Philly Police Officer Pleads Down to a Bevy of On-Duty Sex Crimes Involving Minors

Plea bargaining is a thing of the devil, as I explained in my review of Diana Rickard's book The New True.  On the one hand, it allows the state to arm-twist defendants of lesser means into accepting guilt for crimes they didn't commit.  And on the other hand, it allows very guilty people whom the state favors to get wrist-slapped.

If I had an ace legal researcher and a huge budget, I'd do a whole series of books about how plea bargaining is used to whitewash police sexual assault in America, as I demonstrated in that same book review I mentioned above.

Today's defendant, former officer Patrick Heron of Philadelphia, is getting 15-40 years, significantly more than a wrist slap.  But it's nothing compared to the 1,300 years he was facing.  He was running loose like a goose for years, Holtzclawing the most vulnerable girls he encountered on duty.  Almost as if nobody cared what he did sexually while in uniform, even to underage girls.

"A former Philadelphia police officer pleaded guilty on Friday to dozens of sex crimes involving young women and was sentenced to 15 to 40 years in state prison.

Patrick Heron, 54, reached an agreement with prosecutors ahead of a trial on more than 200 criminal offenses — including child sex assault and kidnapping — which occurred from 2005 to 2022.
The disgraced cop retired from the Philadelphia Police Department in 2019 after working there from 1995 to 2008 and then from 2010 to 2019. He was initially arrested in September 2022 for offenses related to unlawful sexual contact with young girls, photography depicting sex acts with young girls, and retaliation and harassment against victims and witnesses.

In June 2023, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said Heron had been “re-arrested on 233 new counts,” including kidnapping, sexual assault, child sexual abuse and institutional sexual assault.

Investigators said he targeted vulnerable victims — including girls who struggled with drug addiction, had run away from home or had been arrested — and often sexually assaulted them while wearing his uniform and in the back of his patrol vehicle."

He was facing up to 1,300 years if convicted on all counts.  Of course it's framed as a win for the survivors, who now don't have to face the brutality of a trial.  There's never any talk of making the justice system more fair for survivors of rape, only having us be glad for whatever crumbs of justice we get, years later.

As we saw with Pablo Cano, don't be surprised if he doesn't serve a fraction of that 15-40 years.  He'll skip freely out the door, watch and see.