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Official: Ex-officer’s cases not damaged by 1 instance of lying
By jeanne starmack
hermitage, pa.
A police officer who resigned after admitting he lied in court caused a review of 340 of his criminal cases, the Mercer County district attorney said Tuesday.
The police department and the district attorney’s office determined that none of those cases was compromised, District Attorney Robert Kochems said. No criminal charges will be filed against the former officer, Dennis Best.
Best, who was with the Hermitage Police Department for seven years before resigning in September, told Police Chief Patrick McElhinny that he lied under oath in a 2008 criminal case, Kochems said.
The case began in February 2008 with the arrest of a man who was driving drunk, McElhinny said Tuesday.
McElhinny and Kochems would not release that man’s name. He was convicted, they said.
McElhinny said Best’s lie on the stand was a minor statement that in retrospect did not affect the outcome of that case.
McElhinny said Best tracked a reckless driver to his home and arrested him there after the man admitted he had been drinking.
But in his report, Best indicated he touched the tailpipe of the man’s car after he arrested him. On the stand, he said he touched it on the way to the man’s door.
“The officer felt it was important to support probable cause,” McElhinny said.
In actuality, it made no difference, McElhinny said. The judge even noted the inconsistency between the report and the testimony and based his decision on other facts, he added.
“But the officer knew it was untruthful,” McElhinny said, and that weighed on his conscience.
He said Best came forward knowing he might never work in law enforcement again. His testimony in future court cases would be suspect, he said.
“This was a young officer,” McElhinny said. “I feel bad this happened.”