Defense attorneys for disgraced Philadelphia homicide detective Philip Nordo continue to maintain his innocence, despite his recent conviction for sexually assaulting three young men. They say an appeal is expected to be filed after Nordo’s sentencing in August.
On June 1, a Philadelphia jury convicted Nordo of multiple felonies and misdemeanors stemming from allegations that he raped or sexually assaulted young men connected to homicide cases he was investigating.
Nordo, 56, of Northeast Philadelphia, faces a lifetime in state prison when sentenced on Aug. 5. He’s currently being held in a facility outside of Philadelphia due to safety concerns.
After a two-week trial featuring dozens of witnesses, jurors deliberated for two days before deciding to convict Nordo on counts including rape, sexual assault, stalking, official oppression and theft by deception.
Nordo didn’t testify during his trial but his defense attorneys offered 10 character witnesses on his behalf, including family members and former colleagues.
Nordo became a police officer in 1997. He’s a third-generation cop who’s been married to a woman for 22 years and has two children. He became a detective in 2002 and joined the Homicide Unit in 2009, gaining a reputation as a skilled investigator.
But things went downhill for Nordo in 2017, when he was fired as authorities investigated several allegations of misconduct, including an accusation that he improperly paid a key witness in a homicide case.
In February 2019, after a grand jury investigation, prosecutors charged Nordo with grooming and sexually assaulting male witnesses before he was fired. During last month’s trial, three men testified that Nordo sexually assaulted them while investigating murder cases. They offered graphic details of the encounters, and two of them wept on the stand.
Nordo’s offenses include raping one man in a Chinatown hotel room, trying to perform oral sex on another man inside a car and groping and kissing a third man in an elevator at the old police-department headquarters.
The theft by deception conviction stems from allegations that Nordo improperly steered $20,000 in reward money for a murder case to a man he raped in a Chinatown hotel room. The official oppression conviction stems from allegations that Nordo exploited the power of his position to abuse young men he met during investigations.
At the time of his firing, Nordo was earning $89,000 annually. He worked on about 80 homicide cases during the course of his career. Due to his conviction, he’s not eligible to receive a pension, according to city records.
Richard J. Fuschino Jr., an attorney for Nordo, continues to maintain his client’s innocence. He noted an anti-police sentiment that prevails throughout society, which he said may have impacted the trial’s outcome.
“We maintain our client’s innocence,” Fuschino told PGN. “It’s important to realize the job of a homicide detective is a very difficult one. We have a lot of murders in Philadelphia. The process by which detectives try to solve these cases involves [interacting with] a lot of people who aren’t necessarily credible, and may be criminals themselves. Nordo investigated killers. While we respect the jury’s verdict, Nordo was a decorated and dedicated detective who solved a lot of murders.”
Fuschino said an appeal is expected to be filed on Nordo’s behalf, after sentencing. “Mr. Nordo was overcharged from the beginning,” the attorney continued. “The prosecution withdrew two dozen charges at the eleventh hour. Independently, these three cases left were very weak. If any of them were tried on their own, the credibility problems would have been insurmountable. The only reason these cases got prosecuted was because they [prosecutors] were able to combine the cases — which will be a significant appellate issue.”
Fuschino was grateful the trial judge ordered that Nordo not be incarcerated in Philadelphia, due to security concerns.
“We have a serious security concern because of Mr. Nordo’s lengthy career as a police officer and also the high-profile nature of the case,” Fuschino noted. “There have been threats against him. We appreciate that the judge took these security concerns seriously and the Court is permitting Mr. Nordo to be held out of the county.”
Eleven murder convictions Nordo was instrumental in securing have been overturned since 2017 and the DA’s Office is reconsidering dozens of homicide convictions relating to Nordo, according to court records.
In a press release, DA Lawrence S. Krasner thanked the jury for its service. “I want to thank the jury of Philadelphia residents for their service over the past two and a half weeks,” Krasner said. “This verdict upholds justice for victims of sexual assault, upholds the integrity of law enforcement who respect and follow the law, and upholds conviction integrity. As this verdict establishes, Det. Nordo’s predatory crimes, corruption, abuse of a position of public trust, and disregard for the integrity of homicide investigations and victims and survivors are jaw-dropping and deeply shameful for the criminal justice system.”
Krasner added: “Mr. Nordo is now being held accountable for the many disturbing ways in which he abused his oath and his badge to hurt and threaten vulnerable young men. His actions undoubtedly destroyed trust between members of the public and law enforcement.”
Krasner said the homicide cases Nordo worked on are under review. “Nordo’s misconduct produced a number of wrongful convictions that have been overturned — retraumatizing and destabilizing survivors, some of whom may never know the identities of those responsible for killing their loved ones,” Krasner asserted. “Our office continues to review several dozen homicide convictions for which Nordo was partly responsible, as integrity requires.”