Courtroom

Even before the Philadelphia jury returned to the courtroom, Sheila Tepper seemed to know the news would be bad. "Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please," she said in a mantra punctuated by hyperventilated breaths while her husband, former Police Officer Frank Tepper, sat at the defense table a few feet away waiting for the verdict. Sheila Tepper's premonition was not wrong, and the courtroom erupted Thursday as she learned that her 45-year-old husband would spend the rest of his life in prison - the mandatory sentence after the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder for shooting a young Port Richmond neighbor after a 2009 melee outside the Teppers' house.

YOU MAY NEVER have heard of a lawyer named John Henry Leddy. He handled the kinds of cases that don't make headlines or the TV news. But his impact on labor relations during a 40-year legal career was considerable. He impressed judges and fellow lawyers. When he entered a courtroom, he created a stir. "At 6-foot-3-inches and with wavy gray hair and a commanding voice, he created a presence in the courtroom," said Jake Hart, a former law associate and now a senior magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

HARRISBURG - Former State Rep. Brett Feese was convicted by a Dauphin County Court jury Tuesday on all charges for participating in a conspiracy to use public dollars to buy sophisticated computer programs that were used on political campaigns. The jury of six men and six women also convicted codefendant Jill Seaman, Feese's onetime administrative assistant, on all counts. The Election Day verdict in the so-called "Computergate" case was announced after nearly six full days of deliberations, and more than six weeks after the trial started.

HARRISBURG - Former Republican state Rep. Brett Feese was convicted by a Dauphin County jury Tuesday on all charges for participating in a conspiracy to use public dollars to buy sophisticated computer programs that were used on political campaigns. The jury of six men and six women also convicted codefendant Jill Seaman, Feese's onetime administrative assistant, on all counts. The Election Day verdict in the so-called "Computergate" case was announced after nearly six full days of deliberations, and more than six weeks after the trial started.

Every day, Kevin Harden Jr. is reminded of what might have been. Like most freshman city prosecutors, Harden is a "room D.A.," assigned to a Municipal Court courtroom, what some in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office call "boot camp. " With a stack of case folders, he appears in a packed courtroom and, working with defense lawyers, shepherds scores of relatively minor cases - misdemeanors, drug possession, drunken driving - through a factory-floor process. Most will be resolved in guilty pleas, probation, or community service.

After a dozen years as a Philadelphia Municipal Court judge, Jimmie Moore has called it a career. Moore, 60, spent Friday in his 13th-floor chambers at the Criminal Justice Center packing boxes and preparing to begin the second act of what he calls his "movie in progress. " What Moore won't say is what that second act is, or, more precisely, whether the rumors are true that he plans to run for Congress. "I'll announce my plans in a few weeks, but I will say I am not through with public life.

About two hours after jury selection was to have begun, Common Pleas Court Judge Marlene Lachman announced Friday that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had stayed the trial of the civil suit by Alycia Lane against her former coanchor Larry Mendte and their ex-employer, CBS, pending a ruling on a change-of-venue petition filed by the broadcaster. It could be weeks or months before the trial resumes - wherever it resumes. A spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts would say only that "it's really unclear as to how long it will take.

About two hours after jury selection was to have begun, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Marlene Lachman announced Friday that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has stayed the trial on the civil suit filed by Alycia Lane against her former coanchor Larry Mendte and their ex-employer, CBS, pending a ruling on a change of venue petition filed by the broadcaster. It could be weeks or months before the trial resumes - wherever it resumes. A spokesman for the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts would say only that "it's really unclear as to how long it will take.

In a verdict that set off a storm of emotion and anger, a Philadelphia jury on Thursday acquitted two North Philadelphia men of all charges in a 2008 home invasion that left a young woman dead, her three-year-old son a quadriplegic and her boyfriend seriously wounded. The Common Pleas Court jury deliberated about four hours since late Wednesday before acquitting Jafar Malik Stevenson, 33, and James "Putt" Williford, 36, in the Dec. 1, 2008 predawn invasion of a house in the 3300 block of Mutter Street.