A Cozen O’Connor partner who sits on the Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention and an Evergreen Settlements co-founder who sits on the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy Board of Trustees just posed for a public photo handing a “Lifetime Achievement” plaque to Whitpain Police Chief Ken “Lawless” Lawson — a man named in four federal civil rights lawsuits, tied to two secret taxpayer-funded settlements (including one with himself), and allegedly linked to a Reddit sex scandal. You honestly cannot script this any better.
After years of relentless exposure by CrookedWhitpain.com, multiple federal civil rights lawsuits, an unresolved death in a township park, unsolved crimes against Black families, and two confidential settlements with police employees straight out of the Board of Supervisors minutes — Whitpain Township somehow managed to find two senior professionals willing to publicly pose with Ken “Lawless” Lawson and present him with a “Lifetime Achievement” award.
No independent investigation. No release of the settlement amounts. No acknowledgment of the victims. Just a plaque, a photo-op, and two institutional résumés quietly attached to a police chief whose tenure reads like a civil rights casebook.
The photo shows three people:
- Sean P. O’Donnell — Partner at Cozen O’Connor
- Ken “Lawless” Lawson — Whitpain Police Chief (holding the plaque)
- Brendan K. Flatow — Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Evergreen Settlements
Not anonymous volunteers. Not random residents. Senior professionals with real institutional weight — and a whole web of other hats they wear. And they chose to publicly celebrate Lawson right now, with everything the public already knows sitting on the record.
🧾 Who Exactly Are These Two?
Before we get to the Lawson lawsuits, let’s lay out who was willing to publicly put their institutional credibility behind that plaque.
Sean P. O’Donnell. According to Cozen O’Connor’s own attorney bio page, Sean’s affiliations include:
- Whitpain Recreation Association (WRA) — Board of Directors
- Philadelphia Bar Association — including Chairman, Committee on Insurance Practice
- Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention — Investigator
- Senior Law Center — Firm Liaison, Contractor Fraud Group
Read that list again. This is a man whose formal role includes investigating judicial selection and sitting on the Contractor Fraud Group liaison seat at the Senior Law Center — i.e., a person whose professional identity is literally built around vetting integrity in public institutions. And he’s the one handing a police chief a plaque.
Brendan K. Flatow. Per Springside Chestnut Hill Academy’s own Board announcement and Evergreen Settlements’ team page, Brendan’s affiliations include:
- Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Evergreen Settlements (Blue Bell, PA — life-settlement / secondary-market insurance industry)
- Board of Trustees, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy (SCH) — newly seated trustee
- Chestnut Hill Academy (CHA) Alumni Association Executive Board — 20+ years
- Former President, CHA Alumni Association
- Reunion Chair, CHA
- Chair, CHA Athletic Hall of Fame Committee
- CHA Class of ’94, SCH parent (P’25, P’26)
So: a licensed securities professional, a private-school trustee, a man who built his career in the regulated insurance secondary market — voluntarily attaching his name and Evergreen’s brand to Ken Lawson in 2026.
⚖️ What They’re Standing Next To
This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Lawson’s tenure is tied to a stack of public allegations, federal filings, and unresolved cases:
- Testa v. Whitpain Township (E.D. Pa. No. 2:25-cv-00521): Federal civil rights lawsuit involving a mixed-race couple whose home invasion on September 19, 2024 resulted in approximately $29,000 in losses. Suspects identified. Video evidence exists. Still unresolved.
- Nero v. Whitpain Township: Lawsuit tied to the arrest of a handicapped child and his father.
- Jamil Van v. Whitpain Township: Federal lawsuit from a Black officer alleging discrimination, retaliation, and a hostile work environment.
- Riccobini v. Whitpain Township: Allegations involving discriminatory enforcement practices.
- Detective Sgt. Thomas “Pay to Play” Wittig III (quietly pushed out in 2026):
- Named in a federal case
- Received a taxpayer-funded settlement
- Terms sealed as “confidential” with no public explanation
- A second sealed matter tied to the Jamil Van case — outcomes and details still opaque to the public
- The death of Donté Perez Jones, a 35-year-old Black U.S. Army veteran found hanging in Wentz Run Park on June 17, 2022:
- Ruled a suicide within hours
- Wallet missing
- Cameras reportedly not working
- Occurred steps from the police department
- Serious questions remain
- Reddit scandal allegations: While serving as Chair of the Montgomery County Police Chiefs Association, Lawson was allegedly linked to inappropriate online conduct.
📸 The Optics
Strip everything else away and look at this clearly.
A Cozen O’Connor partner — who also sits on the Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention and chairs the Philadelphia Bar’s Committee on Insurance Practice — and an Evergreen Settlements co-founder — who also sits on the Board of Trustees at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy and has spent 20+ years in CHA alumni leadership…
…are standing publicly with a police chief whose department is tied to:
- Multiple federal civil rights lawsuits
- Sealed taxpayer-funded settlements
- Allegations of discrimination and misconduct
- An unresolved death in a township park
…and presenting him with a “Lifetime Achievement” award.
👤 Why This Matters
These aren’t low-level figures, and they don’t each represent just one firm.
Cozen O’Connor is a major law firm with deep ties to insurance defense and institutional clients — and O’Donnell personally carries credentials tied to judicial vetting and fraud oversight.
Evergreen Settlements operates in high-value financial and life-settlement markets — and Flatow personally carries Series 7/63 licensing and a private-school trusteeship.
These are professionals who understand:
- Liability
- Optics
- Public exposure
- Regulatory risk
- Fiduciary duty
And they still made a deliberate decision to attach their names — and every one of the institutions listed below — to this moment:
- The Philadelphia Bar Association
- The Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention
- The Senior Law Center
- The Whitpain Recreation Association
- Springside Chestnut Hill Academy’s Board of Trustees
- The CHA Alumni Association
- Every non-profit board seat Flatow currently holds
Each of those organizations has a reputational stake in who their board members publicly endorse.
🏛️ The Questions That Follow
If this is the public posture, then the unanswered issues don’t go away:
- What exactly was paid in the Wittig settlement?
- What are the true outcomes tied to the Jamil Van case?
- Why is the Testa home invasion report still being withheld?
- Why was the Donté Perez Jones case closed so quickly?
- Does the Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention know one of its investigators just handed a lifetime achievement award to a chief named in four federal civil rights lawsuits?
- Does the SCH Board of Trustees know one of its newest trustees just did the same?
- Does the Philadelphia Bar Association know one of its Insurance Practice chairs just lent his public credibility to Lawson?
- Do the clients of Cozen O’Connor and Evergreen Settlements know?
🧠 Bottom Line
This isn’t just a photo. It’s a signal.
It shows exactly who — and which institutions by extension — are willing to publicly stand with this leadership, even with:
- 4 federal civil rights lawsuits
- 2 sealed taxpayer-funded settlements tied to police conduct
- 1 unresolved death of a Black Army veteran steps from the police department
- Ongoing transparency failures at every level of Whitpain Township government
And that signal reaches every board, every committee, every firm, and every academy those two men represent.
The people of Whitpain Township have every right to ask: what, exactly, was being celebrated?
Because from where we’re standing — and from where the plaintiffs in Testa, Nero, Van, and Riccobini are standing, and from where the family of Donté Perez Jones is still standing — this doesn’t look like an achievement.
It looks like a cover-up in a nicer frame.
We’re not stopping until every crooked corner is exposed.
By the Crooked Whitpain Team
2,000,000+ Views and Growing
Whitpain Township, PA — Where Transparency Goes to Die
Previous must-reads:
- Detective Tom “Pay to Play” Wittig Defends Himself on Social Media
- Lawsuit Testa vs. Whitpain Township: A Call for Justice
- The Unsolved Robbery That Broke Whitpain Township
- Jamil Van Discrimination Lawsuit
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