Philadelphia Inquirer on Defendant Turned Prosecutor
By Jamie Bence
On July 4, the Philadelphia Inquirer featured a story about Kevin Harden Jr., whose path from teenage criminal to Philadelphia prosecutor in just 7 years has as many twists and turns as one might expect:
Harden is a rarity among city prosecutors – someone who lived both sides of the law, went straight, and now prosecutes people for doing the kinds of things he once did.
That it turned out this way is something Harden credits to coincidence, key interventions by outsiders, and getting shot.
It’s a past – seven arrests, including four for drugs – that Harden does not advertise but also does not hide.
It also has made for a sometimes rough seven months at the prosecutor’s office.
In several articles about what it has called “turmoil” in the District Attorney’s Office, the Philadelphia Daily News has quoted unnamed insider sources referring to Harden as one of several “questionable hires” by Seth Williams since his election in 2009.
It’s a tag Williams derides.
Williams called Harden well-qualified and his life story “amazing.”
“Everyone in government is talking about how we need to give people second chances,” Williams said. “I’d be pretty disingenuous if I didn’t stand for that proposition myself.”
As a law student at Temple University, Harden became active in youth antiviolence activism, drawing from his earlier mistakes. The turning point in his former life, he says, came when he was shot 5 times while visiting his brother at a community event:
Harden said he realized that he was shot – no one was arrested – not because of what he did but because of what neighborhood folks assumed he still was: a drug dealer.
“It wasn’t everybody else,” Harden said. “It’s your ability to do what’s right. There’s a line that has to be walked.”
Except for a 2007 arrest after an auto accident in Kutztown, where he was studying criminal justice at the university – he pleaded guilty to not having insurance and paid for damage to the other car – Harden has walked that line since.
To read the full story, click here.
