Hartford Courant staff writer Tracy Gordon Fox reports. Excerpt:
The lawsuit Adrienne LaMorte brought against the Connecticut State Police over her removal from the department’s polygraph unit ended in June when she received a fat check for $216,000.
But the ripples the case generated within state law enforcement circles are still being felt, with top officials questioning the reliability of some of the unit’s polygraph tests.
An eight-member jury found in April that LaMorte, a former state trooper, had been punitively transferred after complaining that her supervisor, Sgt. Randolph Howell, may have botched numerous lie detector tests.
Another former member of the polygraph unit testified during the federal trial that he also had complained to Howell’s superior, now-retired Maj. John Leonard, about Howell’s spotty performance.
Both troopers were concerned that Howell’s performance could affect the outcome of criminal cases.
Evidence from the trial in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport showed that Howell flunked his courses at polygraph school but was passed anyway. In her testimony, LaMorte alleged that Howell graded potential suspects in sexual assault cases as truthful, when their polygraph results indicated differently.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal – whose office defended the state police at LaMorte’s trial – and Chief State’s Attorney Christopher Morano want to know what effect, if any, Howell’s tests may have had on any criminal investigations.
And, a national organization of police polygraphists is conducting its own investigation.
“The trial certainly raised and deepened very serious concerns as to the accuracy of some polygraph results,” Blumenthal said. “We are working with the chief state’s attorney’s office to evaluate the overall situation.”
“At this point,” Morano said, “I am investigating what happened and what came out in that lawsuit. It certainly comes to the level of being examined by the state police and should have been examined a long time ago.”
Morano said he would talk to his prosecutors about specific cases, if necessary. But, he added, “The first step is to gather the facts.”
Last year, state police polygraphists conducted 750 examinations for state and local police, including 163 for criminal cases. Many of the other examinations were done for the hiring of state and local police officers, a crucial part of screening candidates.
Howell remains supervisor of the five-member polygraph unit, and state police say there are no plans for an internal investigation.
Lt. Col. Ralph Carpenter, who is Howell’s current supervisor, said he has had no complaints from police departments or attorneys. “Nobody is saying they don’t want Randy Howell,” Carpenter said. “Something has got to be right over there.”
During an interview last week, Howell said he is a good polygraphist who continuously updates his training at conferences held by the American Association of Police Polygraphists.
“I’ll invite anyone down to look at my records here. The facts will speak for themselves,” Howell said, adding that he has conducted between 4,000 and 5,000 examinations, about 500 of those for criminal cases.
“She is a disgruntled person,” Howell said of LaMorte. “I’ve gotten no complaints from anybody about my performance here.”
Jurors came away from the trial with a different impression, however.
“It seemed obvious the guy, Howell, was somewhat incompetent,” said Sean Kenny of Stratford, one of the jurors in the case.
“As far as I’m concerned, [Howell] should have not been running that unit,” he said. Kenny wondered “how many cases might have gotten screwed up by this guy. You don’t know how many cases let someone go free or condemned someone.”
While the department’s internal affairs division had compiled a 6-inch-thick file on LaMorte for raising questions about one of Howell’s tests, not one piece of paper was ever generated about Howell’s performance, said LaMorte’s attorney, Karen Lee Torre, of New Haven.
“To me, it was another example of state bureaucracy betraying the public trust,” Torre said after the trial. “They are there to work for us and they were protecting their own interest at the expense of criminal justice itself.”
Polygraphists from agencies outside the state police were aware of Howell’s problems. Troopers in the unit received informal requests from some agencies – including the FBI – that Howell not perform exams, particularly in serious criminal cases, according to testimony.
Leighton Hammond, a private examiner from South Windsor, knew about Howell’s reputation. Hammond said if his charts ever need to be reviewed or confirmed, “they will not be reviewed by the state police.”
“I’m not comfortable with them,” said Hammond. He added that he prefers the FBI or police officers from West Hartford or Enfield. “Randy is the nicest guy in the world, but he’s not re-examining my charts.”