peternorth,

Accusations of attempted countermeasures are not uncommon when a subject's breathing is slower than what the polygrapher has been taught to expect: between 15 and 30 breaths (in and out) per minute, or 2-4 seconds each.

It is important that you not let your polygrapher's false accusation go unchallenged. It may ruin not only your chances of employment with the San Bernardino County probation department, but also with other agencies.

See Chapter 5 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector for more on how to procede. It's important that your challenge (and request for a new examination) be in writing and sent by certified, return-receipt mail. In addition, you may demand that your polygraph records be released to you under the California Public Records Act.

To learn about how the "test" really works (it's a fraud), see Chapter 3 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector, and to learn about effective countermeasures that polygraphers cannot detect, see Chapter 4.

Another option you may wish to explore with a lawyer is suing both your polygrapher and her employer over her false accusation of countermeasures. No polygrapher has demonstrated the ability to reliably detect countermeasures, and your polygrapher's defamatory claim that you employed them is based on sheer conjecture.

Seeking Justice:

Perhaps you may have a monetary claim against the county, but what type of compensation do you truly expect to receive from your examiner?

After all, San Bernardino County is the the "white trash capital of the world." I agree with your statement that the county, "employs uneducated and unqualifed examiners;" however, do not expect to file a successful lein agiainst an examiner's home because at best the only property he or she will own is a single wide deluxe trailer.

Hey Reality Check - 

I wish you were right - I'd love to see the incompetent fool that administered a poly to a friend homeless and eating Alpo, but I doubt that will happen.  The average poly examiner charges $750 per test.  (Fees can range from $500-$1k).  Assuming they do one poly a day, that's $3,750 per week, nearly $200k per year if they really work it.

All it takes is a 14 week training program, an equipment lease (about $10k??), and a polygraph examiner can be in business.  He doesn't even need a college degree.   

All this training and personal investment then gives him the privelege to #%&* with people's lives.  The power trip is a bonus.

Lady and Gentlemen,

This problem is not limited to local county examiners.  I was accused during the test of "controlled breathing", and movement throughout my pre-screening exam with the FBI (a "highly" trained examiner I hope).  I was told, while the test was in progress, that if I did not change my breathing pattern, that I was going to fail.  This is an extreme example on how the examiner can skew (right next to screw) the test against the examinee.

If all of the exams were videotaped or recorded, I believe alot of inappropriate and bias behavior by examiners would be curtailed.

It would also protect the examiner against false accusations.  It would benefit everyone.