Jury to decide fate of ex-officer

After hearing closing arguments Monday in the perjury trial of former Philadelphia Police Officer Steven Lupo, a Common Pleas Court jury is to begin deliberations Tuesday.

Lupo is accused of lying under oath and in official paperwork about a search for drugs during a vehicle stop.

Lupo, 38, testified Monday that he pulled over a car for running a stop sign in East Germantown in 2011, but forgot to report that he opened the trunk.

During the driver's trial in 2011, Lupo initially testified that he had not opened the trunk. But after seeing himself opening it on security camera footage played in court, Lupo said he was wrong.

"My memory is never going to be as good as a video," he said Monday. "I never lied."

Lupo said that while the trunk area smelled strongly of marijuana, he opened it for less than 30 seconds because a supervisor wanted to make sure there wasn't a weapon, bomb, or body inside.

Assistant District Attorney Sybil Scott-Murphy said Lupo intended to omit that part of the stop because it was problematic.

He had a selective memory, she said, forgetting the trunk but remembering other small details. She told jurors Lupo did not come clean until he saw the video.

"The video caught him," Scott-Murphy said.

On the video, Lupo and a supervisor could be seen leaning in and pointing around the open trunk of a white 1998 Buick Regal sedan driven by Amiraria Farsi, 25, hours before a search warrant was obtained.

That day, a shortage of drug-sniffing dogs meant the officers had to wait before legally searching the car for narcotics.

Lupo's attorney, Brian J. McMonagle, said Lupo never touched the trunk until his supervisor arrived. Plus, he said, they popped it open but did not touch anything.

"They closed the trunk and waited for Rin Tin Tin," McMonagle said.

Ultimately, about two pounds of marijuana was recovered from inside the trunk after a police dog picked up the scent.

At the time of Farsi's arrest, it was illegal for police to search a vehicle in Pennsylvania without a warrant or the owner's consent. The case against Farsi was dropped once prosecutors withdrew the charges after a judge ruled the search was illegal.

Based on his contradictory testimony in Farsi's trial, Lupo was dismissed from the police force, and in 2014 prosecutors charged him with perjury and related charges.

215-854-4915@dylancpurcell