DA's office investigating district judge accused of delay in signing arrest warrant in Uber driver homicide case

Detectives with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office are investigating a local district judge a week after his failure to sign a warrant in a homicide case led to a three-hour delay in the suspect’s arrest.

Magisterial District Judge Mik Pappas told the Tribune-Review on Friday that he was never made aware of the warrant’s existence. And if he had been, he would have reviewed it.

“I would have dropped everything that I was doing to look at it,” he said. “I never was presented with this warrant. Nobody came to me and said, ‘Judge, we have this specific warrant in urgent need of immediate review.’

“That did not happen.”

Detectives from the Allegheny County Police homicide unit submitted three separate search and arrest warrants for suspect Calvin Crew the afternoon of Feb. 17 to the arraignment division of Pittsburgh Municipal Court.

Crew is charged in the Feb. 10 shooting death of Christi Spicuzza. Spicuzza, an Uber driver, had picked Crew up about 9:15 p.m. that night and was supposed to take him from Pitcairn to Penn Hills.

According to the criminal complaint against him, Crew can be seen on her dashboard camera putting a gun to Spicuzza’s head. Later, she can be heard pleading for her life.

Her car was found the next morning in Pitcairn, and her body was found hours later in a wooded area of Monroeville.

Police later recovered Spicuzza’s cellphone and dashcam.

Processing the arrest papers

Detectives on the case completed writing the affidavits for the warrants the afternoon of Feb. 17 and submitted them via email — the same process that has been in place throughout the pandemic.

However, they sat unsigned for more than three hours — despite multiple calls by a detective to check on their status — and weren’t approved until around 7 p.m. when a new district judge took the bench.

In the meantime, law enforcement officers were at three separate locations waiting to execute the warrants and arrest Crew.

Defense attorney Giuseppe Rosselli said Friday evening that he represented Crew prior to charges being filed last week.

At least a day before the arrest, Rosselli said he told Allegheny County homicide detectives that Crew was his client and that if an arrest was imminent, they should let him know, and he would turn Crew in to them.

On the day of the arrest, Rosselli said Crew was at his law office from about 4:30 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.

Shortly after 7 p.m., Rosselli said, he got a call from Crew’s family that he had been arrested.

Ultimately, the delay did not impact the case, and Crew was taken into custody without incident.

“The decision, behavior and attitude of this magistrate with respect to this warrant is extremely concerning and troubling,” said Mike Manko, a spokesman for the DA’s office. “It is completely unacceptable that after (District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.) directed three sets of detectives to monitor three different locations, they were kept waiting for hours because this magistrate failed to carry out his duty as a member of the bench with respect to the apprehension of a very dangerous suspect.”

DA: ‘Additional issues’ with Pappas

Manko said on Friday that his office is conducting an inquiry into additional issues with Pappas.

“This individual is employed by the courts, and the courts have a standing obligation to review complaints concerning how a judge discharges his or her official duties,” Manko said. “That said, our office is looking at additional issues concerning this individual.”

He would not specify what those additional issues are.

When told of the DA’s office investigation, Pappas said, “I am not intimidated by their threats in the least bit.”

Pappas, who took to Twitter to defend his position relative to the warrant issue this week, said he appreciates the DA’s concerns about the delay with the warrant.

“If that is, in fact, what happened, then I’m frustrated for them in having to wait for the courts,” Pappas said.

To begin with: it absolutely should go without saying, that I would immediately review a homicide warrant that was presented to me as time sensitive. Any claim to the contrary is completely absurd. /1

— Mik Pappas (@MikPappas) February 24, 2022

Typically while working in arraignment court, Pappas said, a judge arraigns defendants on newly filed charges, including setting bail. In addition, they might hear petitions for protection from abuse orders.

On the day in question, Pappas said he had four arraignments at 1:30 p.m. and then another set at 3:30 p.m.

His shift was over at 5 p.m. But before he finished up, he said he asked the staff if there were any outstanding cases.

They told him, he said, that three people were waiting for PFAs, so he said he heard those, too.

He said he left for the day about 5:30 p.m.

Pappas, who was elected in 2017 and whose district court is in Highland Park, said several people who work in arraignment court have access to the email account that receives warrant paperwork.

Typically, when a warrant request comes in, a clerk on staff prints it and gives it to the district judge to be reviewed and signed, he said.

Pappas said that didn’t happen with the Crew case.

He has since been told that the warrant in question was submitted via email at 3:10 p.m. He has asked court administration if he could see the email so that he can figure out what happened but was told that his request was denied by Court Administrator Chris Connors.

Joe Asturi, a spokesman for the court, said they are aware of the allegations against Pappas.

“We are looking into it,” he said.

Pappas wondered if the detective submitting the warrant made clear the issue was urgent.

“I’d like to know what the content of that email was,” Pappas said. “Obviously, all of these things are time sensitive. But some things are in need of urgent, immediate review.”