DiCiacco v. Civil Service Commission

389 A.2d 703, 37 Pa. Commw. 77, 1978 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1229
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 31, 1978
DocketAppeals, Nos. 1726, 1727, 1728 and 1729 C.D. 1976
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 389 A.2d 703 (DiCiacco v. Civil Service Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
DiCiacco v. Civil Service Commission, 389 A.2d 703, 37 Pa. Commw. 77, 1978 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1229 (Pa. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge Mencer,

These appeals have been taken by four policemen from orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County affirming their dismissals by the Civil Service Commission.1 All four had been charged with conduct unbecoming an officer in their handling of cases involving narcotics, and each had been dismissed on the basis of his own statements in response to interrogation by other police officers. Since a statement made by Officer Kieffer was improperly admitted into evidence, we reverse as to him, but affirm [80]*80the dismissal of Officers DiCiacco, Grottwald and Grerace.

The dismissed policemen raise three arguments here: (1) The officers’ statements should not have been admitted without a showing of “corpus delicti,” i.e., without independent proof that the substances with which they came into contact were in fact heroin and that some wrongdoing had occurred, (2) the statements which were made under compulsion of being fired under Section 10-110 of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter (Charter) were inadmissible, and (3) there was no substantial competent evidence in the record to justify their dismissal.

Our scope of review here is limited by Section 8(b) of the Local Agency Law, Act of December 2, 1968, P.L. 1133, 53 P.S. §11308(b). We must affirm the adjudication below unless constitutional rights have been violated, the provisions of the Local Agency Law have not been complied with in the proceeding before the Commission, an error of law has been committed, or the findings of the Commission are not supported by substantial evidence. Richter v. Philadelphia Civil Service Commission, 35 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 310, 387 A.2d 131 (1978); Harrington v. Philadelphia Civil Service Commission, 4 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 580, 287 A.2d 912 (1972).

I. Corpus Delicti

We find the corpus delicti argument to be without merit. By definition, “corpus delicti” means “the body of a crime.” Black’s Law Dictionary 413 (rev. 4th ed. 1968) (emphasis added). Appellants have not offered any noncriminal cases in support of their position, and we therefore decline to impose such a requirement on civil service proceedings.

[81]*81II. Statements Made Under Section 10-110

The question of the admissibility of statements made under the compulsion of the Charter provision poses a more difficult problem. At the time, Section 10-110 provided:

If any officer or employee of the City shall willfully refuse or fail to appear before any court, or before the Council, or any committee thereof, or before any officer, department, board, commission or body authorized to conduct any hearing or inquiry, or having appeared, shall refuse to testify or to answer any question relating to the affairs or government of the City or the conduct of any City officer or employee on the ground that his testimony or answers would tend to incriminate him, or shall refuse to waive immunity from prosecution on account of any matter about which he may be asked to testify before such court or at any such hearing or inquiry, he shall forfeit his office or position, and shall not be eligible thereafter for employment to any position in the City service.

The Commission has argued that this issue has not been properly preserved for review by this Court. As to Officers DiCiacco and Grottwald, we agree. The decisions of the Commission as to these two officers were handed down in November 1972 and “exceptions ” were filed with the lower court in December 1972. Two issues were raised in these “exceptions ’ ’: the corpus delicti question and a substantial-evidence argument. In contrast, the “exceptions” filed with the lower court in February 1973 to the decisions of the Commission dated January 19, 1973 as to Officers Gerace and Kieffer raised three issues: corpus delicti, substantial evidence, and whether the Commission improperly ad[82]*82mitted into evidence their statements in that they were not the product of a voluntary and free will. In the opinions by the Commission and the lower court, the effect of Section 10-110 on the voluntariness of the statements was not discussed.

It is well settled that issues which have not been raised in the lower court are waived and cannot be raised for the first time on appeal. See Pa.R.A.P. 302(a); Commonwealth v. Piper, 458 Pa. 307, 328 A.2d 845 (1974). While the issue has not been preserved as to Officers DiCiacco and Gottwald, as indicated by the “exceptions,” with respect to Officers Gerace and Kieffer we believe the “exceptions” filed in the lower court constituted a sufficient raising of the issue as to them.

The circumstances surrounding the statements by Officer Kieffer are as follows. On August 25,1971, he appeared with his attorney at staff inspector headquarters and was told, “This is an official investigation and under the provisions of the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter, Section 10-110, you are required to cooperate fully and answer all questions.” When asked if he understood, he replied that he did. He proceeded to make a statement in which he admitted retaining some narcotics and on two occasions giving a small quantity of narcotics to another police officer at the other officer’s request. On August 27, 1971, he appeared at headquarters again, was read the warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966),2 [83]*83was again told that he must answer all questions under Section 10-110, and made a supplemental statement. Nothing said in this statement provided the basis .for his discharge. Both statements were admitted into evidence by the Commission.

Our discussion of the admissibility of the statement made on August 25 begins with an examination of two cases dealing with the use of statements made, under a similar provision in a subsequent criminal prosecution. In Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967), the United States Supreme Court reversed the convictions of police officers who had made statements after being warned that, if they refused to answer questions, they would be subject to removal from office under a provision of a New Jersey statute similar to Section 10-110 of the Charter. The Court reasoned that the use of such statements was improper since the officers were given the choice between self-incrimination and job forfeiture, and the Fourteenth Amendment precluded the use of statements made under such duress or coercion in subsequent criminal prosecutions.3 The Garrity decision was specifically recognized and followed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Triplett, 462 Pa. 244, 341 A.2d 62 (1975). In Trip[84]*84lett,

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Bluebook (online)
389 A.2d 703, 37 Pa. Commw. 77, 1978 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1229, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/diciacco-v-civil-service-commission-pacommwct-1978.