Calvin Howell may be one of the unluckiest men alive.
He’s the grandfather who will live the rest of his days knowing that he left his beloved granddaughter inside his locked car on a scorching August day. Sasha Fogle, 21 months, died in the back seat in suffocating heat.
Then a Philadelphia Municipal Court judge showed mercy. He dropped the charges, believing that Howell had been a doting grandfather, and that he had already been sentenced to a “life of grief.”
But Howell’s relief over legal problems was short-lived. The District Attorney’s Office refiled involuntary manslaughter charges, and on Monday, a Common Pleas Court judge ordered Howell held for trial.
Then came the third dose of distress – this one at the hands of the media.
Howell had the misfortune to be ordered to appear at the Criminal Justice Center while the murder trial of Ira Einhorn was under way. That brought a double dose of media to the justice building – up to 40 local reporters, photographers and television cameramen as well as cable TV’s MSNBC and CNN. Howell happened to emerge from a side door during a recess in the Einhorn trial.
The result?
A full-bore media frenzy that Inquirer reporter Bob Moran described as being like a rugby scrum. A colleague, reporter Jennifer Lin, said it was “an ugly scene.” Howell’s lawyer, Joseph Santaguida, called it “a disgrace.”
“It was obvious he didn’t want to speak to reporters,” his lawyer said.
Jerry Williams, an Inquirer photographer, said Howell, his family and supporters paused before emerging from the building. Someone pushed a handicapped-entrance button, and the glass doors opened. Photographers got a clear shot of the group.
As Howell emerged, his supporters formed a protective, flying wedge. Some threw elbows and shouted, “Leave him alone!”
A shoving match between the supporters and TV cameramen ensued. Some TV reporters got caught up in the scrum. Howell, 54, bolted for his car, which he had asked a relative to pull to a spot across the street. The media encircled the car for a minute or two, until it sped away.
Williams did not follow the pack across the street because he had his photo. But for others, especially TV cameramen with a need for action video, competitive pressure overtook judgment. And in this case, the supporters’ actions exacerbated matters. “It became a contest. No one was backing off on either side,” Williams said.
That statement should make any thinking person pause.
What could Howell possibly have said or done, what insight could he have provided, that would justify a media ambush of microphones, note pads and television cameras held on shoulders like bazookas?
Wouldn’t readers and viewers respect the media more if some restraint were shown?
I asked Santaguida if I could talk to his client about the media’s treatment. “No, he doesn’t want to cause a fuss,” the lawyer said. “He’s a nice guy.”
Howell, a city worker, is an ordinary citizen thrust by catastrophe into the public eye. Last summer, a celebrity, Allen Iverson, had the media camped outside his house 24-7 when a domestic dispute and whispers of a gun spilled into the news. As a reader wrote at the time: “My suspicion is that some media person or organization decided to hang out at the residence, and everyone else went there, too, like sheep.”
It’s pretty easy to see what it would take to stop the herd. Just one television station, joined by this newspaper, to say it’s time to put common decency ahead of concerns about competition.
Who will say, when a high-interest case arises: Let’s choose a pool arrangement over a rugby scrum? Or: Let’s agree to keep a respectful distance so a family doesn’t have to form a protective cordon. I’ll bet viewers and readers would applaud such restraint. And those facing the trials of their lives could focus on the serious problems ahead of them.
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Lillian Swanson is the readers’ advocate. Contact her at 215-854-2206 or lswanson@phillynews.com.
