In re Waterman

• Decision Date: 30 November 2006
• Docket Number: No. 2005–592.,2005–592.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court
• Parties: Appeal of Tracy WATERMAN (New Hampshire Personnel Appeals Board).

154 N.H. 437

910 A.2d 1175

Appeal of Tracy WATERMAN (New Hampshire Personnel Appeals Board).

No. 2005–592.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

Argued: Oct. 11, 2006.

Opinion Issued: Nov. 30, 2006.

Donchess & Notinger, P.C., of Nashua (James W. Donchess on the brief and orally), for the petitioner.

Kelly A. Ayotte, attorney general (Nancy J. Smith, senior assistant attorney general, on the brief and orally), for the respondent.

DALIANIS, J.

The petitioner, Tracy Waterman, appeals a decision of the New Hampshire Personnel Appeals Board (PAB) affirming her dismissal by the respondent, the New Hampshire Department of Safety, Division of State Police (Division), from her employment as a state trooper for willful insubordination because she refused to take a polygraph test. N.H. Admin. Rules , Per 1001.08(a)9. We affirm.

The PAB found or the record reflects the following facts. On August 29, 2003, Vicky Lamere, the wife of a state trooper, informed one of the petitioner's supervisors, Lieutenant Nedeau, that the petitioner had made threats against her supervisors. Lamere said that the petitioner had said that she did not know how she might react or what she might do if Nedeau or her other supervisor, Sergeant McCormack, yelled at her. The petitioner told Lamere that she would "like to put a bullet in Lieutenant Nedeau's head" and "deck Sergeant McCormack."

The Division began an internal investigation of these allegations on September 3, 2003. Investigators interviewed several witnesses, including Lamere and the petitioner, who denied making any threats. The investigators found Lamere to be more credible than the petitioner, and, therefore, they recommended that the petitioner be ordered to submit to a polygraph examination. Colonel Gary Sloper, the Division director, authorized the investigators to conduct a polygraph test of the petitioner on September 15, 2003.

The petitioner arrived for the polygraph examination with her attorney and advised that she would not take the test. The investigating officer explained that her refusal could mean that she violated an order from Colonel Sloper and that she could receive discipline for this, up to and including dismissal. The petitioner indicated that she understood and still would not take the test.

In a September 18, 2003 memorandum, Colonel Sloper notified the petitioner of his intent to dismiss her from her employment as a state trooper because of willful insubordination for failing to take the polygraph examination as he had ordered. Colonel Sloper met with the petitioner and her attorney on September 22, 2003; her employment was terminated that day.

The petitioner appealed her termination to the PAB. The petitioner acknowledged that the Division's professional conduct standards authorized the use of polygraph examinations during internal investigations. Specifically, section 26–E.5.1 of those standards provides, in pertinent part:

During the course of internal affairs investigations, if conditions are such that certain investigatory procedures are appropriate, Division members may be compelled to provide specialized information or submit to testing or examinations. These procedures shall be specifically directed and narrowly related to the matter under investigation.... Examples of special investigative procedures which may be compelled during the course of an administrative internal affairs investigation include ... polygraph examinations.

She further acknowledged that Colonel Sloper had ordered her to take a polygraph test and that she had refused. She also admitted that she was advised in the presence of counsel that her refusal to comply with Colonel Sloper's order could result in disciplinary action, which could include dismissal.

The petitioner urged the PAB to rule that her termination for refusing to take the polygraph test was unlawful because the test is unreliable and degrading and its results are inadmissible in court. She also argued that the order that she submit to the polygraph test was retaliatory. The PAB disagreed and upheld her termination. The petitioner filed a motion for rehearing, which the PAB denied.

This is an appeal from a final decision of the PAB pursuant to RSA 21–I:58, II (2000), RSA 541:6 (1997) and Supreme Court Rule 10. The petitioner has the burden of demonstrating that the PAB's decision was clearly unreasonable or unlawful. RSA 541:13 (1997). The PAB's findings of fact are deemed to be prima facie lawful and reasonable. Id. We will affirm the decision unless we are satisfied, by a clear preponderance of the evidence before us, that it is unjust or unreasonable. See RSA 541:13 ; Appeal of Armaganian, 147 N.H. 158, 162, 784 A.2d 1185 (2001).

Under Section 1.3.4 of the Division's professional standards of conduct, an employee is willfully insubordinate when he or she "deliberately and/or intentionally disobeys a lawful order." The petitioner contends that, contrary to the PAB's finding, she did not engage in willful insubordination because the order that she take the polygraph test was unlawful. The petitioner argues that the order was unlawful because: (1) it involved a polygraph test, which she contends is unreliable, unfair and degrading; and (2) the order was motivated by retaliation.

I

We first address whether the order was unlawful because it involved taking a polygraph test. Whether a police officer may be terminated for failing to take a polygraph test is an issue of first impression in New Hampshire. We therefore look to other jurisdictions for guidance. See Stateline Steel Erectors v. Shields, 150 N.H. 332, 334, 837 A.2d 285 (2003).

" [C]ourts have generally held that a public employer can require a policeman to submit to a polygraph test as part of an investigation of his conduct." D. Nagle, The Polygraph in the Workplace, 18 U. Rich. L.Rev. 43, 68 (1983) ; see also Annotation, Refusal to Submit to Polygraph Test, 15 A.L.R.4th 1207, 1209–18 (1982). "Courts have concluded that, since a police officer must be above suspicion of violation of the laws that he is sworn to enforce ... and must perform his duty to investigate crime and maintain the public trust, questions concerning the propriety of his conduct must be resolved promptly." Nagle, supra at 68. "In furtherance of this objective, polygraph tests can be administered, and an officer's refusal to submit to such an examination can result in his dismissal." Id.

Thus, in Eshelman v. Blubaum, 114 Ariz. 376, 560 P.2d 1283, 1285 (1977), for instance, the court reasoned, "[T]he compulsory use of the polygraph during departmental investigations is consistent with the maintenance of a police or sheriff's department that is of the highest integrity and beyond suspicion." Therefore, the court ruled that a police officer may be ordered to submit to a polygraph test upon penalty of dismissal provided that there are reasonable grounds for demanding such a test, the answers are not used in any subsequent criminal prosecution, and the questions relate specifically and narrowly to the performance of the police officer's official duties. Eshelman, 560 P.2d at 1285–86; see also Roux v. New Orleans Police Department, 223 So.2d 905, 912 (La.Ct.App.1969) ("While appellant's refusal to obey the order is not evidence of guilt or of knowledge of the identity of the guilty party, he may not be permitted to refuse to take the polygraph test in view of his sworn duty to cooperate in the investigation of crime."), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 1008, 90 S.Ct. 1236, 25 L.Ed.2d 421 (1970).

While numerous courts, including this court, have ruled that polygraph test results are inadmissible as evidence of guilt or innocence in criminal trials, see State v. Ober, 126 N.H. 471, 471–72, 493 A.2d 493 (1985), courts have found that the unreliability of polygraph test results for these purposes does not negate their utility for other purposes. In City of Warrensville Heights v. Jennings, 58 Ohio St.3d 206, 569 N.E.2d 489, 492 (1991), for instance, the court observed that polygraph tests "can be a useful tool in internal department investigations of police misconduct." At issue in Jennings was whether a police dispatcher's refusal to obey an order to take a polygraph constituted "just cause" for his dismissal, thus, making him ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits. Jennings, 569 N.E.2d at 491. The court ruled that because polygraph test results are reliable enough for some purposes, there was just cause for the dispatcher's termination because he refused to take a polygraph after being ordered to do so. Id. at 492; see also Fichera v. State Personnel Board, 217 Cal.App.2d 613, 32 Cal.Rptr. 159, 164 (1963) (observing in case involving investigation of officer misconduct, that a polygraph test "might have proved useful in limiting and channeling the investigation in this case"). But see Farmer v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 427 So.2d 187, 190 (Fla.) ("[T]he possible investigative benefit of building a case upon the foundation of the results of a polygraph examination is too thin a reed to support a denial of a police officer's right to be subjected only to lawful and reasonable orders."), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 816, 104 S.Ct. 74, 78 L.Ed.2d 86 (1983) ; Kaske v. City of Rockford, 96 Ill.2d 298, 70 Ill.Dec. 841, 450 N.E.2d 314, 320 (1983) (recognizing that "a polygraph examination is ... of some investigatory utility and value," but concluding that refusing to submit to polygraph test cannot be basis for disciplinary action against officer; to hold otherwise would be "inconsistent" with court's ruling that such test results are inadmissible in administrative hearings), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 960, 104 S.Ct. 391, 78 L.Ed.2d 335 (1983).

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