Date of Offense
Official Statement
Officer Daniel Levitt, formerly of the Philadelphia Police Department, was charged and later reportedly convicted in connection with false statements about a 2021 vehicle search that produced a firearm. The case arose from an April 28, 2021 stop of a van in Northwest Philadelphia involving passenger Tyshon Butts. Prosecutors alleged that Levitt searched the vehicle and backpack without a warrant or lawful basis, recovered a Glock handgun with an extended magazine, and then falsely claimed the firearm was visible because it was protruding from an open bag. The District Attorney’s Office stated that body-worn camera evidence contradicted Levitt’s account.
The alleged perjury occurred on August 5, 2021, during Butts’s preliminary hearing. Levitt testified under oath that he saw the firearm or magazine sticking out of the bag in plain view. Prosecutors asserted that the bag was zipped and that Levitt’s account was used to justify both the search and the firearms arrest. The Commonwealth later withdrew the charges against Butts.
Levitt was arrested on March 17, 2022 and charged with felony perjury, misdemeanor unsworn falsification to authorities, and misdemeanor official oppression. The case was part of a broader Philadelphia Police Internal Affairs review of firearm arrests involving questionable vehicle searches. At the time, Levitt was described as a 12-year veteran, and the department moved to suspend him with intent to dismiss.
The prosecution initially had difficulty keeping the case alive. In June 2022, a Philadelphia Municipal Court judge dismissed the charges; the Commonwealth refiled; and the Court of Common Pleas denied the refile petition. On December 31, 2024, the Pennsylvania Superior Court reversed and remanded, holding that the Commonwealth’s evidence, viewed under the proper preliminary-hearing standard, established a prima facie case for perjury, unsworn falsification, and official oppression. The Superior Court emphasized that the lower court improperly weighed credibility and that the evidence supported an inference that Levitt unzipped the bag and then falsely described the gun as being in plain view.
