Prosecutor

After myriad faxes, legal jousts, sharp words and a news conference or two, Philadelphia and Florida have ended their war over who will charge Berto Ordaz with murdering his girlfriend and driving the body to a Miami suburb. District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham threw in the towel and said Philadelphia would do it. She authorized city police to issue an arrest warrant for Ordaz, a North Philadelphia man who officials say drove his girlfriend's corpse south to Florida in January and left her body in his van in a Miami suburb.

The judge lost his cool when the prosecutor took a stand. Assistant District Attorney Kelley Marie Dreyer-Spitz was jailed yesterday by Municipal Judge Matthew F. Coppolino after objecting to his allowing a convicted drunken driver to serve his mandatory 30-day jail term on weekends, then refusing to sit down as ordered. "Put her back there [in the cellblock]," shouted Coppolino to a sheriff's deputy yesterday. "She's in contempt of court. " As Dreyer-Spitz was led from the room, Coppolino demanded that her boss be summoned.

After six years as a federal prosecutor in Philadelphia, including three years uprooting corruption in the Police Department, Howard Klein is leaving the U.S. attorney's office. By Friday, Klein will have packed his bags to become a partner in the Center City law firm of Blank, Rome, Comisky and McCauley. "It's time to move on," said Klein, 36, a widely respected prosecutor who has spent the last year as chief of the criminal division supervising 45 trial lawyers for U.S. Attorney Edward S.G. Dennis Jr. Those who got to know him by his work in the U.S. Courthouse - agents, other prosecutors, defense attorneys - say Klein was a talented, aggressive and fair advocate for the government.

One of prosecutor Brian McMonagle's greatest fans is a man he has put behind bars - twice. Abdul Rasheed, 40, also known as Charles Fields, first became a McMonagle fan a few months ago. That's when McMonagle prosecuted Rasheed for rape and won a conviction and an eight-year jail term. At that time, Rasheed told McMonagle: "I really like you. I want you to do my homicide case. " Since then, McMonagle has been reassigned from the rape division to the homicide unit, and, as fate would have it, he was ordered to try Rasheed for the murder of Thaddeus Garback, 62, on June 22, 1986.

Two armed men in a car in Camden fired at a car carrying Camden County Prosecutor Samuel Asbell last night, but the prosecutor was not injured, according to authorities. Authorities said Asbell apparently returned fire with a shotgun and may have wounded one or both of the assailants after blowing out a passenger window with birdshot. Police last night were seeking two men in a green Toyota Corolla in the incident. Details of the shooting were sketchy last night.

Dennis G. Wixted, who recently resigned as first assistant prosecutor for Camden County, will join the Camden law firm of Sufrin & Zucker in about a month, an attorney in the firm said yesterday. Attorney Jeffrey Zucker said plans were being finalized to make Wixted an associate in the firm. Wixted is helping to complete the transition of county prosecutors and is expected to join the law firm in mid-August or early September, Zucker said. "We're looking to expand our practice . . . and Dennis is a real good trial lawyer," Zucker said.

In an unusual move yesterday, the area's chief federal prosecutor criticized a federal judge for greatly reducing the prison terms of four corrupt former Philadelphia police officers, all members of the notorious Five Squad. U.S. Attorney Michael M. Baylson asked the judge to reconsider his decision. Although acknowledging the court has discretion to reduce prison terms, Baylson said U.S. District Judge Clarence C. Newcomer had acted "in error. " Last month the judge said the 15-year prison terms he imposed last year on three of the officers were too harsh, and cut their sentences to five years.

Gov. Corzine nominated trial lawyer Warren W. Faulk yesterday to become the next Camden County prosecutor, potentially filling a seat that has been vacant for more than two years. If approved by the state Senate, Faulk, 63, would become the county's top law enforcement official, in charge of an office of more than 200 people. The prosecutor also oversees the Camden police. The state attorney general ordered the department's takeover in 2003. "I appreciate the governor's confidence in me," Faulk said yesterday.

Camden County Prosecutor Samuel Asbell's sudden resignation left South Jersey churning yesterday. And as the news spread, the story of his desperate, five-day escapade took on the tone of a morality tale for those who knew and worked with him. Police officials across the county swamped the prosecutor's office telephone lines with commiserating messages after Asbell's resignation was made public, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Dennis G....

Two law school classmates of Richard Barbour, the Burlington County assistant prosecutor killed in April at a Society Hill cash machine, have started a memorial fund in his name at the Rutgers School of Law in Camden. "After the wake, I knew we would have to do something," said Peter Cuddihy, who, along with Ruth Rifkin, has organized the effort to establish a memorial fund. "Rick was the type of person who merited that. " The award will be given out annually at the law school's commencement to a student who plans to work in a prosecutor's or district attorney's office, said Cuddihy, a lawyer in private practice who graduated with Barbour in 1989.

WITH YESTERDAY'S snoozefest primary election behind us, the next race to watch out for is the fall contest between District Attorney Seth Williams and Republican challenger Daniel "Danny" Alvarez. Both Williams and Alvarez were unopposed yesterday. Alvarez, 35, who worked as a prosecutor for eight years in the D.A.'s gun unit and the child support enforcement unit, is now in private practice. He spent most of yesterday introducing himself to voters. Williams, 46, who is seeking a second term, said he has not focused on the general election yet, but is "looking forward to serving another four years.

THEY GATHERED 12 days ago outside a South Jersey funeral home, their hearts long since broken, and none shed a tear for Scott David Ross, whose ashes were inside. Instead they had come to remember a 16-year-old girl, and they stood silently beneath the sun, wearing purple, the high school sophomore's favorite color. Whenever a mourner looked their way, they turned their backs so that anyone who knew Scott Ross saw the name printed on their shirts: Jennifer L. Persia . "They knew who we were," said Jennifer's sister, Carol Persia Ross, who is not related to Scott Ross.

CLEVELAND - Prosecutors said Thursday they may seek the death penalty against Ariel Castro, the man accused of imprisoning three women at his home for a decade, as police charged that he impregnated one of his captives at least five times and made her miscarry by starving her and punching her in the belly. The allegations were contained in a police report that also said another woman, Amanda Berry, was forced to give birth in a plastic kiddie pool. Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty said his office will decide whether to bring aggravated-murder charges punishable by death in connection with the pregnancies that were terminated by force.

UNITED NATIONS - If Libya can conduct fair trials of the top henchmen of the overthrown Gadhafi regime, it could be "Libya's Nuremberg moment," the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said Wednesday. Fatou Bensouda told the Security Council that her office is still investigating allegations of serious crimes committed by former Gadhafi officials, some of whom are now outside of Libya, and said the ICC plans to make a decision soon on a second major case and on more cases of Gadhafi regime officials after that.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - In a Friday morning attack that shocked this usually sedate capital, gunmen shot to death the government's top prosecutor in a case accusing former military ruler Pervez Musharraf of involvement in the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, police said. The gunmen opened fire on Chaudhry Zulfikar's car as he was leaving his home en route to an antiterrorism court in nearby Rawalpindi for trial proceedings in the Bhutto case. The shooters used either a taxi or motorbike, police said in conflicting reports.

IT ALL STARTED with a pact, said Assistant U.S. Attorney John M. Gallagher. " 'If any of you snitch, then it's the life of your mother,' " said Gallagher, quoting former drug kingpin Kaboni Savage's alleged words to his associates, including Eugene "Twin" Coleman. "With that pact, the seeds of the fate of the Coleman family were sown," Gallagher said yesterday during closing arguments in the federal murder-and-racketeering trial of Savage, 38. The former North Philadelphia druglord's alleged crimes include the 2004 firebombing of Coleman's home, which killed six of Coleman's friends and relatives, after he had agreed to testify against Savage in a 2005 drug case.

Prosecutors questioned in 2011 whether the city probation department could effectively monitor the medical needs of Herbert and Catherine Schaible's children - nearly two years before the faith-healing couple allowed a second child to die without a doctor's help, sources with detailed knowledge of the case said Tuesday. The department initially classified the Schaibles as "low risk" after they were sentenced to 10 years' probation in February 2011 for choosing prayer over medicine while their toddler son, Kent, was dying of bacterial pneumonia, the sources said.

After five weeks of testimony by 34 witnesses and 546 exhibits, Philadelphia prosecutors closed their case Thursday in the murder trial of West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. On Monday, lawyers for Gosnell, 72, and Eileen O'Neill, 56, an unlicensed doctor who worked in Gosnell's family practice, will begin presenting their cases to the Common Pleas Court jury of seven women and five men. It's not known if Gosnell or O'Neill will testify. The jury has been told that the Constitution does not require the defense to present a case and that it may not consider whether it does in reaching a verdict.

Prosecutors say they will finish their case Thursday in the Philadelphia murder trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell. At the end of Wednesday's session, Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron told the "good news" to the Common Pleas Court jury that began hearing evidence on March 18. "That's not good news, that's great news," quipped Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart. The defense for Gosnell and codefendant Eileen O'Neill, 56, an alleged unlicensed doctor who worked in Gosnell's family practice, will begin presenting evidence Monday.

KAUFMAN, Texas - In a surprising twist, the wife of a jailed former justice of the peace was charged Wednesday with capital murder after authorities say she confessed to helping her husband kill two North Texas prosecutors who aggressively secured a theft conviction against him. The arrest and charge against Kim Lene Williams is the latest turn in an investigation that had recently focused on Eric Williams after authorities searched his home and a...