U. ordered to reinstate fired police officer

Characterizing police testimony as "hearsay" and stressing the weak evidence offered against him, an independent arbitrator cleared a University Police officer of charges that he beat a homeless man behind the Civic Center, ordering the University to rehire him with full back pay and lost benefits. The arbitrator, Stanley Schwartz, added that "the University did not have just cause to terminate" Officer Antonio Serrano in October 1995. Schwartz handed down the decision in November after hearing arguments from both sides during the summer. University Police dismissed Serrano for allegedly transporting a homeless man, Arthur Glover, from the 7-Eleven store at 38th and Chestnut streets to the Civic Center and -- with former Officer Thomas McDade -- beating the man in September 1995. Serrano and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 113 immediately filed a grievance protesting the discharge. "The decision speaks for itself," said Dianne Sheppard, attorney for the FOP. "There wasn't any evidence to support the allegations." Public Safety Managing Director Thomas Seamon said his department has complied with Schwartz's orders but declined comment on the case, calling it "an internal personnel matter." University attorney Mary Kohart also declined to comment on the ruling, as did FOP Lodge 113 President Hugh McBreen. McDade is currently involved in a separate arbitration hearing over the same case, and a decision on reinstating him should be reached within two months, Sheppard said. After the alleged beating, Philadelphia Police investigated the incident and presented the case to the District Attorney's Office, which cited lack of evidence in its decision not to press charges against Serrano and McDade. But then-University Police Chief George Clisby re-examined the case and opted to fire Serrano. "The burden of proof in discipline cases is traditionally the employer's," Schwartz wrote. Schwartz noted that the University hurt its case by not asking Glover to testify after maintaining that he could not be found. Additionally, Clisby never personally interviewed Glover, and the University presented largely circumstantial evidence in support of its decision to fire Serrano, he said. Although both sides agreed that Glover had been assaulted, no witnesses to the incident were found, and Glover's fingerprints were not on the police van in which he claimed to have been transported. And despite the fact that police found a black baseball cap belonging to Glover behind the Civic Center, Schwartz said this only proved Glover had been to the facility that evening. Furthermore, Glover's inability to identify Serrano from a group of photographs, along with testimony from 7-Eleven employees and Civic Center security guards who said they had not seen the University Police van, also detracted from the University's arguments. Near the end of the decision, Schwartz asked whether the evidence "is persuasive enough to end the career and besmirch the reputation of an otherwise satisfactory employee."