When cops cheat, perps can walk

Put yourself in the jury box.

Wouldn't you want to know if the investigating police officer was himself under investigation for cheating on the certification test that cops must pass to make arrests, carry a gun or write a traffic ticket?

And if he was later stripped of his badge for precisely that reason, might that change the way you'd view his testimony against the defendant?

Exactly.

Defense attorneys are sharpening their knives following last week's announcement that 15 suburban police officers - 14 from Delaware County and one from Chester County - had been permanently decertified as cops for allegedly cheating on a mandatory exam in February 2009.

Joseph Oxman, a Chester-based defense attorney, predicted a torrent of post-trial motions on behalf of Delaware County defendants who were arrested or investigated by one of the now-decertified officers.

"Everyone's going through their files," Oxman said.

Widener Law School professor Wesley Oliver said retrials are possible in cases in which an officer was a crucial witness and the prosecution failed to disclose to the defense that he was a target of the two-year cheating probe.

Even if prosecutors successfully argue that the disclosure wasn't required, a judge could grant a retrial by treating last week's decertifications as "new evidence" that might affect the jury's verdict, Oliver said.

"You kind of like to know if a person who alleges all these things about the defendant really shouldn't be an officer because he lied himself," Oliver said.

Most of the cops, claiming that the evidence against them is thin and the punishment too harsh, are planning to appeal last week's decertification to Commonwealth Court. In the meantime, prosecutors must decide how to proceed with pending cases if they can't put the officers on the stand.

"Credibility is the foundation of our criminal-justice system," Oxman said. "It always comes down to the credibility of witnesses. That's why we have cross-examination. Can you imagine saying to a police officer on the stand, 'Isn't it true that you cheated on your certification exam?' The jury's not going to trust anything the guy says."

The Delaware County District Attorney's Office is "currently examining what effects the decertifications announced last week will have on both past and current cases," spokesman Michael Mattson said yesterday.

"This is a nightmare for them," Oliver said.

The Municipal Police Officers' Education and Training Commission, which administers the Act 180 exams, did not publicly reveal the names of the cops under investigation until they were decertified last week. But several police chiefs knew that their officers were targeted, and the probe was widely known among suburban law-enforcement officials.

Oxman said the D.A.'s office could face hundreds of post-trial motions seeking to dismiss verdicts and guilty pleas over the past two years.

"Do the math," he said. "It's insane."