39°
In a statement issued Tuesday, Nov. 29, Krasner said he filed a motion in Common Pleas Court seeking reconsideration of the 11.5-to-23-month sentence handed down to former Philadelphia police officer Eric Ruch earlier this month.
Ruch was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in September for the killing of 25-year-old Dennis Plowden in Germantown in 2017, as Daily Voice has reported.
Ruch's sentence, Krasner said, was a "gross downward departure" from typical voluntary manslaughter sentencing guidelines, and "suggests that a different standard applies to this defendant than other defendants."
“We respectfully request that the Court reconsider its sentence, and sentence the defendant within the state standard guidelines," the DA wrote. "His conduct warranted such a sentence, and it would be the just result."
As Daily Voice previously reported, Ruch was in an unmarked police car on Dec. 27, 2017, when he received a radio call about a moving vehicle that had possibly been involved in a homicide.
Plowden was driving that car, which was eventually pulled over by the police.
"The two unmarked cars along with two marked police vehicles pursued Plowden at high speed until he struck three parked cars, spun around, and finally stopped after striking a pole," DA Krasner said at the time.
"According to evidence presented to a grand jury, Plowden looked dazed on the sidewalk," the DA continued. "He had just stumbled from his car, following a high-speed crash, and appeared to have been trying to obey police commands given by officers at the scene."
Plowden was sitting on the curb with his left hand open and raised upward when Ruch shot him in the head, Krasner has said.
Plowden died the next day at a local hospital, and Ruch was fired months later, according to officials.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Reading and receive free news updates.
