We have previously noted that many people in the Philadelphia news media just don’t like Fox 29 News and reporter Steve Keeley. But when I found the story below thanks to a tweet from Fox 29, my natural inclination was to search The Philadelphia Inquirer’s website database for “Herbert Morrison”, I found exactly nothing on his current offense, though I was able to find a story on his prior offense.

Man out on bail for 2021 beating charged for rape of 13-year-old girl

Published July 13, 2023 6:29PM | Crime & Public Safety | FOX 29 Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA – A Philadelphia man is back behind bars after authorities say he raped a teenage girl while he was out on bail for allegedly beating a man two years ago in Queen Village.

The Inquirer’s story on that is dated Sunday, August 22, 2021, and stated that the assault took place the previous Tuesday, the 17^th. The obvious question becomes: why wasn’t Mr Morrison’s case tried or otherwise settled in the 23 months, almost two years, since his (alleged) offense?

Herbert Morrison turned himself in last Friday for the alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl whom investigators say he met on Instagram.

Court documents show the sexual assault happened a month after the pair met while Morrison was out on bail for beating 40-year-old Zach Lean so severely he was in monthlong coma.

“One of them punched him in the head, knocked him to the ground, he hit his head on the curb and started having a seizure,” said his Zach’s wife Christine.

Mr Morrison was not some irresponsible 13-year-old punk, but legally an adult at 19, and the crimes with which he was charged, and the injuries he (allegedly) helped deal out to an innocent victim, were serious. Yet, after he made bail, there is no information in the Fox 29 story, or anywhere else I could find, telling us why Mr Morrison’s case hasn’t been tried yet. Mr Morrison had been charged with a violent crime, yet no one seemed to care that he had been left out on the streets.

Morrison, with the help of the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, posted 10% of his $75k bail which released him back out into the public in August 2021. When reached for comment, the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund shared the following statement:

The mission of the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund is to end cash bail and pretrial detention in our city. Until that day, we post bail for our neighbors who cannot afford to pay. In addition to posting bail, we offer support to those we bail out to help them rebuild their lives and successfully return to court. We also value trauma support for victims and those who cause harm so everyone can heal by providing connections to practitioners of victim support, restorative justice, and counseling. We envision a justice system built around restorative justice practices that support and prioritize victims’ needs while holding those who have caused harm accountable and providing them opportunities to take responsibility for their actions. We do not comment on individual decisions to post bail, and we are unaware of the facts of the current incident involving Mr. Morrison. However, we are troubled that a young person was harmed, and we hope they and their family can find the healing and support they deserve.

Every time I see the phrase “restorative justice,” I know that I bovine feces is about to follow. Holding those who have caused harm accountable is done by putting them in jail!

The Philadelphia Community Bail Fund “hope” that the 13-year-old rape victim and her family “can find the healing and support they deserve”?

“I feel like he killed my daughter, and she’s not the same,” the victim’s mother said. “She has her happy days, but it’s something that won’t leave her, it’s something that will stay with her for the rest of her life.”

The victim has been injured in ways that go far beyond the physical trauma, ways which might stay with her for decades, perhaps for as long as she lives. What “restorative justice” can heal that? Is the victim supposed to sit down with the punk who raped her — that’s supposed to be a part of “restorative justice” — and listen as he makes a (supposedly) heartfelt apology?

Under Pennsylvania Title 18 §3122.1(a), the alleged crime is a second-degree felony. Under Title 30 §923(a)(9), the penalty is “a fine of not less than $5,000 nor more than $25,000, or imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or both.” For the sexual assault of a 13-year-old, that penalty seems insufficient. If it could be upgraded to a first-degree felony, the sentence could be twenty years. With his previous charges, perhaps he could be locked up even longer, which would be great, because let’s tell the truth here: this man person is irredeemable and irretrievably lost.

The Inquirer? The Fox 29 story was dated last Thursday; if the Inky was going to cover it, it would already have been done. If you only got your news from the Inquirer, you’d never have known that Mr Morrison was charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old at all. The professional media in the City of Brotherly Love don’t like Fox 29 News, but at least Fox 29 actually reports the news, and doesn’t try to hide it.

Mr Morrison is, of course, innocent until proven guilty, but if he is proven guilty, the Commonwealth needs to throw the book at him. “Restorative justice”? One can only hope that news that her assailant will be going to jail for a long, long time will help heal the 13-year-old rape victim, but who can know if that will actually happen? But the longer the assailant is behind bars, the safer the people of Philadelphia will be.