William Bender

1 week ago | inquirer.com | William Bender

A once-prominent Philadelphia lawyer who represented victims in high-profile sexual abuse cases has been suspended for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a client who was allegedly sexually abused while in the Church of Scientology. Brian Kent, a former sex crimes prosecutor in Montgomery County and cofounder of the since-renamed Center City law firm Laffey, Bucci & Kent, has agreed to a three-year suspension, according to the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

1 week ago | inquirer.com | William Bender

The Lower Merion School District said on Thursday that an unknown number of “highly sensitive” documents were inadvertently published online due to what it described as a security breach involving its school board-management software. The software, BoardDocs, is used by school districts around the country to manage board meetings and post agendas and related information. It is unclear if districts outside Lower Merion have been affected.

2 weeks ago | inquirer.com | William Bender |Ryan Briggs

The Porsche seemed to have materialized overnight, looking so incongruous right there in the middle of a narrow, rocky trail alongside Wissahickon Creek that it might as well have been a downed UFO. The trails of Wissahickon Valley Park are for hikers, runners, bikers, and horses. They are not for drivers of Porsche Panameras, a sports car with a $104,795 starting sticker price and a 5.2-inch ground clearance that’ll make you think twice about certain speed bumps.

3 weeks ago | inquirer.com | William Bender |Rodrigo Torrejon

The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday that its investigators are treating Sunday’s massive house fire in Washington Township as a murder suicide, confirming rumors that had been spreading through the quiet New Jersey neighborhood since Mother’s Day morning. The fire started around 2:03 a.m. Sunday and burned so intensely that neighbors heard an explosion.

3 weeks ago | inquirer.com | William Bender

A SEPTA train struck an end-of-the-line barrier at the Norristown Transportation Center on Sunday morning, leaving at least eight people injured, including one that appeared to be seriously hurt. The Norristown High Speed Line train was pulling into the station at Lafayette and Swede Streets at around 10 a.m. when it “made contact with the bumper at the end of the track,” said SEPTA spokesperson Andrew Busch. One of the eight injured people was airlifted to Temple University Hospital.