#maryclaire dale

[home-inspiration-blog]

Philadelphia turns green on Valentine’s Day to celebrate Super Bowl champions

By MARYCLAIRE DALE PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia was awash in green on Valentine’s Day to celebrate its Super Bowl champions. Swooning fans screamed and cheered Friday as MVP quarterback Jalen Hurts and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie took turns hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy at the start of the team’s victory parade through the City of Brotherly Love. Many fans camped out along the team’s…

[comphub]

Dale, MaryClaire, and Michelle R. Smith. “Retired Black Players Say NFL Brain-Injury Payouts Show Bias.” AP News. 14 May 2021.

[mystlnewsonline]

PHILADELPHIA | Cosby lawyers detail 11 alleged trial errors as they appeal

PHILADELPHIA | Cosby lawyers detail 11 alleged trial errors as they appeal

PHILADELPHIA— Bill Cosby‘s lawyers have filed a list of 11 alleged trial errors as they try to undo his sexual assault conviction and three- to 10-year prison term.

The lawyers filed a motion Tuesday saying Pennsylvania trial Judge Steven O’Neill had a feud with a key pretrial witness, the former county prosecutor who declined to arrest Cosby a decade earlier.

And they say his decisions to let…

[investmart007]

PHILADELPHIA | Cosby lawyers fight testimony of other women at sentencing

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/philadelphia-cosby-lawyers-fight-testimony-of-other-women-at-sentencing/168865/

PHILADELPHIA | Cosby lawyers fight testimony of other women at sentencing

PHILADELPHIA — Bill Cosby‘s lawyers will fight a prosecution bid to have other accusers testify at his sentencing this month on felony sex assault charges.

Prosecutors in Pennsylvania want at least some of Cosby’s dozens of other accusers to testify at the Sept. 24 sentencing. Five testified at the spring trial, when jurors convicted Cosby of drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.

In a court filing Monday, defense lawyer Joseph Green Jr. said testimony about uncharged conduct should be used in Pennsylvania only if a defendant remains a public threat.

“Allegations of misconduct that are more than 20 years old have no relevance to the (necessarily future) ‘protection of the public’ from an 81-year-old unsighted man,” he wrote.

Cosby faces up to 10 years in prison on each of three felony counts, but could get far less under state guidelines.

Dozens of women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct during his more than 50-year entertainment career, but nearly all of the claims are too old to prosecute. The criminal charges involve only his encounter with Andrea Constand, who worked at Temple University, where Cosby served on the board of trustees.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele has not said which or how many accusers he hopes to call to testify. Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt last week called the prosecution effort “another publicity stunt.”

Judge Steven T. O’Neill has set aside two days for the sentencing hearing.

The defense also plans to fight a state board’s recommendation that Cosby be classified as a sexually violent predator, which would require him to undergo mandatory sex offender counseling and alert neighbors if he is released.

Defense lawyers have said the state’s recently revised sex offender registry law is unconstitutional and should not be applied retroactively.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, as Constand has done.

By MARYCLAIRE DALE , Associated Press

[insideusnet]

In Pelosi, Women Admire a Leader With Calm, Cool Confidence : Inside US

In Pelosi, Women Admire a Leader With Calm, Cool Confidence : Inside US

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — As they watched House Speaker Nancy Pelosi step forward to wrangle an unruly Congress over the years or stare down a bombastic president, many women across the country saw a version of the calm, confident leader they hoped to be themselves. Pelosi, in rooms full of powerful men, was tenacious, tactical, tough. All while being a devoted…

[kyprelaw]

Can Cosby’s Release From Prison Be Overturned?

By Lakin Greene, Murray State University Class of 2021

July 5, 2021

As many people watching the news may have noticed, but a few days ago news was released around the release of Bill Cosby from prison due to the overturning of his court judgement sentencing him to 3 to 10 years in prison. What caused the change after serving three years of his sentence? According to the New York Times, a “non-prosecution agreement” with a previous prosecutor, ruling that the sentence should never have happened. [1] But what does this mean?

Non-Prosecution agreements, or NPAs, are much similar to settlements out of court in which a branch of the government comes to an agreement with the party being charged to refrain from prosecution in exchange for any other number of consequences. This could be fines, cooperation with government to prove good conduct, or admit to certain facts of the case, according to Reuters. [2] If Cosby’s attorney had met for discussions with someone from, say, the U.S. Department of Justice, they could have agreed to an NPA.

Some might say that it is illegitimate, however. The court had to release Cosby under the explanation that an earlier case trying Cosby in 2005 alleged that Cosby could not be persecuted in order to prevent him from pleading the fifth amendment. Thus, when the succeeding prosecutor tried Cosby in 2015, it was in essence a violation of Cosby’s constitutional rights. Furthermore, it was barred from retrial. [3]

It is legal, so says law experts, as everyone is guaranteed their rights under the constitution, but many are nonetheless outraged. It is an example of what many might consider a legal loophole, and in recent days many others tried for sex trafficking and other crimes are seeking to follow the Cosby case’s footsteps.

Could it be repealed? It is difficult to say. The prosecuting attorney Kevin Steele was obligated to “stand by his predecessor’s promise not to charge Cosby, though there was no evidence that agreement was ever put in writing.” [4] If it had not been put into writing, chances are that there could be some leeway. Writing is binding, and word-of-mouth cannot be tracked and sealed so easily in a legal standpoint. Furthermore, others had come to testify to Cosby’s wrongdoing, although the confessions of additional accusers were, according to the Pennsylvania court, “moot, given the finding that Cosby should not have been prosecuted in the first place.” [5]

It is an example of how the law can be tied and examined through all angled to reach one’s own conclusion. The rules are there for all to be treated fairly in a balanced court system, but attorneys are practiced at examining every facet of the law to suit their own cases. Cosby’s case is no different, but with the added caveat of a previous ruling that was upheld by the courts. The fortunate thing is that other tried people accused of crimes, such as Harvey Weinstein, are not able to follow the same path. Cosby is something of a unique case.

It is a new development, and so more time will be needed to gauge what other actions the court might take, and whether an appeal seems like a feasible course of action. But until then, we observe a unique usage of the law for an attorney who has long since been uninvolved in the case and the ongoing ramifications.

______________________________________________________________

[1] Bowley, Graham and Julia Jacobs (June 30, 2021) “Bill Cosby Freed as Court Overturns His Sex Assault Conviction,” New York Times. From https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/arts/television/bill-cosby-release-conviction.html.

[2] “Non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA),” Reuters. Retrieved July 4, 2021 from https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/9-608-6205?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true#:~:text=Prosecution%20Agreement%20(NPA)-,Related%20Content,a%20criminal%20or%20civil%20investigation.

[3] Jones, Robert C. Jr. (July 2, 2021) “Many question Bill Cosby’s release from prison,” University of Miami. From https://news.miami.edu/stories/2021/07/many-question-bill-cosbys-release-from-prison.html.

[4] Dale, Maryclaire (June 30, 2021) “Bill Cosby freed from prison, his sex conviction overturned,” AP News. From https://apnews.com/article/bill-cosby-conviction-overturned-5c073fb64bc5df4d7b99ee7fadddbe5a.

[5] Ibid.

[home-inspiration-blog]

Recovery work resumes at the site of the deadly plane and chopper collision near Washington

By SERKAN GURBUZ and MARYCLAIRE DALE ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Crews worked Tuesday to try to recover the plane’s cockpit and the rest of the remains of the 67 people who died in the midair collision between a passenger jet and Army helicopter near the nation’s capital last week. Related Articles National News | Estee Lauder to cut up to 7,000 jobs as sales slide National News | US job openings…

[plusorminuscongress]

New story in Politics from Time: Attorney Representing Biden Accuser Tara Reade Drops Her as Client

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The attorney working with Tara Reade, the former Joe Biden Senate staffer who alleged he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, said Friday he is no longer representing her, just two weeks after he first began working with her.

Douglas Wigdor said in a statement the decision to drop Reade came on Wednesday of this week, and that it wasn’t a reflection on the veracity of her claims. But he offered no specifics on why he and his firm are dropping her.

Wigdor said he and others at his firm still believe Reade’s allegation against Biden: that he digitally penetrated her and groped her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building when she worked as a low-level staffer in his Senate office in the spring of 1993. Biden has vehemently denied her claims, and multiple current and former Biden staffers have said they have no recollection of such an incident.

In his statement, Wigdor said his firm believed that Reade has been “subjected to a double standard” in the media and that much of the coverage surrounding her biography had little to do with her claims against Biden. The news was first reported by The New York Times.

Wigdor fielded numerous media questions in recent weeks surrounding inconsistencies in Reade’s biography and the legal challenges she’s faced. This week, The Associated Press and other media outlets published extensive biographies of Reade, revealing she appears to have exaggerated her educational achievements, was mired in endless financial difficulties and faced frequent lawsuits with individuals who said she defrauded them or failed to pay bills.

Defense lawyers in Monterey County this week began investigating whether Reade committed perjury when she testified under oath that she had a college degree from Antioch, as first reported Friday by The New York Times. Antioch University told the AP that Reade never obtained a diploma from the school, and Reade herself could not produce evidence of the degree she claims to have earned there.

Lawyer Roland Soltesz peppered her with questions about her background before she qualified as an expert witness on domestic violence in a 2018 attempted murder trial. She also touted her experience in Biden’s office, saying she served as a legislative aide and helped work on the Violence Against Women’s Act, he said. His client was convicted and is now serving a potential life sentence.

“She was a good witness,” Soltesz said. “She came across as believable.”

Wigdor is well known for his work on prominent cases related to sexual harassment and assault. He represented six women who accused Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood producer, of sexual misconduct. He has also represented a number of Fox News employees in cases alleging gender and racial discrimination at the network. And he’s a frequent political donor, giving tens of thousands to Democratic politicians in New York and about $55,000 to Donald Trump in 2016, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Wigdor’s firm originally said in a statement that they had taken on Reade as a client because they believed “every survivor has the right to competent counsel.” Wigdor told the AP at the time that he thought Reade had struggled to find a lawyer to represent her because many attorneys in his space “tend to be Democrats or liberals,” and Reade has accused the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of sexual assault.

————

AP reporter Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed reporting.

By Alexandra Jaffe / AP on May 22, 2020 at 05:20PM

[mystlnewsonline]

PHILADELPHIA | NTSB: Pilot error caused crash that killed Troy Gentry

PHILADELPHIA | NTSB: Pilot error caused crash that killed Troy Gentry

PHILADELPHIA— Pilot error following engine maintenance problems caused the helicopter crash that killed Montgomery Gentry singer Troy Gentry and the pilot at a small airport where he was to perform that night, federal investigators said.

The pilot cut the engine too soon as he tried an emergency landing, leading to an uncontrolled descent, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a final…

[giannabrewer-blog]

This article written by MaryClaire Dale from TIME discusses a new hearing in Abu-Jamal’s case after being convicted for killing a police officer in 1981. He was a former Black Panther member and was also an activist for death row. He was given a life sentence and has spent years on death row for his crime. Leon Tucker, a judge from Philadelphia, granted Abu-Jamal a chance to argue his initial appeal because the Supreme Court stated a state justice misheard an appeal in a murder case, and therefore, did the same in Abu-Jamal’s case. District Attorney Krasner agreed in the decision to give him a retrial after discovering a note that the state justice had sent to the governor begging him to use the death penalty to send a clear message regarding police murders. Krasner stated, “it is also an important cautionary tale on the systematic problems that flow from a judge’s failing to rescue where there is an appearance of bias” (Dale).

           This is a substantial example of the racial discrimination that is seen often in courts even today. The textbook Religion and Politics in America discusses separatists views when claiming, “For separatists, what the Supreme Court calls “neutrality” can be (and has been) used by courts as a way to turn a blind eye toward the clever ways government aids and supports religious purposed under seemingly secular objectives and language” (Fowler 219). The state justice who heard Abu-Jamal’s case appeared to use this neutrality as a way to possibly ignore the hearing of his case due to his race or religious views, based on his former membership in the Black Panther organization. Thankfully, the Supreme Court caught wind of this and removed this justice, which led to Judge Tucker’s decision to rehear Abu-Jamal’s case. I chose to discuss this article because injustices in the court system in this year is something that angers and shocks me greatly.

[insideusnet]

Influencers Debate Leaving Twitter, but Where Would They Go? : Inside US

Influencers Debate Leaving Twitter, but Where Would They Go? : Inside US

By ALEXANDRA OLSON and MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pariss Chandler built a community for Black tech workers on Twitter that eventually became the foundation for her own recruitment company. Now she’s afraid it could all fall apart if Twitter becomes a haven for racist and toxic speech under the control of Elon Musk, a serial provocateur who has indicated he could…

[davidchanus]

Bill Cosby sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison for sexual assault

Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison at a Norristown, Pennsylvania, court on Tuesday. 

The 81-year-old comedian faced up to 10 years in prison after he was convicted in April of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman over a decade ago. 

A judge declared Cosby a "sexually violent predator" ahead of his sentencing, requiring the comic's name to appear on a sex-offender registry. 

  Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison at a Norristown, Pennsylvania, court on Tuesday.

The 81-year-old comedian faced up to 10 years in prison after he was convicted in April of drugging and sexually assaulting Temple University women’s basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia estate in 2004.

Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill made the decision after declaring Cosby a "sexually violent predator" ahead of his sentencing, requiring the comic to appear on a sex-offender registry and undergo monthly counseling for the rest of his life. 

"It is time for justice. Mr. Cosby, this has all circled back to you. The time has come," O’Neill said in his sentencing decision.

Cosby’s lawyers had asked for house arrest, saying Cosby — who is legally blind — is too old and vulnerable to do time in prison. Prosecutors asked for five to 10 years behind bars, saying the comic could still be a threat to women. He will serve his time in state prison.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele rejected the notion that “age, infirmity, should somehow equate to mercy.”

“He was good at hiding this for a long time. Good at suppressing this for a long time. So it’s taken a long time to get there,” Steele said.

Cosby’s lawyers had fought the “sexually violent predator” designation, arguing that Pennsylvania’s sex-offender law is unconstitutional and that he is no threat to the public at his age. But O’Neill said prosecutors had met their burden of proof by ��clear and convincing” evidence.

When the ruling came down, a woman in courtroom shot her fist into the air and whispered, “Yes!”

Meanwhile, Constand said in a statement submitted to the court and released Tuesday that she has had to cope with years of anxiety and self-doubt that had left her “stuck in a holding pattern.”

Constand, 45, said her training as a professional basketball player had led her to think she could handle anything, but “life as I knew it” ended on the night she said Cosby knocked her out with pills and penetrated her with his fingers as she lay nearly paralyzed on a couch.

Constand said she now lives alone with her two dogs and has trouble trusting people.

“When the sexual assault happened, I was a young woman brimming with confidence and looking forward to a future bright with possibilities,” she wrote in her five-page statement.

“Now, almost 15 years later, I’m a middle-aged woman who’s been stuck in a holding pattern for most of her adult life, unable to heal fully or to move forward.”

She also wrote: “We may never know the full extent of his double life as a sexual predator but his decades-long reign of terror as a serial rapist is over.”

In the years since Constand first went to authorities in 2005, more than 60 women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct, though none of those claims have led to criminal charges.

Cosby was smiling and joking with his spokesman and sheriff’s deputies as he settled into the courtroom Tuesday. On Day 1 of the sentencing, the comic laughed at times as the psychologist for the state testified.

Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom; they are generally banned in Pennsylvania.

Cosby became the first black actor to star in a prime-time TV show, “I Spy,” in 1965. He remained a Hollywood A-lister for much of the next half-century.

Associated Press writers Maryclaire Dale, Michael R. Sisak, and Claudia Lauer contributed to this report.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How actors fake fight in movies

from Legal News https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-cosby-sentenced-tk-years-in-prison-for-sexual-assault-2018-9

[plusorminuscongress]

New story in Politics from Time: President Trump’s Sister Retires as Federal Judge, Ending Ethical Misconduct Inquiry

(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump’s sister has retired as a federal appellate judge in Philadelphia, ending a civil misconduct inquiry launched after a report that she participated in Trump family schemes to dodge taxes.

The retirement of Maryanne Trump Barry was revealed in an April 1 order signed by a top court official in New York, where the misconduct case was assigned to prevent conflicts of interest for judges who knew Barry.

A judicial panel began the review in response to four citizen complaints filed in October after The New York Times published a story alleging the president and his siblings evaded inheritance taxes.

The April 1 order said Barry’s voluntary retirement ends the review stemming from claims based on the news article alleging that Barry may have committed misconduct relating to tax and financial transactions that occurred mostly in the 1980s and 1990s.

Barry, 82, was not identified by name in the order, but the facts matched her circumstances.

The order said the complaint process was meant to correct conditions interfering with the “effective and expeditious” administration of court business. It said the resignation meant that Barry can no longer perform any judicial duties and thus can no longer be investigated.

Barry didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

The 15,000-word Times report last year said that Trump’s father, Fred, transferred ownership of most of his real estate empire to his four living children before he died in the late 1990s.

The Times investigation, based in part on more than 100,000 pages of financial documents including confidential tax returns from the father and his companies, concluded that the value of the properties was vastly understated when they were reported as $41.4 million. It said the properties were later sold over the next decade for over 16 times that amount.

The Times reported Trump’s parents transferred over $1 billion to their children. It said that the transfer should have produced a tax bill of at least $550 million, but that the children paid only about $52.2 million.

Trump has called the Times expose a false “hit piece.”

Scott Shuchart, an attorney who filed one of the complaints, said he was “absolutely disappointed” that Barry was able to end scrutiny of her actions by retiring.

“If the Times story is correct, then she participated in a decades-long multimillion-dollar tax fraud. That should be an impeachable offense. She gets her full salary,” he said.

“I think it’s appalling that we’re continuing to pay this criminal and that she now has completely avoided consequence,” Shuchart added. “It’s ridiculous.”

If members of the family did break any laws, the expiration of a statute of limitations makes a criminal prosecution unlikely, though lawsuits might be possible.

With a recently approved retroactive pay raise for federal appellate judges, Barry will receive $223,700 annually in retirement.

After her brother’s election, Barry gave up her court staff and took inactive status in early 2017.

A Republican, she was nominated for a judgeship by President Ronald Reagan and was elevated to the circuit court by President Bill Clinton.

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and MARYCLAIRE DALE / AP on April 11, 2019 at 02:53PM

[mystlnewsonline]

PITTSBURGH | Mourning and protests as Pittsburgh begins victims' burials

PITTSBURGH | Mourning and protests as Pittsburgh begins victims’ burials

PITTSBURGH — As thousands in Pittsburgh’s Jewish community began burying its dead President Donald Trump encountered hundreds of protesters when he arrived to pay his respects.

Funerals were held Tuesday for a beloved family doctor, a pillar of the congregation, and two 50-something brothers known as the Rosenthal “boys.” Thousands of mourners jammed a synagogue, a Jewish community center and a…

[frontstreet1]

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

PITTSBURGH — Members of Pittsburgh’s grief-stricken Jewish community endured another round of funerals Wednesday for victims of the synagogue massacre, a day after President Donald Trump encountered hundreds of protesters when he came to town to pay his respects.

Melvin Wax, 87, Irving Younger, 69, and Joyce Fienberg, 75, were to be laid to rest as part of a weeklong series of services for the 11 people killed in a shooting rampage at the Tree of Life synagogue Saturday. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

“It can’t be fixed,” Robert Libman said at the funeral of Fienberg, his sister, clutching his chest as he described the pain of losing her. “My sister is dead. My sister was murdered. There was no one I know like her. Pure goodness. … She was the most tolerant and gentle person that I’ve ever known.”

Her sons, Anthony, of Paris, and Howard, of Vienna, Virginia, said she spent five years caring for their father as he battled cancer, then after his death a few years ago, devoted more of her time and energy to Tree of Life.

“My mom would be very angry that her funeral wasn’t able to be at Tree of Life, and that her friends lost Saturday couldn’t be here,” Howard Fienberg said.

The funerals for Wax and Younger were to be held later Tuesday.

Funerals for synagogue victims draw hundreds

Six people were wounded in the attack, including four police officers, two of whom remained hospitalized with gunshot wounds. Two congregants were still in the hospital, one in critical condition.

In a bit of good news, hospital officials said the two most seriously injured shooting victims are improving.

A police officer and a congregant remain in intensive care but “are doing much better now,” Dr. Donald Yealy, chairman of emergency medicine at UPMC, said Wednesday. “I think overall the prognoses are good now. But each of them, in a varying way, will have a different trajectory and likely will require a series of ongoing care.”

With Tree of Life still cordoned off as a crime scene, the man arrested in the attack, 46-year-old truck driver Robert Gregory Bowers, remains behind bars, awaiting a hearing Thursday on federal hate-crime charges that could bring the death penalty. Authorities said he raged against Jews during the attack.

The first three funerals were held on Tuesday, with thousands of mourners jamming a synagogue, a Jewish community center and a third, undisclosed site for the funerals of a beloved family doctor, a pillar of the congregation, and two intellectually disabled brothers in the 50s who were known as “the boys.”

Cecil and David Rosenthal were “beautiful souls” who had “not an ounce of hate in them — something we’re terribly missing today,” Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, a survivor of the massacre, said at their funeral at Rodef Shalom, one of the city’s oldest and largest synagogues.

The brothers were both active at Tree of Life, with Cecil the more gregarious of the two, a man with a booming voice who was known as the “mayor” of the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood and the “town crier” for the gossip he managed to gather.

“They were innocent like boys, not hardened like men,” the Rosenthals’ sister, Diane Hirt, told mourners.

On Tuesday afternoon, after the day’s funerals were over, Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived in Pittsburgh to shouting, chanting protesters with signs such as “It’s your fault” and “Words matter,” a reference to allegations that Trump’s combative language has emboldened bigots. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, both Democrats, declined to join him during the visit.

“He didn’t pull the trigger, but his verbiage and actions don’t help,” said Squirrel Hill resident Paul Carberry, 55, wearing anti-Trump patches on his hat and jacket.

Another Squirrel Hill resident, Shayna Marcus, a Jewish 34-year-old nurse and Trump supporter who hoped to catch sight of the presidential motorcade, said: “I don’t think focusing on Trump is the answer, or on politics.”

One person was arrested during the protests.

During their visit, Trump and the first lady lit candles at Tree of Life for the victims and laid white roses as well as stones for each of the dead, a Jewish burial tradition. They later went to a hospital to visit with survivors.

They were joined by Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, as well as Myers, the Tree of Life rabbi, and Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer.

Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Jeffrey Myers

First lady Melania Trump, accompanied by President Donald Trump, and Tree of Life Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, right, puts down a white flower at a memorial for those killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

A private funeral was conducted Tuesday for Daniel Stein, the 71-year-old men’s club president at Tree of Life. And a service with more than 1,000 people was held for Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill.

The 66-year-old Rabinowitz was a go-to doctor for HIV patients in the epidemic’s early and desperate days, a physician who always hugged his patients as they left his office.

“A lot of people are feeling really angry about this. A lot of rage built up inside about this, because of it being a hate crime. Don’t get me wrong; I do. But I’m so overwhelmed with sadness right now that I can’t even be angry right now,” said Robin Faulkner, whose family had seen Rabinowitz for 30 years and counted him as a dear friend. “It’s just such a loss. Just tragic.”

Among the mourners at the Rosenthal brothers’ funeral was Dr. Abe Friedman, who typically sat in the back row of Tree of Life with the two men but was late to synagogue on Saturday and was not there when the gunman opened fire.

As he stood in line at the funeral, Friedman wondered why he had been spared.

“Why did things fall into place for me?” he asked. “I usually sit in the back row. In the last row, everyone got killed.”

A mourner reacts outside Rodef Shalom Congregation before the funeral services for brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

___

By MARYCLAIRE DALE and ALLEN G. BREED – Oct 31. 2018 – 12:33 PM EDT

Associated Press reporter Claudia Lauer reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press journalists Robert Bumsted, Adam Geller and Mark Scolforo in Pittsburgh and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed.

Pittsburgh Funerals Continue After Trump Visit And Protests PITTSBURGH — Members of Pittsburgh’s grief-stricken Jewish community endured another round of funerals Wednesday for victims of the synagogue massacre, a day after President Donald Trump encountered hundreds of protesters when he came to town to pay his respects.