BY
MENSAH M. DEAN,
A
FORMER Philadelphia police lieutenant, convicted last month of stealing utility
services, talked her way into jail yesterday.
No
other conclusion could be drawn, given that before Aisha Perry started ranting,
Common Pleas Judge Earl Trent had said he didn't think she and co-defendant
George Suarez needed to be jailed. He said they had good character except for
the charges on which they were convicted.
But
instead of being remorseful during her sentencing hearing like most defendants
- including ex-cop Suarez - Perry, 55, went on the attack against Assistant
District Attorney Terri Domsky.
She
called the prosecutor a "liar," and "that woman" who
"is jealous of my lifestyle. She doesn't think I should have the things
that I have," said Perry, pointing at Domsky all the while.
She
said that Domsky had based her case on flawed theory and had tried to give the
jury the false impression that she and Suarez, 56, were dating. She insisted
she was not guilty.
"I
have the highest esteem and the highest respect for this court," Perry
said. "I do not respect her."
Before
sitting down, Perry, who had been on the force 31 years, also told the judge:
"I feel like I'm in a John Grisham novel. That's how upset I am."
Trent,
also appearing upset, asked: "Do you think this is helping you?"
After
saying that Perry showed no remorse and did not accept responsibility, Trent
lowered the boom by sentencing her to six to 23 months in the county jail,
fining her $5,000, ordering her to pay $5,296 in restitution to PECO and giving
her 60 days to surrender her seven guns.
Trent
also ordered Perry to begin serving her sentence immediately, rejecting defense
attorney Tariq Karim El-Shabazz's request for a turn-in date.
Suarez,
who had been a cop for 26 years, offered a short-and-sweet apology for his
crimes. He was sentenced to six to 12 months of house arrest and fined $1,000.
He already had paid $4,833 in restitution to PECO, said his attorney, Brian
McMonagle.
Both
defendants also were sentenced to five years of reporting probation.
An
appeal will be filed, said El-Shabazz.
"She
found it difficult to be remorseful for something that she believed she didn't
do," he said. "She expressed that to me when I talked to her about
the sentencing and what the procedure was. But she was dead set in expressing
the things that she felt she needed to express."
Perry
was convicted of tampering with meters to steal gas and electric services at
her home on Winchester Avenue near Narvon Street, in the Northeast, and at a
rehabilitation center called Clean and Sober Residents, on Girard Avenue near
19th Street, in North Philadelphia. She co-owned the center with Suarez.
Suarez
was convicted ofstealing services at Perry's home; at the center; at a third
property on Tioga Street near 22nd, in Tioga; and at a fourth property on
Devereaux Avenue near Bingham Street, in Crescentville.
Both
defendants were arrested in September 2012.
