Seth Williams Reacts to Lawsuit Report

District Attorney Seth Williams today responded to a Daily News report that his office had settled a racial discrimination lawsuit with a former employee, taking to the paper’s letters-to-the-editor page to assert: “I am proud of my record, my decisions and the way I have run the District Attorney’s Office.”

The paper reported Tuesday that the suit was brought by MK Feeney, a white female homicide prosecutor who says she was fired in 2011, accused of being “untruthful” in the aftermath of a Daily News cover story about turmoil in the the prosecutor’s office. Her suit said that a fellow homicide prosecutor — a black man, and a member of the same fraternity as Williams — later confessed to leaking the info, but was not fired. The city settled the complaint for $190,000, and Williams admitted no wrongdoing.

“In the (Daily News) story, the reporter failed to mention two things,” Williams wrote today. “First, that he was the reporter who received the leaked information in 2011 from the individual profiled and failed to disclose that in his article. Second, that the individual who was not fired was treated differently because he was honest, remorseful and admitted that he conspired with the profiled employee to improperly share expungement information that could harm another assistant district attorney.”

Williams also addressed broader criticisms that have emerged in the wake of his prosecution of black politicians caught in a state sting, and for his light discipline of employees caught up in the so-called “Porngate” scandal.

“I want to make this clear: I treat everyone in my office equally and make decisions based on the merits and facts at my disposal,” he said. “My number one job is to keep all Philadelphians, regardless of gender, race, age or political affiliation, safe from crime, fraud and corruption and I take that role seriously.”