$625K Recovery for Woman Convicted on Drug Charges Based on Evidence Fabricated by Police

Attorneys Mark W. Tanner and Robert J. Levant secured a $625,000 settlement from the City of Philadelphia for a woman who was convicted on drug charges and jailed for more than three years based on evidence fabricated by Philadelphia police.

The client had a full-time job caring for mentally challenged adults and was raising her granddaughter and providing medical assistance to her long-time companion when narcotics officers raided her home in 2006 and arrested her for selling drugs. She was convicted based upon evidence fabricated by the narcotics squad, including false testimony by one officer that she had sold Xanax pills to an undercover informant from her home. A bottle of Xanax pills that were found in her home during the raid had been prescribed to her companion to treat his renal failure.

The client was paroled to a halfway house for nearly a year after serving her time behind bars.

In 2014, her conviction was overturned amidst a backdrop of allegations that rogue Philadelphia narcotics officers ― including the officer who falsely testified that she had sold Xanax pills ― had engaged in widespread corruption that called into question the integrity of numerous criminal convictions.