Philadelphia Inquirer
Friday, Feb. 13, 2004

Officer testifies that he wasn't informed of series of rapes

Had he known, Tyrone Winckler said, he would have detained Shannon Schieber's killer.

By Joseph A. Slobodzian,
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Under different circumstances, Philadelphia Police Officer Tyrone Winckler might have been hailed as a hero: the cop who caught Center City rapist Troy Graves.

University of Pennsylvania graduate student Shannon Schieber, 23, would be alive, and nine other women in Philadelphia and Colorado would have been spared the trauma of sexual assault.

Instead, Winckler told a federal jury yesterday, he wound up with a station-house story about the one that got away. Or, more precisely, the one he never knew he had.

Called as a witness by lawyers for Schieber's parents in their federal lawsuit against the city, Winckler stunned courtroom spectators when he told of the information he did not have when he stopped Graves at 12:37 a.m. on Sept. 9, 1997, responding to a report of a prowler near 12th and Pine Streets.

Questioned by Schieber attorney David Rudovsky, Winckler said he did not know that there had been four early-morning rapes or attempted rapes along Pine Street west of Broad Street on June 20, July 11, Aug. 6, and Aug. 13, 1997.

Nor, Winckler testified, was he aware that the Aug. 13, 1997, assault victim had given police a physical description of the rapist and helped to create a composite sketch that resembled Graves.

Had the officer been told in his daily briefings about the rapes and been given a copy of the sketch, Winckler testified, he would have at least detained Graves while he called Sex Crimes Unit detectives for advice. He might have taken Graves to the Sixth District station for further questioning, he added.

Winckler said he checked with the computerized crime-information database and learned there were no outstanding arrest warrants for Graves. Graves, then 25, told Winckler he was walking home and explained the Levittown address on his identification card by saying he recently moved in with a girlfriend in the 1000 block of Pine Street.

"I explained why I stopped him and questioned him, apologized for the inconvenience, and let him go," Winckler testified. "He walked away."

The impact of Winckler's words seemed to slam into Schieber's parents, seated in the front row of the courtroom. Sylvester Schieber's face reddened, his mouth set and jaw muscles flexing, and he shook his head slowly from side to side. Vicki Schieber, cradled by one of her husband's arms, rocked back and forth, with her head down and her hands clasped on her knees.

The failure of police to tell beat cops about crime patterns, or to distribute the sketch of the suspect in the Aug. 13, 1997, rape, is part of what the Schieber lawsuit contends was a police pattern of discounting rape complaints.

The Schiebers are seeking $3.8 million in damages from the city, claiming that a police practice of "downgrading" and not vigorously investigating rape complaints led police to miss the pattern of a serial rapist and contributed to Schieber's May 7, 1998, rape and murder.

Lawyers for the city argue that the theory of the Schiebers' lawsuit is "20/20 hindsight" and that the city should not be held liable for the acts of a serial rapist.

In questioning Winckler, chief deputy city solicitor Shelley R. Smith noted that Winckler admitted in sworn pretrial statements that he did not remember Graves until homicide detectives spoke to him in April 2002 after Graves was arrested in a series of rapes in Colorado.

"He didn't do anything to make me remember him," Winckler said of his late-night encounter with Graves. "Anything that he did, it never rang a bell to me."

Smith also attacked Winckler's motivation in testifying, noting that the officer is represented by Rudovsky in an unrelated federal civil-rights suit against the city.

That lawsuit, involving alleged injuries Winckler got when he was caught in crossfire by two other officers who did not realize he was an officer, is pending before U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe.

Testimony in the Schiebers' suit resumes today before U.S. District Judge Norma L. Shapiro and is expected to continue through next week.