Keystone Intelligence Network, Inc.
POLYGRAPH SAYS DICICCO TOLD TRUTH
COUNCILMAN CLAIMED MARIANO SLURRED KENSINGTON IRISH-AMERICANS
By MARK McDONALD
Wed, Feb. 20, 2002
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/2707267.htmmcdonam@phillynews.com
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."
In the almost hour-long second session, Gordon gave DiCicco three sets of questions, each of which contained three differently worded questions about the comments allegedly made by Mariano.
Using a scoring system developed by Johns Hopkins University, Gordon said DiCicco's responses were truthful at a 93 percent probability. Another system scored DiCicco at 98 percent accurate, and Gordon's own system had him at 90 percent likely to be telling the truth.
Gordon said that DiCicco had been affected at the early-afternoon session by the media circus that awaited his arrival at the firm's offices. He said DiCicco registered his worst score in his initial responses but improved each time after that.
Asked whether it was possible that DiCicco could have misheard Mariano but truthfully believe he heard a slur, Gordon said: "That is absolutely possible. You are dealing only with his perception."
DiCicco rejected that scenario.
"I wouldn't subject myself to this knowing that there was that possibility" that he could have misheard the comment.
After testing thousands of people over the years, Gordon said his gut tells him that DiCicco is telling the truth. "All I can tell you is that when he says he heard it, he believes it," he said.
Gordon, who heads the Keystone Intelligence Network, said that in the first examination, DiCicco might have been buffaloed by the intense media presence. There's also the difficulty in gauging the truthfulness of someone who inhabits the slippery world of politics.
"All the hype we had this morning, I don't know if that psyched him," Gordon said.
He then suggested that DiCicco submit to a retest, and the South Philadelphia Democrat and ally of state Sen. Vincent Fumo readily agreed.
The $600 cost of the test was paid by the Daily News. Gordon did the retest for free.
In the first test, DiCicco had four runs that included three specific questions in each run about his allegation against Mariano.
"What I'm seeing overall is an inconclusive result with a slight lean toward deception," Gordon said after the first test. "But the trend was toward truthful, suggesting that he was telling the truth."
In Gordon's system, a minus 18 score or more suggests deception. A score of plus 18 or more, truthfulness. DiCicco initially scored a minus seven, then minus four and minus one before scoring eight in the last so-called "chart."
Gordon said that in less than 10 percent of polygraph tests, the results fall in the inconclusive range between minus 18 and plus 18.
Retests, he said, almost always resolve the issue. The test-taker is calm and knows what to expect, and the issues usually sort themselves out.
"It would be very rare to come up with a second inconclusive test," he said.
Apparently vindicated in the dispute, DiCicco said Mariano should direct $5,000 to a proposed Irish memorial statue that will be raised at Front and Chestnut streets.
DiCicco said he loaned that much money to Mariano's 1999 election campaign, but Mariano said that the money had been a contribution and that he had no intention of returning it.
Campaign records for both men support Mariano's assertion that the money was a contribution, but DiCicco insists it was a loan.
After his first test, DiCicco attacked his former Council buddy in the sharpest language since their feud began. He accused Mariano of being flippant, shooting from the hip and routinely hurling ethnic slurs.
"This isn't a game for me. It's serious business." DiCicco said. "This isn't the first time he's [Mariano] made ethnic slurs. I think elected officials have to be held accountable for these kind of comments."
Mariano, who steadfastly refused to submit to a test, said, "No matter what Frank DiCicco says, there were at least two other people in the room and they didn't hear anything."
He was referring to Street and Councilman Clarke, who were negotiating with DiCicco and Mariano over a possible solution to the deadlock over a plan to redraw Council district boundaries based on the 2000 census.
Clarke backed Mariano's take on the alleged comment while a Street source said the mayor never heard Mariano make any anti-Irish comment.
Last week, Mariano and his Council allies passed a bill they favored, and the mayor signed it. Council members received their pay, which had been held up since October because of their inability to reach agreement on redistricting, in a lump sum last Friday.
Mariano spent yesterday in the Juniata section working on a neighborhood cleanup.
In a news release, Mariano said DiCicco's lie-detector challenge was "just a further attempt by the disgruntled councilman to avenge his redistricting loss by keeping his petty personal issues with me in the news." *
Staff writer Mark Angeles contributed to this report.
