Misconduct

A University of Pennsylvania psychiatry professor has filed a complaint with the federal Office of Research Integrity charging that two of his colleagues engaged in research misconduct by allowing their names to be placed on a study published 10 years ago that was ghostwritten by a "medical communications company. " The study, which was funded by what is now GlaxoSmithKline and the National Institutes of Health, looked at the impact of GSK's antidepressant drug Paxil on depression in patients with bipolar disorder.

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE - Wildwood Mayor Gary DeMarzo pleaded not guilty Wednesday to official misconduct. Cape May County prosecutors have charged that DeMarzo and lawyer Samuel Lashman improperly used public funds to pay for DeMarzo's defense in a conflict-of-interest case in 2009 and 2010. Lashman also entered a not-guilty plea Wednesday. DeMarzo is a former Wildwood police officer who took a leave of absence after being elected a city commissioner in May 2007. He became mayor in December 2009.

Six weeks after arresting the Bucks County register of wills on corruption charges, prosecutors are investigating possible misconduct in the county sheriff's office, according to a county commissioner and the lawyer for a deputy sheriff. The deputy, Sgt. Gary Browndorf, has been asked to testify Thursday before a county grand jury examining "improprieties in the Sheriff's Department," said his attorney, Nino Tinari. Sheriff Edward J. Donnelly did not respond to two messages seeking comment Monday.

LOS ANGELES - The New Orleans Police Department has engaged in a wide-ranging pattern of misconduct including the excessive use of force and unconstitutional arrests, the Justice Department announced Thursday. In a lacerating report that followed an investigation requested by local officials, the Justice Department found the department had failed to adequately protect the city. There have been complaints about the department for years, but the difficulties reached a crescendo when unarmed people were shot amid the tumult of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Passion, anger, frustration and optimism radiated from testimony at a City Council hearing yesterday on police misconduct. "I fully acknowledge that we have a problem in our organization now and I'm committed to fixing it," said Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. Council members Donna Reed Miller and Curtis Jones Jr. held the nearly seven-hour committee hearing in hopes of garnering suggestions on how to improve police-community relations, publicize methods to file complaints and explore how police misconduct is being addressed.

There was beer. There was a choking. There was an attempted grand larceny of a frozen disk of vulcanized rubber. And there were two players, favorites among their rabid fan bases, who went at it through the media after failing to really go at it on the ice less than 24 hours earlier. All of those events - the beer that was thrown on Sean O'Donnell as he left the game with a 10-minute misconduct, Scott Hartnell's allegation that he was choked in an on-ice scrum by Maxim Lapierre, Chris Pronger trying to steal the game-winning puck from the Canadiens, and Mike Richards and Montreal's P.K. Subban trading jabs in the media - surfaced in the aftermath of the Flyers' heated, 3-0 shutout loss at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night.

THE PROBLEM: Rochie Johnson was leaving his job at a social-services agency in North Philadelphia when he heard a shout, "Put your f------ hands up!" Johnson thought he was being robbed in broad daylight. He turned and saw a Philadelphia police officer aiming a gun at him. "I grew up in a tough neighborhood in South Philly," Johnson said. "But the first time I've ever had a gun pointed at me was by a police officer. " Another officer quickly arrived in a car with lights flashing and stopped just short of his feet, Johnson said.

BACK IN APRIL, an attorney for a female employee at the Philadelphia Housing Authority dropped a bombshell on top city and state officials. The attorney accused PHA Executive Director Carl R. Greene of "serial predatory sexual misconduct" against female staffers and called for an immediate investigation into Greene's "well-known" and repeated violations of federal and state laws that prohibit workplace sexual harassment. John M. Elliott, of the politically connected Elliott Greenleaf & Siedzikowski law firm, sent copies of his April 21 letter to Gov. Rendell, Mayor Nutter, City Controller Alan Butkovitz, city Inspector General Amy Kurland, City Council President Anna Verna, PHA board chairman John Street and four other PHA commissioners.