A former prosecutor filed defamation lawsuit against NYU and an ex-official in Philly DA’s office over ‘prosecutorial misconduct’ claims
Beth McCaffery's lawsuit says she was defamed as the District Attorney’s Office obtained the exoneration of a man convicted of murder in 2009.
The former chief of the Conviction Integrity Unit in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office defamed an ex-prosecutor in the process of obtaining the exoneration of a Philadelphia man convicted of murder in 2009, according to a new lawsuit.
The former chief, Patricia Cummings, then contributed to a New York University report on prosecutorial misconduct that further amplified those claims, says the suit, which was filed last week in Bucks County and has since been moved to federal court.
Beth McCaffery, who worked as an assistant district attorney from 2001 to 2014 and prosecuted Dontia Patterson for a 2007 fatal shooting, says in the complaint that Cummings tarnished her reputation by accusing her of malicious prosecution.
As judges have criticized Cummings and the unit for lack of candor, NYU should have taken steps to verify her claims before including McCaffery’s name in a 2024 report, according to the lawsuit, which lists Cummings and the university as defendants.
“Beth had built her career on ethical prosecution and unwavering dedication to justice,” the complaint says. “The idea that her name would forever be associated with ‘egregious prosecutorial misconduct’ was unimaginable.”
The District Attorney’s office, which is not a party to the lawsuit, declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for NYU.
John Summers, a Hangley Aronchick attorney representing Cummings, said in a statement that the former integrity unit chief “will vigorously defend herself.”
“During her tenure, Ms. Cummings and her colleagues did enormously important work to review the integrity of prior convictions obtained by the Office,” Summers said. “Ms. Cummings and the Unit have been recognized as national leaders in that work.”
McCaffery is represented by the Bochetto and Lentz law firm.
The defamation lawsuit is the latest turn in the unusual legal fallout from a seven-year old exoneration.
The exoneration
When District Attorney Larry Krasner took office in 2018, he promised to bolster the unit that reviews past convictions. He hired Cummings, who held a similar post in Dallas, to lead the effort.
Patterson, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2009 and received a life sentence, was the unit’s first exoneration under Krasner.
McCaffery prosecuted Patterson in a trial that resulted in a hung jury. Another prosecutor retried the case and obtained a guilty verdict.
In a 2018 motion advocating that a judge drop the charges against Patterson, the District Attorney’s Office said the guilty verdict was the result of “an egregious example of police and prosecutorial misconduct.” The motion, which the lawsuit says was written by Cummings, accused two former prosecutors of hiding information from Patterson’s attorney, and acting in bad faith.
Patterson stepped out of prison a free man in 2018.
In 2024, a criminal law center at NYU published a 180-page report about “prosecutorial misconduct” in the office, mentioning the Patterson case, and naming McCaffery.
The report’s acknowledgments thank Cummings, who is affiliated with the university as a research scholar, for “assistance with research and in drafting,” the lawsuit notes.
The lawsuit
McCaffery maintains in the lawsuit that the allegations made in the motion to drop the charges against Patterson and the NYU report are false.
In an attempt to clear her name after the 2018 motion, McCaffery sought to obtain district attorney’s office records from the case, sparking a yearslong legal dispute with Krasner‘s office that resulted in a judge admonishing and sanctioning the office in March.
In addition, the lawsuit takes issue with how Cummings conducted the investigation into Patterson‘s conviction and says NYU did not take steps to adequately verify the information in the report.
McCaffery wasn’t interviewed for either purpose.
NYU allowed Cummings “to participate in drafting and publishing a scathing and demonstrably false report that defamed Beth,” the lawsuit says.