia hit man who survived three gunshots in the head to become a federally protected witness who brought down the Philly mob.
I reached out to Ralph Cipriano and asked him about Larry Krasner and the upcoming election.
Below is my Q&A with him:
Davis: In one of your latest posts at Big Trial articles at Substack.com, you listed 120 reasons why one should not vote to reelect District Attorney Larry Krasner. Would you please list your top six reasons?
Cipriano: My top five or six reasons why people shouldn’t vote for Krasner:
As the city’s highest ranking law enforcement officer, he didn’t pay his property taxes on the former Princeton Club for eight straight years.
He repeatedly and brazenly violated the city’s campaign finance laws.
His so-called exonerations have been exposed in court as fraudulent, based on lies and false accusations.
The state attorney general says in 108 appeals filed by convicted killers, rather than investigate allegations of prosecutorial and/or police misconduct, Krasner simply rolled over and agreed that the accusations were true.
At his press conferences he routinely lies, is evasive, plays word games and stonewalls. And when that fails, he runs away, as he has done to me more than 40 times in the past three years.
His prosecutors, under his direction, routinely free armed and dangerous criminals so they can rack up more victims.
Davis: What do you think of Judge Patrick Dugan, Krasser’s opponent in the race?
Cipriano: Dugan seems like an honest guy, but he’s run two lackluster campaigns. However, I plan to vote for him. Does he have a chance to beat Krasner? Only if there is record turnout, principally in the Northeast and South Philly.
Davis: Krasner appears to be running against President Trump rather than Dugan. He has also stated that DA stands for Democracy Advocate rather than District Attorney. What do you make of that?
Cipriano: Krasner’s frequent attacks on Trump strike me as a joke. Trump isn’t running for D.A. Krasner claims he’s going to stand up to ICE and Trump, but how can that be if he’s run away from me more than 40 times.
Davis: How would you describe your frequent encounters with Krasner at his press conferences?
Krasner: My encounters with Krasner at his press conferences reveal a cowardly, lying D.A. who keeps running away from me. If he was an honest public official, he’d have nothing to hide. But he keeps running away like the coward he is, because he has plenty to hide.
Davis: The FBI and the Philly police recently conducted the largest federal drug gang takedown in Kensington. The FBI director, the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia, the Philly police commissioner and other law enforcement officials were at the press conference. Notably absent was DA Larry Krasner. Do you know why he was missing in action?
Cipriano: The feds and just about everybody in law enforcement don’t trust Krasner. They realize he is more sympathetic toward criminals than he is toward crime victims.
Davis: How can one access your Big Trial articles at Substack.com?
Cipriano: I’m at ralphcipriano.substack.com.
