Among the sordid details in former Philadelphia Police Detective Philip Nordo’s multiple-count indictment was that he routinely sought “homosexual inmates” who were being prepared for release.
A grand-jury report stated that Nordo “regularly volunteered to transport suspects or witnesses for other detectives.” He would use the time alone with these men to allegedly ask personal questions that might allow him to cultivate relationships, which he would then use to his own ends, according to the report.
In one incident detailed by the grand jury, a victim reported in 2005 that Nordo began questioning him about the robbery for which he’d been arrested. Nordo told the man he “didn’t have anything to worry about.”
But in what would be revealed by the grand jury to be the detective’s pattern in these cases, he shifted the questions to sex.
The man said Nordo asked to see his penis. When the suspect did not respond, Nordo asked “if he was too scared — and then he walked over to the suspect and began groping him,” the grand jury wrote.
Nordo then allegedly told him to masturbate and watched as the suspect did. The man said the detective kissed him during the incident. When the masturbation ended in ejaculation, Nordo gave the man a cigarette. He was sent back to jail after that.
The victim reported the incident to jail employees. He told police that the cigarette and a tissue with his semen on it could be found in the interrogation room. These items were tested for DNA and found to be that of the victim.
The grand jury does not explain whether any disciplinary action was taken against Nordo at the time — a full dozen years before Nordo was fired. (The grand jury report noted the victim has since died in a homicide in 2015 and the case has not been solved.)
Nordo, 52, last week was arraigned and ordered held without bail over the objection of his attorney, Michael T. van der Veen, who said charging guidelines called for bail of $10,000. Nordo entered a plea of not guilty.
In a 38-page report, the grand jury found that Nordo used threats and intimidation to groom, coerce and silence male witnesses during criminal investigations in a pattern of gross misconduct extending throughout years.
While the names of victims of the alleged assaults were redacted to protect their identities, some pages were unsealed. These pages detailed multiple accusations of rape, intimidation, sexual misconduct and theft of city funds.
Nordo used a combination of “threats and flattery to make the targets of his advances more susceptible to his sexually assaultive and/or coercive behavior,” the grand jury alleged.
Nordo was fired in 2017 after allegations were made that he had “put money in a witness’ commissary account” and that he had “fraternized with people who were connected to criminal investigations,” according to the report.
At the time he was fired, Nordo was working in the PPD’s elite Special Investigations Unit in the Homicide Division, where he had been considered a star investigator.
Nordo was by all accounts friendly, a trait he utilized in grooming his victims.
According to the grand jury presentment, Nordo became a police officer on June 23, 1997, and a detective on Dec. 23, 2002. He joined the Homicide Unit on Nov. 10, 2009.
Nordo’s tactics included threatening to arrest or jail suspects without probable cause, fraudulently directing reward money to witnesses and suspects and “projecting his dominance–sometimes by displaying his firearm, other times by targeting handcuffed prisoners,” the court document said. Nordo allegedly told these men that no one would believe them if they reported the alleged incidents.
The report details a dozen years of similar instances, which also included rape and other sexual assault accusations. The report details how Nordo would touch suspects and witnesses, comment on their penises and/or touch their penises, arrange for meetings outside the PPD under threat and coercion and engage in sexual assaults in the interrogation rooms and official visiting rooms at prisons as well as outside the PPD.
Nordo is alleged to have forced men to sign witness statements that weren’t true. If a witness or tipster cooperated with him, it is alleged, Nordo would submit false information to the City of Philadelphia to get crime-reward money, according to the document. He fraudulently diverted about $20,000 from the mayor’s reward fund to give to his victims and it is the money that triggered the firing.
In addition to the charges he was arraigned on, Nordo faces potential charges of theft-by-deception because the authorities said Nordo filed false claims for reward money and other incentives worth a total of about $20,000 for some of the victims.
The PPD gave PGN a brief statement in the case, as well as citing statements given by Philadelphia Police Superintendent Richard Ross.
The brief statement confirmed that Nordo had been arrested on Feb. 19 and that he has been charged with rape, indecent deviate sexual assault, attempted indecent deviate sexual assault, institutional sexual assault, theft by deception, stalking, indecent assault, securing execution and official oppression.”
Ross said that the details of Nordo’s arrest were “Disturbing, troubling, and quite frankly, a lot of it’s sickening.”
The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 will not be representing Nordo after reviewing the charges, the FOP confirmed in a statement.
Questions are now raised about the status of cases in which Nordo, referred to as a “prolific” detective, was the investigating officer.