We need a new D.A., and here he is

December 11, 2020 33 Comments

He will do it not for himself, but for the victims, he says.

He is Carlos Vega, 64, who prosecuted almost 450 accused murderers during a 35-year career in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office and who was fired shortly after Larry Krasner took office in 2018.

He lost only 14 jury trials and here’s why he remembers that number: “In each case I failed a family. I did not get them the justice they deserved.”

Then assistant D.A. Carlos Vega outside Criminal Justice Center. (Photo: Inquirer)

On Wednesday, Vega will become the champion many Philadelphians have hoped for when he announces he will challenge Krasner in the Democratic primary next year.

Along with several other veteran attorneys, Vega is suing Krasner for age discrimination. He told me, had nothing else changed, he would have retired in 2021. But something had changed — Krasner’s victory, in a low turnout, off-year election. He became part of a “new breed” of prosecutor backed by left-wing billionaire George Soros, who is out to remake the face of criminal justice by turning prosecutors into public defenders.This column is an indictment of Krasner, who seems to have adopted the criminals’ cause. This is not the proper role of the D.A.

“I am here to represent the victims,” Vega told me in a telephone interview. The accused has the right to remain silent, the accused has the right to an attorney, the accused has the right to discover evidence against them, to a speedy trial and to face their accusers.

“The victims have no rights,” says Vega. They have one protector, the district attorney, and this one has a history of turning his back on victims. This is not just political talk by Vega, it is backed up by reporting in the mainstream media that generally has played patty cake with Krasner, who spent a lifetime as a defense attorney attacking and suing police.

Of course, the left-wing Mother Jones cheered him on, taking a hefty swipe at four-term D.A. Lynne Abraham, as a symbol of former “law and order” D.A.s, which would include Ron Castille and Ed Rendell in Philadelphia. That was the norm until Soros put his financial thumb on the scale.

What has happened is not a reform of the criminal justice system, but a repudiation of it. 

While the Left has been applauding Krasner, victims of crime have been crying.

Such as in a rare critical piece in the Inquirer here. Or this from NBC10.

This was the case of Michael White, in which I concluded that Krasner had engineered a strategy to thwart the jury from convicting the accused killer of Sean Schellenger. I suspected Krasner “had an occupational flashback and was reliving his decades as a defense attorney who hated cops — and prosecutors.”

There are other cases of Krasner’s weird idea of “restorative justice” leading to outcomes that are dangerous to innocent people, such as detailed by reporter Ralph Cipriano in his BigTrial.net, which acts as a reliable prosecutor against “Let ‘em Loose Larry.”

An example was Krasner’s desire — on his own authority — to reduce jail terms, which is a function of the courts and legislature. His arrogance knows no bounds.

There is little question whose side Larry is on.

And it’s not yours.

Or Carlos Vega’s.

Vega’s age discrimination suit is still in the courts, so I won’t comment, other to say Krasner bragged about bringing in a large group of new employees, and we were to swoon because of their youth and diversity.

“The only problem was that in order to become full-fledged prosecutors, this incredibly diverse group of new ADAs had to pass the bar exam. And while 42 passed, 18 of the 60 new ADAs have apparently failed that test,” reported Cipriano. 

I guess “diversity” includes the not-so-skilled.

To be fair, some of Krasner’s reforms are reasonable, such as ending cash bail for nonviolent crimes, ceasing illegal use of stop and frisk, ending civil-asset forfeiture, and rebuilding the conviction review unit, which seeks to reverse injustice. Justice should always be just, to both sides. Krasner sees mostly one side, that occupational hazard again. 

Naturally, he won’t employ the death penalty, even as an incentive to a plea bargain to avoid costly trials that ravage the victims. He won’t prosecute retail theft of less than $500. I am sure shop owners are thrilled by his lack of concern for their welfare. Have you noticed how many items suddenly are in locked shelves at CVS? Why? Shoplifting, which Krasner seems to think is a victimless crime.

Vega knows better. His parents ran a bodega in Manhattan, and they feared for their lives and for being cleaned out by thieves.

I find it alarming that someone caught drunk driving — without a driver’s license — will be steered to a diversionary program rather than jail.

The most bedazzling new Krasner rule requires prosecutors to state at sentencing the cost of imprisoning the convict. Tell me exactly what that has to do with justice. Will prosecutors next be asked to produce defendants’ bank accounts?

Vega can’t answer that because he’s not there. Now a South Philly resident, Vega is a native New Yorker, who was hired out of Boston College Law School by D.A. Ed Rendell

“I am running because too many victims have been ignored and too many children are dying in our streets without any response from the District Attorney,” says Vega.

Next time, learn how Vega’s parents shaped his beliefs. 

33 thoughts on “We need a new D.A., and here he is”

  1. Carlos was one of the finest Homicide DA’s I ever worked with. A first class prosecutor, gentlemen. Philadelphia better hope he is elected Go Carlos

  3. Liberalism is not justice! All laws, were passed by the state legislature, after debating the issues!!! There is no honesty, when a DA CAN PICK, CHOOSE, OR DECIDE WHAT LAWS TO PROSECUTE! GOOD LUCK CARLOS!!

  4. The only way Vega wins is if he runs head to head against Krasner in the Democrat primary. If there are multiple candidates Krasner will win, we don’t have runoff elections here. If Vega runs as Republican he has no chance. We have to unite behind one Democrat candidate to run against Larry Krasner, it doesn’t matter who it is, as long as they can win. That’s the only way to stop him.

  5. Carlos Vega was the original prosecutor when our son, Alex, was murdered. He cares. Throughout the trial he met with us and communicated often with our family. He works hard to ensure that the victims know what’s going on at every step. Vega could steer our city in the right direction to reduce the number of homicides and gun violence. I’m voting for Vega!

  6. Carlos Vega is a liar and a scumbag! I worked with him at UPS. Vega was a part-time supervisor who tried to get me fired from my job. He told a series of lies and false claims to make his case stick against me! Vega also had many delinquent parking tickets in Philadelphia! Does this sound like a man of integrity?

    1. HAPPY FRIDAY !!!
      Paul,
      Are you sure that we are all talking about the same Carlos Vega ? Stu included a picture of the former ADA Vega. It seems highly unlikely to me, that UPS would hire a 60 year old man off of the street and make him a supervisor. After all, this Carlos Vega is an Attorney at Law. Why would he not practice law ?
      Tony

  7. Thank you Stu,
    Carlos Vega has my vote! Hopefully, Krasner has been a disaster for crime ridden Philadelphia. He’s more for the
    criminal than the victim. It’s interesting to learn that when Krasner cleaned house to bring in his own Prosecutors only
    42 out of 60 passed the bar exam. Of course the liberal Inquirer would never tell you the facts. We learn so much
    from you,
    To you Paul, I’m sure you voted for Krasner! Maybe you weren’t doing your job at UPS, it’s not easy job.

  10. This country need many more like Mister Vega. Our country is upside down with its values. We are educationally inferior these days. We learn from our mistakes. You can’t erase the past. Our values have become distorted. If Mr. Vega wins Philly will be a safer place. Maybe New York will take a lesson. STU you are a champion in my eyes

  11. As usual Stu you are 100% correct.Krasner is a disgrace to his office and is a poster child for all that is wrong with this country today.Here is an arrogant leftist scumbag who should be in jail not running the DA’s office.But when another aging dirtbag like Nancy Pelosi says she is good with a national security advisor sleeping with Chinese spies and fundraising for other candidates all you can say is WTF.I am afraid the cancer in this country is out of control and the country we grew up in is lost forever.

  14. Best of luck to Mr. Vega. The city needs a change in DA since we are on pace for 500 murders this year. Krasner has been a disaster for the city.

  15. As soon as it was clear that Krasner was on the Soros payroll, so to speak, we knew that Philadelphia after a brief and glorious resurgence and boosted self confidence that Krasner would waste no time in tearing that down. And he has succeeded. Where Philly cops have a decent relationship with neighborhoods they patrol, Krasner turned that around and made that negative and succeeded in demoralizing the force. How dare he not prosecute looters! How dare he expect insurance companies, business owners and individual tax payers suck it up and suffer the losses caused by degenerate lawbreakers whose sympathy for black lives don’t extend to their own neighborhoods where children and pregnant women and young men where getting killed for what?!! What’s Krasner done about murders? about looting? about general lawlessness? Nothing, because Soros believes the cities should destroy themselves so “approved” people, of the approved political leanings can come in and rebuild them, with allegiance to he and his cronies.

  17. Carlos Vega has Larry Krasner’s number. They went head-to-head in a notorious 2016 murder trial, over a triple murder at a bodega, and Carlos convicted two killers for life, based on the word of two eyewitnesses who were young girls at the time of the crime.

    Sore loser Krasner was one of the losing defense lawyers and he never got over it. Head to head, Carlos will kick his lame ass again.

  18. Yeah the uptick in violent crime that has hit every city in America is the DA’s fault not surprising that those who blame others for their own diminished standing are on this train

  19. Vega sucks. He just locks people up. That doesn’t help anything. The world isn’t made of good guys and bad guys. Human beings are deep complicated individuals. We don’t live in a 1960s cop drama.

Comments are closed.