July 15–22, 1999

hit and run

The Case of the Cockfighting Cops

Three scandal-tainted police officers who were stripped of their guns and badgesby Police Commissioner John Timoney are now likely to return to patrolling the streets, following a decision by thestate labor board.

Hearing examiner Timothy Tietze ruled recently that the police department is bound by its labor agreement to put theofficers back on patrol, despite Timoney’s objections that the officers, all of whom were involved in a majorcorruption scandal several years ago, would make unreliable trial witnesses.

"If they make an arrest in the future, you’re almost guaranteed to lose the case," says Timoney, whoassigned the three cops to desk jobs last July. "Everything is open to the defense attorneys. They’re going tobring up their truthfulness. With juries, all you’ve got to do is create some doubt." The city is appealingTietze’s decision to the full PennsylvaniaLabor Relations Board, but a reversal there would be very unusual.

Officers Lester Johnson, John O’Hanlon and Edward Greene were fired in 1996 after their arrest for stealing$28,000 from gamblers at an illegal cockfight. A federal jury took less than 15 minutes to acquit them in 1997, andearly last year, a labor arbitrator ordered all three returned to the force with full back pay. When Timoney respondedby withholding their guns and badges and assigning them to desk duty, lawyers for the Fraternal Order of Police appealedto the labor board.

"The arbitrator supposedly reinstated them to their former positions," says Thomas W. Jennings, an FOPlawyer. "That’s what the case clearly meant — to a patrol function with a badge and a gun. Doing what[Timoney] did to them was not in compliance with the arbitrator’s award."

Jennings points out that over the years, dozens of police officers acquitted of serious crimes, including murder andextortion, have had their guns and badges returned to them. "They all got reassigned to patrol districts," hesays. "Some got promoted. Some of them are lieutenants and captains these days. We had an exhibit two-and-a-halfinches thick that listed them all."

Labor arbitration rulings have been a sore point with Timoney since he came here from New York in March of 1998. Herecently complained at a public forum that deployment decisions were being made by "some arbitrator who knowsnothing about running a police department" and concluded that "the system is absolutely out of control."At Timoney’s prompting, the city is expected to seek changes to state labor laws affecting arbitration thisfall.

With the "cockfight cops," however, Timoney had thought he had found a loop-> hole. Clearly doubting the trio’s innocence in the case, Timoney toldPhiladelphia magazine earlier this year that "There’s more than one way to skin a cop.… We’vegot them answering phones, and they’re going crazy."

But Jennings says that if the department has evidence of misconduct against Johnson, O’Hanlon and Greene,Timoney failed to make a convincing case during the arbitration process. He discounts, also, Timoney’s complaintthat local prosecutors have written letters claiming they would be unlikely to try cases in which any of the three werethe arresting officers.

"The argument," says Jennings, "is that if you get falsely accused and you’re acquitted in 11minutes on 20-something counts of corruption, you can no longer be a cop. It’s absurd."

—Noel Weyrich