Thought I'd start a thread in which we can chronicle the illegal exploits of FBI employees who somehow managed to pass Dr. Marston's "lie detector" test.
Quote:FBI Agent in Kentucky Fined $250 in False Testimony Case, No Jail Time for Lying
By Murray Evans Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 17, 2003
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - An FBI scientist pleaded guilty Tuesday to giving false testimony in a pretrial hearing involving a man convicted of killing a college football player.
Through her lawyer, Kathleen Lundy, who did not attend the hearing, pleaded guilty to false swearing and was fined $250. At the urging of the prosecutor, Lundy was spared the maximum 90-day jail sentence.
"She's already lost her job and paid severely, through the loss of her job and her reputation," Prosecutor Tom Smith said. "In my mind, that was sufficient."
Lundy testified in about 80 other cases across the nation. Smith said it would be "rank speculation" to say whether or not Lundy's guilty plea would bring those other cases into question.
Lundy served as an expert witness who used chemical comparisons to link lead bullets to suspects. She testified against Shane Ragland, who was convicted last year of gunning down Kentucky football player Trent DiGiuro in 1994.
During a pretrial hearing, Lundy said a company melted its own bullet lead until 1996, when the company actually had stopped in 1986. She corrected her testimony during the trial and told her supervisors in Washington that she had lied.
In January, Circuit Judge Thomas Clark said Lundy's false testimony would not have altered the course of the case. Federal authorities decided not to prosecute her, but Kentucky prosecutors brought a charge of false swearing.
In a sworn affidavit to Justice Department officials, Lundy wrote: "I cannot explain why I made the original error in my testimony ... nor why, knowing that the testimony was false, I failed to correct it at the time. I was stressed out by this case and work in general."
FBI spokesman Ed Cogswell said he couldn't confirm if Lundy had lost her job at the agency, as Smith had said.
AP-ES-06-17-03 1445EDT
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAN2P192HD.html Now, is this alone evidence polygraph screening doesn't "work"? No, because to show that you would have to present evidence that the number of "bad agents" allowed into the FBI would be greater without the polygraph. Still, to the extent that the polygraph instills a false sense of security about the integrity of employees, it certainly enables bad behavior.
Nevertheless, this is interesting, and stories like this are understandably bothersome to those of us whose FBI polygraph results weren't within acceptable parameters.
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FBI Polygraph Screening and "Bad Agents" (Read 7914 times)
