Tue, Dec 02 2008
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Published July 19, 2008 11:05 pm - Lying officers put court cases at risk Some cases might be dismissed, officials say By Donna Hales and D.E. Smoot Phoenix Staff Writers
Police officers lying, getting fired and then being put back to work by a merit board is a “big problem” for prosecutors and police, said U.S. Attorney Sheldon Sperling. State and federal prosecutors say they can’t use such an officer as a witness in a criminal case, so some important cases might have to be dismissed because the officer’s testimony is deemed unreliable. Merit boards have competing interests with police agencies and prosecutors, Sperling said. A board’s primary interest is not the impact their decision on the officer’s employment might have on pending criminal prosecution based on the officer’s testimony, Sperling said. “Their primary interest is protection of the right of employees,” he said. But police and prosecutors want to protect the validity of prosecutions with evidence that is going to stick, he said. It is a problem in the 26-county U.S. Eastern District of Oklahoma, Sperling said. Recent federal court decisions make it mandatory for prosecutors to turn over to the defense evidence in the personnel files of officers whose credibility is an issue. Such officers won’t be called as witnesses in federal courts, Sperling said. “If a person premeditates and then lies about things of consequence, that is far more than problematic to me,” Sperling said. It puts some prosecutions in jeopardy, according to Sperling and Muskogee County District Attorney Larry Moore. Moore earlier cited to Muskogee Police the holdings in three cases, Brady v. Maryland, Giglio vs United States and United States v. Henthorn that pertain to the problem. Any police officer’s personnel file containing information relating to acts of dishonesty is subject to being discoverable, Moore wrote. A criminal defendant could use it to impeach the officer’s testimony and credibility. The problem is great enough that some states have taken the stance that a police officer who lies should be terminated as a matter of public policy. The state of Washington published such an opinion in September 2007. So, a police officer there who lies has committed a firing offense. 
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