The parents of slain Pennsylvania teacher Ellen Greenberg shook their heads and exchanged puzzled looks as attorneys squared off at Philadelphia City Hall on Wednesday in the 14-year-old case as they continue to seek justice for their daughter.
Dr. Joshua Greenberg and his wife, Sandra “Sandee” Greenberg, are convinced that the investigation into their daughter’s brutal 2011 stabbing death was botched.
At the hearing Wednesday, the Greenbergs’ attorneys tried to convince a judge to let their case be heard by a jury.
“I’m hoping we’re going to have a trial. I’m hoping we’re going to prove that Ellen did not commit suicide,” Ellen’s father told reporters outside the courtroom.
“That’s what this is all about: Justice for Ellen. We’re not trying to do anything else. Not trying to hurt anyone else. They’re lying. They’ve done a lot of lying throughout this whole thing,” he added.
Attorney Joseph Podraza pointed to what he argued was a deep-rooted conspiracy in the case, alleging that the police department and the medical examiner’s office conspired to change Ellen’s manner of death from homicide to suicide in an attempt to cover up the mishandled investigation.
“I suggest our story raises enough genuine questions of material fact that a jury is going to have to decide,” he told the judge. “It is outrageous what has transpired here. This is intentional infliction of emotional distress. The Greenbergs just want to know what happened to their daughter.”
The 27-year-old woman was found dead by her fiancé Samuel Goldberg on January 26, 2011 in the kitchen of their shared apartment in Manayunk.
She was slumped against the cabinets, her legs splayed out in front of her and had been stabbed at least 20 times, with puzzling wounds to her back, neck and the back of her head. A 10-inch knife was lodged in her chest.
Philadelphia pathologist Marlon Osbourne initially ruled her death a homicide. But police considered her death a suicide and publicly challenged the findings, and her death was reclassified as suicide.
Her parents are seeking to have the determination changed back to homicide or undetermined. But the city has objected, arguing that state law “makes clear that a medical examiner can be wrong as to the manner of death yet cannot be compelled to change it.”
On Wednesday, Podraza presented the family’s arguments in their civil lawsuit against five Philadelphia officials, including the chief medical examiner at the time of the autopsy, detectives on the case, and the city of Philadelphia.
“The police department botched the investigation starting January 26,” Podraza said in court, arguing that the crime scene was left unattended and by the time police returned, there was nothing to work with. The lack of progress ultimately triggered a cover-up, he suggested.
“These premises have been compromised. The evidence has been tampered with,” Podraza said, quoting a report on the probe. “We can’t rule out the presence of a third party when Ellen was killed, when she died.”
The three attorneys for the defendants named in the lawsuit seeking unspecified monetary damages sought to have it tossed as they claimed the officials are protected by immunity. They also argued there is no evidence of a conspiracy or intentional infliction of emotional distress on the Greenbergs. None of the defendants attended the hearing.
After oral arguments and a back-and-forth between the two parties that at times got heated, Philadelphia Judge Michael Erdos granted the request to dismiss the case against Lyndsey Emery, a pathologist who was asked by the chief medical examiner to conduct an examination of a section of Ellen’s spinal column. The judge determined that her actions fell under her “high office immunity.”
Ellen’s parents have been working for over a decade to get their daughter’s case heard in court. Once based in Lower Paxton Township, Pennsylvania, the couple recently moved to Florida, but returned this week for the hearing.
“I’ve never been in a courtroom before,” Sandee said at the hearing. “And I couldn’t believe that we’re talking about my daughter. And I can’t believe all the lies, and I look at these legal people that are defending liars,” she added. “And then they gotta go home and defend their families on their lies. And they can lay their heads on their pillows for [all] that. I find that disgraceful.”
The judge said he will make a decision regarding the four remaining defendants, and whether or not the case could go before a jury, by the end of January.
“I’m glad that the public is getting an opportunity to observe the way things work in this city, the way things go down, the mistakes that were made, the lies that have been told, the wrongs that have not been righted,” Sandee emphasized before she left with her husband to return to Florida.
Having the lawsuit presented before a judge is a win for the Greenbergs just weeks after they hit a setback when the Chester County District Attorney’s Office announced that it would not move forward with any criminal charges in the case.
The DA’s office – which has been looking into the case since 2022 – said that it could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed, and so the investigation has been put into inactive status.
There is no statute of limitations for criminal homicide in Pennsylvania so charges could still be brought down the line.
The Greenbergs are also asking the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court to allow them standing to have their daughter’s death certificate amended from suicide to undetermined.
That case is yet to be heard.
