"Because of his position as a Philadelphia police officer, he had easy access to our children every day," she said. "The defendant was given the keys to the candy store and let loose on our unsuspecting children."
Purnell was assigned to the area around Roxborough High School, where the girl was a student.
Her mother said the defendant and her daughter met at the school when her daughter was 15.
In his cross-examination of the mother, Purnell's attorney, Michael McGovern, began to inquire about the stepfather.
"Wait! Wait!" Assistant District Attorney Beth Grossman shouted at McGovern, while telling the teenage victim to leave the courtroom.
But as the teen was slowly leaving, McGovern asked the mother about her husband's 1987 conviction for raping a 5-year-old girl.
The girl then collapsed to the floor, hysterically sobbing, and was led wailing from the courtroom.
Grossman turned to McGovern and said, "You son of a bitch! . . . That child did not know what those charges were against her stepfather!"
McGovern told the judge that his client initially wanted to go to trial, in part because the girl once wrote a letter saying she made up the allegations about Purnell.
But he said Purnell ultimately pleaded no contest because "he didn't want to put the complainant through trial" - and because he hoped to spare her from knowing "that she was living with a convicted sex offender."
". . . As a result of his plea, he has forfeited his law enforcement career, and will carry the stain and stigma of this throughout his life," McGovern said.
Purnell was dismissed from the police force after his December 2003 arrest.
Grossman told the judge: "The part of this that made it upsetting and shocking was that he was a police officer when this happened.
"As an adult, he should have known better. As a married man, he should have known better. And as a police officer, he especially should have known better."
Contact staff writer Jacqueline Soteropoulos at 215-854-4497 or jsoteropoulos@phillynews.com.
