Philly Officer accused of dv beating/threat to kill family

City Cop Faces Domestic-Abuse Charges
Philadelphia Daily News
By WILLIAM BENDER & DAVID GAMBACORTA
benderw@phillynews.com 215-854-5255
Thu, Jan. 28, 2010

A Philadelphia cop was arrested yesterday for allegedly beating his girlfriend and threatening to kill her family during an early-morning domestic dispute in Upper Darby.

Officer Michael Minor, 36, a two-year member of the force assigned to the 12th District, in Southwest Philadelphia, was charged with simple assault, harassment and making terroristic threats, police said.

Minor's 26-year-old girlfriend told authorities that he struck her in the face and dragged her off the couch onto the floor, said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood. She was treated at the hospital for a bruised forehead and abrasions on her neck and leg.

"She also stated that he threatened to come back and shoot the family," Chitwood said.

"This is a police officer whose job it is to defend life and property, and that's a black eye on that particular officer," Chitwood said. "I think that we're held to a higher standard. We certainly understand the issues of domestic violence and the potential for tragedy."

Minor's arrest is the latest in a string of unrelated incidents involving Philadelphia-area police officers who have found themselves on the wrong side of the law.

Yesterday, a Glenolden cop was held for trial on a felony assault charge, and a Ridley police officer turned himself in this month for allegedly assaulting a female Wawa employee who requested ID before selling him chewing tobacco.

In Chester City, a 14-year police veteran has been charged with pistol-whipping a customer at Crown Chicken. Chester Township Police Chief Booker T. Wilson is awaiting trial on theft charges.

A veteran Philadelphia officer who was assigned to the Crime Scene Unit is due in court next month on charges that he tried to solicit sex from a minor. Another veteran cop is awaiting his preliminary hearing for allegedly attempting to get a female prisoner to perform oral sex on him inside the 35th District headquarters.

Tyrone Wiggins, a former Philadelphia officer who was arrested in November the day after he retired, was held for trial this month on charges that he repeatedly raped a woman, starting in 1997 when she was 12 years old.

Gerald Stanshine, a lawyer with the Fraternal Order of Police, said he hadn't yet spoken to Minor, but had questions about what happened inside the girlfriend's house.

"I understand that the complainant's story changed from what she told the police to what she told hospital personnel, and I believe she invited him back into her house this afternoon," Stanshine said before Minor's arraignment last night. "So I have my doubts about what actually occurred."

Minor, an ex-Marine and former corrections officer, is expected to be placed on desk duty pending a review of his case. His bail was set last night at 10 percent of $50,000. The Upper Darby judge refused Stanshine's request to lower it.

Court records show that Minor was arrested in 2003 for simple assault, possessing instruments of crime and related offenses, but he was cleared of the charges.

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