The Philadelphia Free Press, January 22, 2020, City Safari
While rummaging through my archive
of old documents, I came across a legal deposition (interview) I did with
attorney Fred Ambrose and a detective associated with his law firm. The date of
the two part interview was February 1, 1999 . The script was published by the Esquire Deposition
Services. The topic: what I saw and knew of the Kimberly Ernest murder of November 2, 1995 , also known as the Center City
21st and Pine Streets, Philadelphia. Decades & decades before the jogger murder.
In 1995, two suspects were arrested for that
murder, Richard Wise and Herbert Haak, both known for their attacks on blacks
and gays in Center City DNA mismatch led to a not guilty verdict in court.
Richard Wise and Herbert Haak then sued the
city for 75 million, causing their lawyer (Ambrose) to charge a Center City Center City
Fred
Ambrose contacted me for information related to Lambert, a tall long haired
habitué of 17th and Pine Streets. I knew Lambert in passing. He
seemed a gentle giant of a guy, soft spoken and intelligent despite a chronic
heroin problem. I’d often run into him while on my way to my apartment at 21st
and Pine.
After being contacted by Ambrose, I received
an impromptu visit from two detectives from the Ambrose firm. Both men were
aware that I had written of my experiences with the jogger case. Not only had I
known Lambert but I had become acquainted with one of Ernest’s boyfriends. The
fact that I lived at 21st and Pine, where Ernest’s body was
discovered in a stairwell, was also an inducement.
Ambrose and his staff dug deeply into what I
had written about the case, especially when they put forth the claim that John
Lambert was the real killer of Ernest.
John Lambert
Ambrose
invited me to his office in Bala Cynwyd where he shared some intimate details
of the case not reported in the press. He also showed me the horrific photograph
of Ernest’s body propped up in the stairwell. I filed my report for a
newsmagazine I was writing for at the time, and thought that was the end of it.
But Ambrose’s detectives wouldn’t stop hanging
around my apartment. One day I found them waiting for me on my stoop. Thinking
I was helping the cause of justice, I invited them inside although once inside they
ceased to behave professionally. “What do you know that you’re not telling us?”
they demanded, their manner turning gruff.
They assumed that because I knew Lambert
that I was somehow intimately connected with him and knew secret details of the
murder. Initially, of course, Ambrose and his staff were polite. They did not
let on that they suspected me of hiding facts.
17th and Pine Street Hustler witness
17th and Pine Street Hustler witness
From
the audio tape, February 1,
1999 :
Ambrose: “Sir, what do you remember about
the morning of November 2nd? Do you remember hearing or seeing or
whatever?
Nickels: “In the wee hours before dawn I
remember being jolted wide awake by some screams in the street, sharp and
piercing screams.”
Ambrose: “Could you make out any of the
words that were being spoken?”
Nickels: “No words, just jolting screams…”
Ambrose: “A combination of male and female
screams?”
Nickels: “It could have been.”
Ambrose: “Kimberly had a checkered sort of
background. She, like all young people I guess, got involved with the drug
scene. Just before her death she was trying to get herself straightened
out. We think that while she was in her
wild phase she encountered John Lambert and people like him who hang out at 17th
and Pine. Kimberly went through a heavy clubbing phase where these people hang
out, some of the shadier bars like Dirty Frank’s and Westbury.”
Nickels: “So you’re accusing Lambert of this
crime?”
Ambrose: “We’re trying to gather evidence for
Municipal Court.”
Ambrose stated that he believed the city would
reopen the case and charge John Lambert with murder. He then asked if John wore
a ponytail and if I ever saw him wearing jogging outfits or hooded shirts.
“Somehow his clothing stood out,” I responded. “Hack and Wise were framed,”
Ambrose offered. “The confessions were either a combination of coercion and
fabrication. “
Ambrose stated that an eyewitness saw
Lambert at 17th and Pine about the time that Ernest was out jogging
shortly before her murder. “We believe that John encountered Earnest at 17th
and continued the encounter, touting her, all the way to 21st and
Pine.” Ambrose then asked me if I ever saw Ernest jog past my apartment at 21st
and Pine. “I saw her from my kitchen window a few times,” I said. “She jogged
in the afternoon. She would jog down to the river on my side of the street and
return on the other side of the street past the same stairwell where her body
would be later found.”
He asked me what kind of clothing she was
wearing when she was jogging. “The first time I saw her she wasn’t wearing much
clothing at all: A black tank top, very form fitting and skimpy.”
“What about her pants?”
“I don’t recall. The top was very low cut
and she had this great head of hair flying every which way.”
Ambrose: “Would her hair normally have
been in one of those things you put on the ponytail?”
“Her hair was down. It was massive. It
was Amazon curls.”
“How tall would you say she was?”
“As tall or taller than I am. I’m
5’11”. Her head phones may have added some height.”
I asked Ambrose if he thought that John
Lambert hid in the stairwell for Ernest to pass so he could attack her.
“The stairwell where the body was found
was really the only hiding place on that block.”
We then spoke about Lambert’s father,
a partner in the firm of Duane, Morris & Heckscher. I asked Ambrose if he
thought that Lambert’s father was trying to thwart his investigation of his
son. Ambrose said no. Ambrose returned to the eyewitness, a male street
prostitute, who says he saw Ernest with Lambert and that the two of them got
into an altercation, after which certain things happened.
While Ambrose was in pursuit of me, John
Lambert was in custody for unrelated charges. Ambrose told me that he visited
John in jail. “He has the good sense to listen to his lawyers and not say
anything,” he said. “I think the fact that she was sexually molested by her
attacker is a given fact but the DNA did not match Haak and Wise.” (According to a City Paper article after John Lambert’s death in jail of an
overdose, Lambert’s DNA was also a mismatch). While Lambert was alive,
Ambrose was unable to get his DNA . “I’ve
spoken to his father and his mother as well but absolutely nothing.”
Ambrose was quick to point out that John
Lambert once beat his sister so badly that she had permanent brain damage. The
assumption was that if he could beat his sister, he could beat Kimberly Ernest.
When I couldn’t give Ambrose any more
information, he charged me with withholding crucial evidence.
I felt as if I was being charged with being
an accessory to a murder. It was an odd feeling. “I wish I knew more,” I said,
“but I don’t.”
The detectives turned so hostile I had to
ask them to leave the apartment.
Ambrose’s case went up in smoke after John
Lambert died in jail. Yet not long after John’s death I received a call from his
attorney father. The father said he was embarking on his own legal battle, the defense
of his son’s name, and asked if I would testify in court. I said I would. We had several meetings prior to the court
date.
Under the senior Lambert’s direction, Ambrose’s
absurd claim that John Lambert was a murderer was crashed like recyclable perishables.
The able patrician attorney thanked me profusely.
Little did I realize that one year later I
would need the attorney’s help when two Philly bike cops sued me for describing
them too accurately in a story about police harassment.
The elder Lambert squashed the bike cops’
case as if he had stomped out bugs crawling on an Ambrosia carpet.
Thom Nickels
Contributing Editor
