Court Opinion

ID: 9731368
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:43:31.734734+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:17.331988
License: Public Domain

LARSEN, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I agree that the numerous references to the polygraph test that had been administered to the Commonwealth’s principal witness, Richard Edgerton, were prejudicial and so tainted the Commission’s findings pertaining to credibility as to require a new hearing. I, however, disagree that we should simply, generally and without qualification remand this case to the Commission for a new hearing sans reference to the polygraph examination. If any of members of the present Philadelphia Civil Service Commission was a member of the Commission in 1986 which heard and denied Appellant Quigley’s appeal of his dismissal from the Philadelphia Police Department, such member must be disqualified from participating in a new hearing. The taint to the Commission which resulted from the many references to the lie detector test made by the prosecution in the original hearing lingers with those Commission members and will prejudice the appellant in any new hearing before a Commission which includes any of the same members. Those original members heard repeated references to the polygraph examination and the implication that the results were positive. The impact of the references to the polygraph test upon the Commission members is obvious. The Com*205mission, without having the precise results of the test before them, specifically noted in its opinion of September 24, 1986, that the witness Edgerton “was given and passed a lie detector test.” (R.R.-182a).
The prosecutor, by his numerous references to the polygraph examination, polluted the waters of justice. That pollution cannot be obliterated by merely filtering out the contaminant before plunging anew into the same waters. All that is accomplished by such action is the prevention of further and additional contamination from the same source. The original pollution remains unabated.
The majority’s remand to the Philadelphia Civil Service Commission for a new hearing without reference to the polygraph examination could very well place the appellant before one or more of the same Commission members who were apparently influenced by the initial prejudicial references to the test. The fact that the prosecution is precluded from any mention of the polygraph test in the new hearing does not erase the original taint caused by the repeated references to the test at the original hearing. The individual Commission members who listened to those numerous references to the polygraph test and who drew the inference that the witness Edgerton had “passed” the test, cannot forget those references and that inference. The entire proceeding must be cleansed of the pollution and that means that the appellant is entitled to a new hearing before an entirely new tribunal. We must be scrupulous in insuring that every person who is accused of wrongdoing and whose liberty and/or substantial property interests are at risk is afforded a fair trial before a fair and impartial tribunal. The fundamental requirement of due process, which is applicable to adjudicative hearings before administrative tribunals where substantial property rights are at stake, Soja v. Penna. State Police, 500 Pa. 188, 455 A.2d 613 (1982), demands no less.
“The untainted administration of justice is certainly one of the most cherished aspects of our institutions. Its observance is one of our proudest boasts.”
*206Communist Party v. Subversive Activities Control Board, 351 U.S. 115, 124, 76 S.Ct. 663, 668, 100 L.Ed. 1003 (1956).
I would remand this case for a hearing before a hearing tribunal comprised of members who did not participate in or have any connection with the original hearing held in this matter in 1986. If a new hearing before an untainted Commission is not possible at this time, then the charges against the appellant Quigley should be dismissed.