Mark McDonald reports for the Philadelphia Daily News. Excerpt:
AFTER AN inconclusive result on his first lie-detector test of the day, City Councilman Frank DiCicco late last night passed a second test, giving weight to his allegation that colleague Rick Mariano made an ethnic slur against Irish-Americans.
Mariano, refusing to submit to a polygraph himself, has steadfastly maintained that he never labeled Irish-American residents in Kensington’s 31st ward as “trailer-park Irish trash.”
A two-term Democrat, Mariano said that he’s half Irish-American and a member of an Irish fraternal organization, and that he would never make such a crack.
But DiCicco’s test results, according to examiners, suggest that his recollection of the meeting during which Mariano allegedly made the comment was accurate and that Mariano, who has put his foot in his mouth on many occasions in the past, made the comment.
DiCicco, who has been warring with Mariano’s patron, Electrician’s Local 98 boss John Dougherty, said that Mariano uttered the comment during a Dec. 20 meeting with him, Mayor Street and Councilman Darrell Clarke.
Wearily emerging from the Locust Street office of Keystone Intelligence Network after the second test, DiCicco said: “It is grueling, but your life and reputation is in the hands of a machine. I know he said it and people can now decide.”
He urged Mariano to take a polygraph to put the issue to rest. But upon hearing that DiCicco passed the test, Mariano reacted testily.
“It doesn’t say I’m lying, because I didn’t take a lie-detector test,” Mariano said. “It says he thinks he’s telling the truth. Make sure that gets in there.”
Nathan Gordon, the polygrapher who tested DiCicco, said flatly, “I think he’s telling the truth.”
Nathan Gordon’s opinion may be right (or wrong), but it has no scientific basis, and the Philadelphia Daily News’ decision to sponsor this polygraph “test” and make a front page story of it is a shameless exercise in yellow journalism.