BY MENSAH M. DEAN
In a soft, quivering voice,
former Philadelphia police lieutenant Aisha Perry "humbly" apologized
in court Thursday for her June fiery attack on the city prosecutor who
convinced a jury to convict her of stealing utility services.
Perry's unbridled rant against
Assistant District Attorney Terri Domsky, in turn, convinced Common Pleas Judge
Earl Trent to put Perry in jail instead of on house arrest - the sentence he
gave her contrite co-defendant, former cop George Suarez.
Perry, who had been with the
police department for 31 years, on June 12 was sentenced to 6 to 23 months in
county jail, five years of probation, a $5,000 fine and was ordered to pay
restitution in the amount of $5,296 for the utility services she ripped off.
Perry, 55, apparently having
been broken by nearly two months in jail, had no fire in her Thursday. Instead,
she offered only soft, well-chosen words during a motion hearing during which
her attorney asked Trent to reconsider her sentence.
While Trent let his original
sentence stand, he said her apology was sufficient, then granted Perry
immediate early parole.
Before making his ruling, Trent
told Domsky and defense attorney Tariq Karim El-Shabazz to keep their remarks
short - under two minutes - because he had heard everything they had to say at
the June sentencing hearing.
Then it was Perry's time to
speak. Her head wrapped in a white scarf, her hands cuffed, the disgraced
ex-officer stood up.
"I humbly apologize to
your Honor and his honorable court. I'm very sorry your Honor," Perry
said, adding that she had also been selfish to her family by getting herself
locked up.
She noted that while in jail
she was unable to be there for her husband, who had surgery, and missed her
child's graduation.
When Trent asked Perry about
the May jury verdict that found her guilty of theft of services, risking a
catastrophe and conspiracy, Perry said: "I respect the jury verdict. It is
the bedrock of our justice system."
"All right," Trent
said. "That's good enough for me."
El-Shabazz said that while he
did not talk to Perry about what she should say during the hearing, he believed
she got the message from being in jail.
"Time has a way of wising
us all up, and I think she understood the position she was in, and she
understood what she needed to do to change that set of circumstances," he
said.
Domsky, who in June, asked that
Perry be jailed for 9 to 23 months, said she respects Trent's ruling.
Of Perry, she said: "I
think she was much more soft spoken. I think the fire seems to have gone
out."
At the June hearing Perry
thundered 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 and was being picked on for having been a whistle
blower in the police department.
She called Domsky a
"liar," and "that woman" who "is jealous of my
lifestyle. She doesn't think I should have the things that I have," Perry
said in June.
"I have the highest esteem
and the highest respect for this court," Perry said. "I do not
respect her."
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.
