SUMMARY OF THE CRIME - HATE & INJUSTICE

On Friday August 2, 1996, Julio Maldonado (resident of NYC) went to visit his family in Philadelphia for the weekend. On that Saturday evening, while Julio was visiting his cousin, Denis Calderon and family (at 1147 Rosalie Street, NE Philadelphia) they decided to go to a pub around the corner from Denis’ home for a quick drink as a way to end their happy reunion.

Before you go on, please see the attached aerial snapshot of where the attack occurred. The important locations to note are; Denis’ home, the car Julio was driving and where it was parked (by Denis’ home), Frontenac Bar (where they were heading), and the homes of (prosecutor witnesses) Caren Bronszewski and Joanne Page (400 ft away on the next block) which is where they were when they initially called 911 and stated they could barely see anything, but yet during the trial they continuously changed their stories and ultimately lied by stating they saw Denis and Julio beat Christian Saladino. Notice the distance and obstruction of visibility between their home and Denis’ home (and how the 2 blocks do not meet in a straight line but curves off the side at the corner). It was also night time and the blocks were full of parked cars and the trees/bushes were in full bloom.

Denis and Julio left their home happily not knowing what was awaiting them. As they reached the corner, they noticed groups of people spread across both sides of Frontenac Street. They were drinking and being loud, so instead of walking on the sidewalk through these men’s paths, they continued their walk on the street, sort of diagonally towards Frontenac Bar. About half way through, a few of those young men jumped in front them and started yelling curse words and racial slurs (niggers, spics etc.). They demanded Denis and Julio leave their neighborhood NOW. Denis tried to explain he lived around the corner and that seemed to anger them more since one of them chanted “we should have never let you spics and niggers in our neighborhood”. It was evident they knew Denis and his family were the only Latino in their neighborhood and they just wanted him out.  Julio tried telling them they didn’t want any problems and were just passing by, but the verbally racial attacks escalated to threats of violence against Denis and his family.

More youths quickly joined the attack and Julio noticed one of them pull out a knife or something shiny from underneath a nearby parked car. He mentioned this to Denis and told him they should just go back home, so they started to retreat as a way to avoid issues. As they walked away, they started hearing bottles breaking all around them; some scathed their bodies while they dodged many of the others. At one point, Denis pushed Julio away as a way to avoid him getting hit directly on the head by yet another flying bottle. That’s when they lost sight of each other. The attack turned into two, each Latino facing the hate these young hoodlums had.

As Julio fended off his attackers he got closer to Denis’ home. That’s when he saw Denis helpless on the ground getting pounced and kicked by several of his attackers. At one point it even seemed that they were tugging his body apart and that’s when Julio saw one of the attackers was pulling Denis’ t-shirt over and covering his head (as if to remove it) with one hand while holding a knife with the other as he repeatedly stabbed Denis on the side, under his arm, by his chest. Julio saw the blood dripping from Denis’ body, his side, all over his legs and started screaming at the attackers to let him go, but no one stopped the attack and Julio feared the worst was yet to come. Somehow, in his desperation he was able to break from his own attack and leaped towards the car he had parked in front of Denis’ home. The windows were rolled down and he reached in to grab “the club” (a 2 piece auto steering wheel locking metal device). He was still feeling attacks from behind but when the attackers saw the club, they retreated with enough space leaving Julio free to move.

Julio then leaped back towards the men attacking Denis and again yelled at them and in particular to the man holding the knife, stabbing Denis to “Get the F*** off my cousin” several times but his pleads went ignored. No one tried to help and/or stop the attack. Julio then raised the club to take a swing towards the assailant as a way to startle him, maybe get him to release Denis or at the minimum get to knock the knife off his hands, but in midair of the swing, the device’s top half (which was loosely connected) split off; flew up in the air and landed on a nearby car. This made Julio loose his footing and as he tried to gain balance, the downward swing continued and barely brushed the attacker’s shoulder – sort of grazing him and ultimately causing him to release the knife. He then got up, took a few steps back and collapsed to the ground. This caused the other men to quickly release Denis as he quickly jumped away and disappeared from Julio’s immediate view. Julio continued to swing the club in the air, as bottles were still coming on and people were still trying to attack him, but struck no one else at any other point.

Meanwhile, Denis was not aware of what had happened. He knew he was hurt and couldn’t get away, but didn’t realize he had been stabbed. He never saw Julio grab the club. He did not know that Julio had swung towards the person stabbing him and perhaps even saved his life. He just saw his house and ran in to call the cops. He yelled out to his wife to call 911. This and their fear are clearly heard on the 911 recordings. He could have played it safe (as the prosecutor suggested he should have done) and just stood inside until the police arrived, but since he hadn’t seen Julio throughout his attack, and since he himself had been beaten down he thought Julio was also hurt or perhaps in worst state, so he went out to find him. He feared the worst for Julio as Julio did for him. He grabbed a bat that was behind the inside of his front door to protect himself against further attacks but most of all to scare away the many attackers that were in his front porch violently threatening to get in his house.

That’s when Julio saw Denis hold and swing a bat up in the air; yelling at those in his front porch to “get away”. Denis was not able to see Julio and just kept yelling at the crowd to get away from his cousin while he searched for him, holding the bat in the air to keep the attackers at bay. At no time did Denis ever hit anyone with the bat, especially the person who was down on the ground and not a threat to his safety - as he has said many times, "It would take a violent, malicious person with no value for human life to commit such an act".

Independently but almost at the same time they were able to get the attackers away from the house and towards the corner (which was only a few houses away). That’s when Jerry Taylor (an initial instigator and racist) came directly at Julio with full force swings. Perhaps in the same state of mind or coincidentally, he knocked himself out as he lost his own balance in his drunken state. They were all big brawny men and were all  (including the assailant) were drunk. This may have given the edge for Denis and Julio to survive the attack.
 

As things seemed to calm down a bit, Julio and Denis went back towards Denis’ home and that’s when they noticed a man was down on the ground right in front of Denis’ home with a young girl crying by his side and holding onto him. They later learned that man was Christian Saladino; apparently the one Julio had swung the club at. At that point, Jack Kolber, Anne Kane and other kind neighbors went towards Denis and Julio and helped them find each other within the mob scene. They were compassionate to what had occurred and just kept trying to calm things down. Apparently many of the neighbors knew that these young men were trouble makers or “hoodlum gangsters” as they called them. Feeling somewhat safe because of their aid and support, Julio put the club back in the car and waited with everyone else for the authorities to arrive.

The paramedics were first at the scene and attended Mr. Saladino, who was unconscious, apneic and pulseless. They tried to resuscitate him and as part of their practice they injected him with Narcan to reverse any effect of drug overdose. As they took him to the hospital they were able to bring him back but then went into a comatose condition.

When the police arrived, Julio approached one of them to explain what happened, but he didn’t want to hear it and instead quickly put him into the patrol car and told him it was for his own safety. They never tried hearing Julio’s side of the story, even as he handed the policemen the “club” and tried to explain what happened. Instead he and the other policemen spoke only to the attackers and their friends. Julio was then taken into custody and arrested for Attempted Murder, Aggravated Assault, Recklessly Endangering Another, Criminal Conspiracy, Simple Assault and Possession of an Instrument of Crime.

Denis faced the same rejection and behavior by the policemen he approached, perhaps even worst, because while Denis was trying to talk to Officer Killman, one of the assailant’s friends came over to Denis and punched him straight in his face, right in front of the officer. Denis asked him if he was going to do anything about that attack, but the cop ignored him and later denied it ever happened, even though other witnesses (neighbors) testified seeing what Denis described. When Denis saw no response from the cop he swung back at the attacker and that’s when he handcuffed him and put him into the patrol car. Meanwhile the attackers continued to taunt and threaten him from outside the car and the cop just allowed them to continue the verbal abuse. Luckily, neighbors that saw how the police handled the situation testified on behalf of Denis and Julio. Denis sustained many bruises and cuts and was eventually taken to the hospital (after many hours in the holding cell), but as fate seemed to be on his side, he didn’t have any severe internal injuries.

It was evident that when the police arrived, they saw Denis and Julio as the “trouble makers/Latino-bad-guys” and because they had the so called “weapons” and a guy (Mr. Saladino) on the ground, they convicted them right there without even trying to investigate what really happened. Even when Denis’ neighbor tried to tell Officer Flacco that a knife (flying out of the crowd during the fight) landed by her foot (while she was in her front yard next to Denis’ home), the cop didn’t seem to care. She had to insist and basically force him to take the knife for evidence but unfortunately the cop picked it up taking no precautions to protect it for forensics and basically told the neighbor that it may have been there for a long time and that it was probably not used in the attack and even if it was, it probably wouldn’t help since everyone was saying that Denis and Julio beat up Mr. Saladino with a bat and club. The next day, another neighbor called the police to report finding another knife near the scene of the crime and although the policeman that came to pick it acted cautiously to preserve it for evidence, fingerprints and DNA were never ran against either of the two knifes. DNA was also not ran against the t-shirt – which could have had traces of Mr. Saladino’s DNA, which would have ultimately proved he was in fact one of the attackers.

The investigation was flawed from the start. Even though the policemen had plenty of names of the identified attackers that held Denis down and actually saw the stabbing, they were either not interrogated or not brought forth because it would have damaged the case by jeopardizing the prosecutors claim that “Mr. Saladino was an innocent bystander/peacemaker”. In addition, since the attackers never tried to hide their bigotry and hate, bringing them to testify would have damaged their case by which the prosecutor tried to down play the attack by trying to push Denis and Julio to admit that it was just a fight they were willing to have. No one can argue that in the face of an attack of life and death you have to defend yourself when there are no other alternatives such as running away, but to deny that it was a brutal racial attack is not only wrong but against common sense. During the trial, several witnesses did admit to the racial slurs and even the Judge and prosecutor acknowledged it was a racial attack by ignorants yet none of the attackers were ever charged with anything. Instead the young prosecutor committed to providing Mr. Saladino’s family a sense of justice, he lost focus on who were the real criminals and providing true and equal justice for all. In all of this, the true and very real aggravated assault went unpunished since none of the assailants lost sleep over it. Mr. Saladino was just as much a victim of hate as Denis and Julio was. The neighbors also remained victims for some time; as threats from these same attackers went from verbal to broken windows and gunshots. Unfortunately because these neighbors spoke on Fox news and expressed what they saw the night before they were a threat to their continued hate if they helped Denis and Julio by testifying for them. These attackers did everything in their power to keep most, but not all away. This was not a fight (as the prosecutor projected); this was an attack 10:1 whereby within minutes the block looked like a war zone with debris and broken bottles all around.

Feeling like victims in a racial attack (for the first time in their 29 years of life at the time) they trusted once the investigation took place, truth and justice would set them free. It’s now been 13 years since the attack, and while many have sustained much pain, a conviction based on lies is not justice at all, but injustice, plain and simple and inhumane.

 

We Families Against Injustice Towards Humanity strongly believe that

“INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE” (MLK).

We will advocate, support and uphold faith for those that have been wronged until justice prevails.

Friday – July 24, 2009

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