Lying in court undermines system

Lying in court undermines system

I write to comment on a Nov. 9 article about Officer Dennis Best, the Hermitage police officer who admitted to lying under oath in 2008.

While he chose to resign, Officer Best’s perjury has no legal consequence to him, because Mercer County District Attorney Robert Kochems decided not to prosecute Officer Best for lying to the court to obtain a conviction in a DUI case as it was deemed a “minor” lie. Reportedly, Hermitage Chief of Police Patrick McElhinny and District Attorney Kochems have “reviewed” 340 cases in which Officer Best was involved and “have determined that none of those cases was compromised.” But the chief and the district attorney are missing the point.

The integrity of the system, not the individuals within it, should be the overriding concern here. No one should get a free pass or a slap on the wrist when they lie to the court, whether that lie be “minor” or “major,” whether they be a suspect, a witness or a police officer. The truth must be told regardless of the consequences. When the truth is sacrificed for a desired outcome, swift and firm punishment should follow, sending a message to all that such contempt will not be tolerated — it will be punished regardless of the offender.

We, as citizens, must have confidence in the judicial system. A key tenet of our criminal justice system is that it is better that 10 guilty men go free than to convict a single innocent man. It is one of the reasons for the probable cause requirement in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Law enforcement officials are charged with protecting the Constitution, which was designed to protect us, the citizens. In holding these positions of trust, law enforcement should be held to the highest standards of truthfulness and honor. If we allow them to embellish or, even worse, fabricate facts to establish probable cause for a search or arrest or if we allow such misdeeds to go unpunished, we erode the integrity of the system that is designed to protect innocent people from over-reaching by law enforcement, and society as a whole suffers.

Unfortunately, the justice system has taken a blow in how the district attorney’s office and the Hermitage Police Department have handled the Officer Best situation. Instead of sending the message that they will not tolerate such disrespect for the system, they are telling us that they are willing to sacrific the integrity of the system to protect and defend one of their own. This, in my opinion, is an even greater transgression than the one perpetrated by Officer Best, and this transgression should be swiftly rectified, as well.

Stacy R. Delgros, Esq., Hermitage, Pa.