Nicole Weisensee Egan reports for the Philadelphia Daily News in an article titled, “Discipline chief probed for lying, sources say.” Excerpt:
The Pennsylvania State Police’s disciplinary officer, who has fired troopers for lying in investigations, is himself under internal investigation for lying during an arbitration, sources said.
Capt. Robert “Barry” Titler, 49, who has been the agency’s disciplinary officer since 1999, allegedly lied about knowing the results of a lie-detector test that a trooper took, sources said.
Deputy State Police Commissioner Cynthia Transue and others heard Titler say he knew the trooper failed a lie-detector test and intended to fire him, sources said.
Lie-detector tests are an investigative tool for internal-affairs investigators but are not admissible as evidence, just like in criminal investigations. Internal affairs is not allowed to let the disciplinary officer and the administration know the results of those tests.
Although there was no evidence against the trooper, Titler fired him, sources said.
The trooper filed a grievance to get his job back. During the arbitration hearings, Titler said he did not know the lie-detector results, sources said.
After Transue heard about Titler’s testimony, she filed an internal-affairs complaint against Titler for perjury, sources said. That internal investigation is ongoing, but Titler is still making termination decisions while the probe continues.
In the meantime, Deputy Police Commissioner Rick Brown, who was recently promoted from heading internal affairs, said there will be no criminal investigation of Titler because “it’s not that big of a deal,” one source said.
“Even though in a very similar case, Brown ordered a criminal investigation be done for the exact same violation,” the source said.
What’s even more ironic, the source said, is that Titler helped to write a new field regulation that makes lying during an administrative investigation or a court proceeding punishable with dismissal.