What to Know
- Former Philadelphia Police Detective Philip Nordo, 56, was sentenced to 24.5 to 49 years in prison after a 2019 grand jury report alleged he "groomed" his male victims during ongoing investigations and engaged in conduct to make the men "more susceptible to his sexually assaultive and/ or coercive behavior.”
- Following Nordo’s conviction, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office began reviewing more than 100 cases Nordo was involved in, including Michael Hill, a man who was convicted in 2013 for a 2010 murder that officials now say he likely did not commit.
- Hill’s pending release in February is not because of Nordo’s actions but instead the result of a Pennsylvania superior court determining that Hill’s defense lawyer at his initial trial was ineffective. However, Nordo’s role in the case is also why Hill’s conviction was reviewed in the first place.
A man who has spent a decade in jail for a murder officials say he likely did not commit, is set to be exonerated after a former Philadelphia detective involved in his case was convicted for grooming and sexually assaulting witnesses and informants.
In December, former Philadelphia Police Detective Philip Nordo, 56, was sentenced to 24.5 to 49 years in prison after being found guilty in June of rape, sexual assault, stalking, official oppression, theft by deception and related crimes. The theft charges relate to him stealing crime reward money in the murder of an off-duty officer and sending it to one of his victims.
A 2019 grand jury report alleged Nordo "groomed" his male victims during ongoing investigations and engaged in conduct to make the men "more susceptible to his sexually assaultive and/ or coercive behavior.”
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Nordo was a 20-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department before he was fired in 2017.
Following the grand jury report, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office began reviewing more than 100 cases Nordo was involved in.
“We became aware of the misconduct related to Philip Nordo,” Michael Garmisa of the Supervisor of Conviction Integrity Unit, told NBC10. “We launched a sentinel review of every case he was involved in investigating. And the results of that so far have been 12 defendants have received some kind of relief.”
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One of the cases Nordo investigated was the 2010 murder of Stacey Sharpe. Marvin Hill of Philadelphia was ultimately convicted of third-degree murder in that case.
On Thursday, the same Common Pleas Court judge who convicted Hill in 2013 agreed to release him from SCI Somerset Prison, pending a hearing next month.
“Evidence that was presented in court showed that he was likely innocent,” Garmisa said.
Hill is expected to be the 12th person to have their homicide conviction overturned in connection with the investigation into Nordo’s homicide cases.
“There’s some legal issues that prevented us from formally moving to dismiss the case today,” Garmisa said on Thursday. “It is our intention to do so.”
Despite the correlation, Hill’s pending release is not because of Nordo’s actions but instead the result of a Pennsylvania superior court determining that Hill’s defense lawyer at his initial trial was ineffective. However, Nordo’s role in the case is also why Hill’s conviction was reviewed in the first place.
The NBC10 Investigators reached out to that defense attorney for comment. We have not yet heard back.
Marissa Bluestine, the assistant director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania, told NBC10 an exoneration like Hill’s is normally the result of a cascade of errors.
“If that’s happened in 12 cases, it means yes, there’s an individual who’s involved in all those, but it also means that the system itself, the criminal legal system itself, failed catastrophically to prevent those errors,” she said.
Bluestine hopes all parties involved will get together to prevent anything similar from happening again.
“How do we fix our system so that it doesn’t make those errors happen again?” she asked.
Hill is expected to appear in court in late February. At that point he will be officially exonerated, according to the District Attorney’s Office. He will be the 27th exoneration under Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner.
