Michael van der Veen, attorney for former Philadelphia homicide detective Philip Nordo , arrives at the Stout Center for Criminal Justice on May 9 for jury selection in Nordo's rape and sexual assault trial.Philadelphia prosecutors on Monday dropped charges connected to one of the four men who accused a former city homicide detective of sexual assault, saying they’d been unable to find the witness in recent weeks and didn’t know if he would be available to testify at trial.
Assistant District Attorney Brian Collins said prosecutors had unsuccessfully sought to contact the man through his parole officer, and at one point even set up a drug-related sting to try and find him. “We’ve not been able to locate him,” Collins told Common Pleas Court Judge Giovanni Campbell. The judge agreed to let prosecutors drop more than half the charges against former detective Philip Nordo, including counts of institutional sexual assault and official oppression.
The decision came as prosecutors and Nordo’s defense lawyers began selecting jurors for his trial. The DA’s Office has accused Nordo of sexually assaulting men he met during more than a decade in the Police Department’s homicide unit, and they’re still expected to present three witnesses at trial who have accused Nordo of forcing himself on them during investigations.
Nordo has consistently denied the allegations, and his lawyers have said he did nothing wrong. Monday morning, they unsuccessfully sought to persuade Campbell that the charges involving the three remaining witnesses should be addressed at separate trials, saying the men’s disparate accusations were unrelated.The trial is expected to last several weeks. Campbell said Monday that he now anticipated testimony would not begin until early next week.
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