Criminal defense unlikely for Eagles fans witnessed on videos
Pennsylvania cities with professional sports are hungry for victory and recognition. Philadelphia football is probably the neediest of them all. Consequently, the recent Eagles’ Super Bowl victory marked the end of a very long draught and gave the people there an outlet for pent-up emotions. Unfortunately, it appears that some took the celebrating too far, resulting in arrests and the need for criminal defense counsel to represent dozens of accused individuals.
The arrests were largely made based on videos and photos published by news networks. This may reduce the chances of the accused to raise defenses of mistaken identity. On the other hand, where videos or photos are not of the best quality, there may be increased possibilities of claiming that the accused is not the person depicted.
The shenanigans occurred right after the Super Bowl and during the Super Bowl Parade. There were several arrests for turning over cars in Philadelphia streets during post-Super Bowl celebrations. There were other crimes caught on video, including some that rose to the level of private property destruction. Just recently, police announced six more arrests. One of those was for criminal mischief and theft charges against a 24-year-old man for taking a crosswalk timer.
Police displayed videos that allegedly showed the accused confiscating the timer after others had pulled them out of the ground. Whether the likeness in the video is sufficient to support a prosecution remains to be seen. One man seen in one video breaking a window at Macy’s turned himself in after the police released the video of the incident.
Police charged another man with Pennsylvania crimes of aggravated assault, terroristic threats and risking a catastrophe for allegedly pointing a gun at someone who pushed into him at the parade. The accused fled the area after the altercation. The owner of the gun later called the police and reported it missing while at the parade. The police allege that the gun’s owner and the man at the parade were the same person. Criminal defense counsel will in most cases likely negotiate favorable plea terms for their clients to put the matters to rest as quickly as possible.
Source: Philadelphia, PA Patch, “6 More Arrested For Super Bowl Win Celebration, Parade Crimes“, Max Bennett, March 2, 2018