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Williams' Campaign Invited Deputies to Fundraiser

June 5, 2012

"As we may all agree, Seth and all of you have been doing a great job! Your office has modified many things that have helped many people and this is why I decided to reach out to all of you. I have attached the invitation to this email. I know for a fact, Seth would love if you could attend and support his event next week."

Office Responds

District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Tasha Jamerson said that Williams was not available immediately Monday afternoon because he was in meetings. But Jamerson said that "he legitimately did not know this was sent out and he legitimately did not know it was being sent to work addresses and as soon as he learned about it he said it was a mistake and it won't happen again."

Jamerson said that her understanding was that Gonzalez thought it was OK to send the email but that it was done without Williams' awareness.

"We don't want to have anything to appear to be inappropriate," Jamerson said.

McCann wrote to the same group of 34 less than 24 hours later. McCann let them know that Williams had been informed about the invitation from him and that fundraising invitations would not be sent to business email addresses in the future, according to a copy of the email The Legal obtained.

"A couple of things about this," McCann wrote. "First of all, you should feel absolutely no obligation whatsoever to attend this event (I personally will not be attending). The DA just found out from me that this invitation had been sent to all of you, and told me to assure everyone that he will make sure that such invitations are not sent to the office's email addresses in the future. So I would ask that this invitation not be forwarded to anyone else in the office."

Gonzalez said the email was her idea and that no one asked her to do it. She said she hadn't talked to Williams about it. She pointed out that she sent the email from her home computer after work hours.

"I wanted it to be a surprise" and have people from the office show up at the event, she said.

Gonzalez said that she'd attended classes covering the Philadelphia Ethics Board and discovered there was a "misconception" that people in the District Attorney's Office couldn't attend a fundraiser or contribute to Williams' campaign.

When told that several people had said they couldn't ever remember seeing a similar invite sent to assistant district attorneys, Gonzalez replied: "It probably hasn't been done before. I'm a bold person. There isn't anything wrong with letting them know they can attend if they want to."

Gonzalez said no one gave her the email addresses. She said she knew the email system and that everyone's email address was constructed the same and typed them out herself.

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