Police Officer's Termination Upheld Under "Garrity Rule"
In Homoky v. Ogden (7th Cir. 2016), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently dealt with the "Garrity Rule" which states that incriminating answers given during any examination
of a public employee during an internal investigation of
the employee’s official conduct cannot be used against him in a criminal proceeding.
The Hobart Police Department was investigating official misconduct allegations against Officer Homoky and as part of the investigation, demanded that Homoky submit to a voice stress test. The Department informed Homoky it would not use the results in any criminal proceeding, invoking the Garrity Rule. Homoky refused to take the test, however, and the Department ultimately terminated him. He sued, claiming various due process and other constitutional violations, including a violation of his Fifth Amendment rights.
The Seventh Circuit rejected Homoky's arguments, including his allegation that his termination for refusal to submit to the voice stress test violated his Fifth Amendment right to keep silent. The Court held that a police department may, without violating the
Constitution, compel a police officer to answer incriminating
questions and prohibit him from invoking his Fifth Amendment
right when it warns the officer that it will not use the
information gained in any future criminal prosecution under the Garrity Rule.
Post Authored by Julie Tappendorf
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