Police Captain

Charles J. Marsden Jr., 71, a retired Philadelphia police captain with 31 years of service, died Monday at his summer home in Burleigh, Cape May County. He was a lifelong resident of the Grays Ferry section of South Philadelphia. Mr. Marsden, who served under five police commissioners, joined the police force in 1949 and was promoted through the ranks to captain in 1968. He was captain of the Offender Processing Unit at the Police Administration Building at the time of his retirement in 1980.

Charles W. Murphy, 70, a former Philadelphia police captain who later held executive positions in the city government and with Chambers of Commerce, died Tuesday of cancer at his Worcester home. He retired in 1972 after 20 years with the Philadelphia Police Department, the last five as captain and commander of the Accident Investigation Division. He then served as assistant managing director for safety in the administration of Mayor Frank L. Rizzo. Mr. Murphy joined the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia as vice president/safety and executive director of the safety council in 1972.

Police have charged three men with ethnic intimidation, assault and related offenses in an attack on a police captain outside a gas station in the Northeast. The trio were arrested after confronting Capt. Gene DiVincenzo, who is white, about 8:15 p.m. April 8 at a service station at Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard. Charged were Karl Delousaux, 48, of the 5700 block of Wendale Street; Dannie Wiley, 39, of the 3900 block of Market Street, and Dimitri Traylor, 43, of the 6000 block of Hazel Street.

Richard T. Doyle, 83, a retired Philadelphia police captain of detectives, died of heart failure Friday at Abington Memorial Hospital. Mr. Doyle, who was born in Philadelphia, joined the Philadelphia Police Department in 1940. First assigned to the "motor bandit patrol," in 1945 he was promoted quickly to put his crime-solving expertise to use by capturing two prisoners who participated in the biggest breakout in the history of Eastern State Penitentiary. In April of that year, 12 convicts escaped through a 97-foot tunnel they had dug underneath the walls.

City Manager Jeff Braun's proposal to cut a police captain from the budget has met with mixed reviews from Coatesville political leaders. Donna Sue Brown, who was recently elected to the City Council, said she is "totally in agreement" with the decision to cut Capt. Anthony Massarotti from the force. Under the budget proposal, Massarotti would be laid off at the end of this year. "I've said for some time that they're totally too top-heavy," she said. One former city official said council members had not been overly happy with Massarotti's performance.

An Atlantic City police captain accused of sexually harassing and then demoting a female sergeant said yesterday that the woman derailed her own career by not backing up her partner when trouble arose. Capt. Henry Madamba said from the witness stand in federal court in Camden that Sgt. Donna M. Hurley was viewed throughout the department as "a coward. " He said he had been told by other officers that Hurley ran and hid when a prisoner that she and her partner were taking to the hospital broke loose and began fighting.

Kenneth P. Crawford, 55, a retired captain of the New Jersey State Police who spent much of his career in South Jersey's Troop A, died Thursday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia. A Hammonton resident for the last 22 years, he was born in Atlantic City. A captain in the New Jersey State Police, Mr. Crawford had been troop commander for Troop A Headquarters in Hammonton from 1993 to 1996 and from 1991 to 1992, and served as deputy commander from 1986 to 1989.

Don't ask Philadelphia Police Capt. Al Lewis how old he is. Don't ask him about his family or the dozens of awards he's won. In fact, Lewis does not readily discuss anything about his personal life. But get Lewis talking about his policing philosophy and how he works with residents of the north-central Philadelphia neighborhoods encompassed by his 22d Police District, and the walls come tumbling down. And it is precisely because of Lewis' approach to police work that he was recognized Monday by President Bush as the nation's 178th Daily Point of Light.

A JUDGE found Dwayne "Chico" Young - arrested Sunday for allegedly holding a deaf-mute man hostage for months to steal his disability checks - so despicable that he set bail at $1 million. And it might not have been the first time Young preyed on a vulnerable elderly person for financial gain, police said Thursday. Young, 56, of West Philadelphia, for years lived with a woman who used a wheelchair after losing her legs to diabetes, said Capt. Larry Nodiff, commander of South Detectives.

For the second time in less than two months, a Philadelphia police captain has been stripped of his command after department investigators questioned the accuracy of crime statistics for his district. Capt. Gerard Levins, 47, lost his post as commander of the Second Police District in Northeast Philadelphia, the department announced Friday. Tomorrow, he is to begin working nights as a commander at Police Headquarters. The transfer does not affect Levins' rank. The action by Police Commissioner John F. Timoney comes two weeks after he declared that he had no confidence in the crime statistics given him for Philadelphia for this year.