This is my own horror story concerning polygraph exams.  For some background, I was convicted of larceny in a building in January, 2004.  During the investigation by Det. Lyman of the Grand Valley State University Police Department, I took two polygraph tests.  The first was given to me by Mr. Terry Anderson, a former State Trooper and state licensed private examiner.  I passed Mr. Anderson's exam.  The other one was given to me by Trooper Ben Escalante of the Michigan State Police and I failed that one.  SGT Escalante is elsewhere on antipolygraph.org for another case in which he screwed the pooch.

I wrote this concerning the polygraph exams I took because I wanted others to see that I was cooperative with Det. Lyman, despite his assertions while he built his case that I was not.  I had a constitutional right to cooperate as much or as little as I desired.  If I cooperated, I only desired to do it at a place and time of my choosing.  I sought only to be secure in my constitutional rights and not for any other reason.  To insinuate anything else would be untrue and demeaning. 

During Det. Lyman’s investigation, he requested that I take a polygraph test.  In fact, that was a major point of contention between us.  My main problem with polygraph testing is that I do not think it is a reliable method of ascertaining the truth.  As they are not admissible in a criminal trial, I do not think I am alone in that belief.

To my mind, if I had taken a polygraph and passed it (which eventually happened) I could not use it in Court to defend myself.  If I failed it, then Det .Lyman could not use that fact against me in Court, but he could still (and did) keep pressing his case against me.  He could still press his case even if I passed it.  Where was the upside for me to take a polygraph test?  Where was the advantage?  When he first made his request at the initial interrogation, I had not even retained counsel yet and I am sure anyone would agree that to allow the police total control of my life without counsel would have been foolish.

Once I retained counsel, he advised me to take a polygraph test, in hopes that if I was truthful, Det. Lyman would keep his word and leave me alone.  To that end, my counsel, Frank Carrozza, scheduled a polygraph examination with Terry Anderson, a fully trained and licensed polygraph examiner.  If memory serves correctly, he is a former Michigan State Police trooper.  As he had been doing this type of work since 1978, he was and is certainly well trained and experienced.

Mr. Anderson’s expert opinion was that I was being Truthful during my exam concerning the matter of the stolen LCD video projector.

I passed this polygraph on July 15, 2003.  However, despite his assurances that if I passed a polygraph examination he would exclude me from consideration as a suspect, Det. Lyman continued to press his case.  I was told that the reason that Det. Lyman, undaunted, continued was because I had not faced a polygraph examiner of his choosing, that he set up.  The near automatic inference one could have made was that because I had a private polygraph examiner, my polygraph was suspect.  In short, it was not good enough for him because he did not have control of it.  When I would not submit, he used that as a reason to continue his investigation.

Eventually, my counsel set-up a polygraph with the Ottawa County Prosecutor’s office.  I was first scheduled for a polygraph on September 22, 2003 at 1:00PM with Trooper Ben Escalante at the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department.

On that day, I reported to the OCSD for my polygraph at 12:52PM.  I checked in at the main window there and told the staff workers for the OCSD who I was, what I was there for and who I was supposed to meet.  They informed me that they would tell him I was there.  At just after 1:00PM, I went to the window again and inquired about my appointment.  I was told that Mr. Escalante was aware I was there and to wait patiently.

At 1:12PM, I went back to the window to tell them that I know these things take two hours and I had to get my daughter from school at Fruitport Middle School that day. I already was going to be late and had made arrangement with her to wait until 3:30PM when I would pick her up.  She got out of school about 2:50PM.  Now if, as I accurately surmised, a polygraph examination would take about two hours, then a little after three o’clock would give me enough time to get her with some latitude in time.

Again, they told me he knew I was there and he would be with me in a moment.  At 1:22PM, I went back to the window and was basically told the same thing.  They also told me that Mr. Escalante was “getting familiar with the case notes.”  Before I went, I read where making a subject about to take a polygraph wait a long time is a tactic of some unscrupulous polygraph examiners.  The tactic is similar to “icing” a field goal kicker in football; waiting ratchets up the tension, so to speak.  If there is enough anxiety, then there is a good possibility, even probability, that the subject will fail the polygraph.   

I returned to the window at 1:33PM, and told them if he did not come out soon, I was going to leave, I had to get my daughter.  They said okay, but they again told me he would be out in a minute.   

At 1:41PM, I told the OCSD staff I was leaving because I had to go and get my daughter.  I did not have any more time to wait.   

I left the OCSD and went to the parking lot there to call my attorney to tell him what was going on.  At the time, cell phone reception was poor there and I barely got through.  I only managed to get out that I was leaving before the call dropped.  Now I went to my car and of a sudden, this black-haired Latino looking man, nattily dressed in a burgundy dress shirt, black dress shoes and slacks came out of the building and starting yelling across the lot asking for Mike Jardine.  I acknowledged him and told him who I was.   

He introduced himself as Mr. Escalante, instead of Trooper Escalante of the Michigan State Police.  This did not sit well with me and I became increasingly apprehensive about taking the test.  He also told me that he was ready, apologizing for the delay because he said, and the OCSD staff had already iterated, he was busy “familiarizing himself with the case notes.”  He also stated that he was “taking his lunch.” 

I apologized to him and stated that I had to go now because he took so much time getting to me.  I said that if I was him and I knew I had a one o’clock appointment, I would have read the case notes prior to that time and would have taken my lunch on time and been ready when the subject arrived for the test.  I also explained to him that I had read about how polygraph examiners intentionally keep a subject waiting in order to make them more anxious.  He then stated that I could take the test or not, he did not care.  However, he stated, “A co-operative person will take the test.  An un-cooperative one won’t.”  To this day, I still don’t understand what he meant by that.  It seemed inane.  I replied, “Define co-operative.  I arrived about 10 minutes early to take a polygraph I am under no legal obligation to take.  I waited over 40 minutes for you to come out.  You come out here to fetch me and feed me some line about you had to take your lunch, and look over the case notes and you do not introduce yourself  by your real title with your name.  Who is being disingenuous now? Who is lying now?  Maybe you were not trying to make me more anxious, but you have not engendered any trust here.  I have to go and get my daughter now and I don’t have time for this bullshit.” 

SGT Escalante seemed more than a little miffed by this and he said that he “did not have a vested interest in determining my guilt or innocence.”  Yet when I knew he was a State Trooper, I did not trust that.  As a law enforcement officer, my belief was that he could be more interested in catching crooks than in the Truth.  Considering what was going on with my family at the time and my parent’s wrongful death suit, I was not inclined to trust anyone with a badge, especially one that had apparently done his best to not be totally honest and transparent with me.

After our discussion, I left.  I was not happy and I could tell he was not happy, either.  Later, my lawyer got angry with me because I did not stay, but I had bent over enough and I felt I was being played with.  I no longer wanted to take any polygraph test.   

In a handwritten and initialed comment on the appointment letter, Det. Lyman wrote “Refused Test on arrival.”  I am not certain, but I assume that he wrote something that Trooper Escalante told him via a phone conversation.  If that was so, Trooper Escalante was being more than a little disingenuous; unless of course, Trooper Escalante meant I refused test upon his arrival.  That would be more or less true, but not logical.  I did not drive all the way down to OCSD on Port Sheldon Road from Muskegon to turn around and leave 5 minutes after I arrived.  When I arrived for the test at 12:52PM and did not leave until well after 1:40PM, that was not by any stretch of the imagination “upon arrival.”

Against my better judgment, my lawyer re-scheduled the exam.  I reluctantly agreed to go as long as Trooper Escalante was not going to be my examiner.  However, when I returned to the OCSD to take the exam, it was Trooper Escalante who was to be the examiner. After our last encounter, I was pretty upset by that.   

Before the exam, Trooper Escalante reiterated that he had “no interest in determining my guilt or innocence.”  Yet, right after he administered the test, he said that “I can tell by my machine right here that you are definitely the one who stole the video projector.”  I told him that no matter what his computer said, it cannot make me something I am not; a thief.  I was not amazed that I did not pass the exam. 

Trooper Escalante then started to “interrogate” me.  He said something to the effect of, “I know how these things get started.  You get caught up in things that get out of control and these things just happen.  Why don’t you tell me why you stole the projector?  What really happened?  I told him, “Wow.  You can tell that from that little machine?  You know, for a man who says he has “no vested interest in determining my guilt or innocence, you sure seem interested in doing so now.  Why can’t you just write up your report and send it to the prosecutor?  We are done here.  Now.”  I then left.   

Consider this: according to the Department of Licensing and Professional Regulation, at the time Trooper Escalante had given me the exam he had been a fully licensed polygraph examiner for about a year.  Mr. Anderson had been fully licensed for over 20 years.   

Additionally, Trooper Escalante was the polygraph examiner for a woman that was wrongfully convicted of a theft from Panopolous Salon in Grand Rapids, MI.  She told the absolute truth during her exam, yet Trooper Escalante was in the local paper as her examiner and the article said she had failed the polygraph test.  It later turned out that the bag of money she was accused of stealing from her employer was found inside the night drop box at the bank she was supposed to have taken it almost a year after the fact.  It was jammed into a corner of the drawer box the night she deposited it.  It was later found by a bank employee.  The woman has since settled lawsuits against her employer and her record has been expunged.

That event left me to wonder, absent other objective exculpatory evidence in how many of Trooper Escalante’s examinations are the subjects found to be truthful?   

As I stated earlier, I do not believe in polygraph exams.  As is their right, the ECAC and the Board may have their own beliefs concerning them and their fair use.

If one believes they are accurate, then to that person there were two tests; one said I was truthful, one said I was not truthful.  At best, the logical conclusion is that the tests mutually cancel each other and the result is inconclusive.  All that time and effort was a total wash.   
 
If one truly believes in these exams, then it should also come down to which opinion is valid.  A subject cannot both be telling the Truth and be lying.  To my mind, the only way to determine that is to weigh the experience, training and record of one examiner versus another.  The quality of the examiner and his testing method should come into play.  I realize that it is a difficult decision.  What I would like to point out is, despite the assumption that just because Mr. Anderson was hired by my lawyer, I submit that as such he really had no motive to say I was being truthful when I was not.  He got paid either way.   

However, if I were a betting man, I would take the experience, training and skill of Mr. Anderson over Trooper Escalante.  As is anyone's right, they may feel different.  And finally, how did the fact that I failed a polygraph test make it into my pre-sentence report yet proof I passed one did not?

I have no motivation to lie.  Why would I care if a bunch of people I never met, who do not know me think I am guilty or not?   

I know I am innocent and that is enough for me.  The intent of my post is not for others to determine my guilt or innocence but to relate my own experience with a polygraph exam.

Ten years ago, I used to work for Brink's as an armed courier.  I took a polygraph test then and passed it.  Two years before that, I worked for Pinkerton Security Services and took one then.  Twenty-two years ago, I had a to get Secret Clearance because I was in the ammo section of my Army battalion in Germany.  I took a polygraph then.  Until I met SGT Escalante, I had passed all of those. To think I would take all of those polygraphs and just fail that one, considering his shabby treatment of me, is ridiculous.

Of course, the above results, pass or fail have foundation if the underlying science is TRUE.  If one believes in polygraphs, then one must believe that I am telling the Truth or as I stated in my post, the conclusion from one Truthful exam and a Deceptive one has to be, at best, unknown. 

To my mind, this bolsters the opinions of many that Polygraphs are based upon junk science and no better at ascertaining the Truth than reading entrails.

At the heart of it, my only intent here is to categorize polygraphs as voodoo science.  I used my own personal experience only to let others see through my experience what can happen (and apparently, I am not the only one here) when unscrupulous examiners perform their job. 

BTW, it is my opinion that I was convicted of this crime because the Detective and the Prosecutor told the judge (because polygraphs are inadmissible in Michigan they told him in his chambers, of course) that I failed the polygraph exam.  They deliberately witheld from him the fact that I passed an earlier one.   

How else can anyone explain that the fact I failed the polygraph test SGT Escalante gave me found its way into my pre-sentencing report (which the judge had to have read) yet the fact that I passed one did not?  Moreover, everyone I have talked to, including my appellate lawyer, has said that it is highly unusual for a polygraph test exam to be used in a pre-sentence report.   

BTW, I was convicted at a bench trial, not by a jury.

I have already asked this question elsewhere, but why would a polygrapher care whether someone passed or failed their polygraph?

TheKaisho ...After reading all your posts, it seems like your real issue is that you think you were screwed over and railroaded by a couple of officers and that that Polygraph plays only a very small role in your complaint. I told you yesterday that if the examiner behaved as you said he did, before the test he acted in an unprofessional manner and if he did what you said he did after the test I offered a suggested course of action to file a complaint. 

As to whether or not the detective gave the polygraph results to the judge, either you suspect that's what happened or you can prove that it happened. If you can prove that it happened then I would suggest that you contact the judicial review committee of your state's Bar Association. Accepting Ex-Parte testimony can cause SERIOUS trouble for a Judge. 

I would also suggest that you speak with an attorney regarding your claim that you were railroaded to see if you can sustain a civil action, But be careful Police Officers are filing countersuits for abuse of process and frivolous suits. 

IF you could not sustain your claims sufficiently to achieve relief at the appellate level, a pardon petition may be premature. I truly believe that if you haven't got enough to get past the first level of appeal, then a pardon petition isn't likely to meet much success unless you contribute a significant amount to a democratic presidential candidate.

Sancho Panza

If this actually happened to you, then Antipolygraph.org is the not the right place to go too. I would (can't beieve I am typing this) go to a local ACLU office, and try to work with them... Good Luck...

Sorry, friend, but antipoygraph.org is where I wanted to be.

I wanted to be here because I am certain that the polygraph exam I took was used outside of court to convict me in court.

I have really only related much, but certainly not all of what happened to me because I want others to see that the polygraph carries too much weight, is not a verifiable, even viable science.  It is voodoo science at best and should be scrapped altogether.

As I stated earlier, absent any objective evidence that linked me to this crime (as there was not any at all, which was my entire reason for relating all of this to antipolygraph.org) how did I get convicted?  

It is my honest opinion the main reason I was convicted was because the prosecutor and the detective short circuited the system.

Normally, I would say you are right and if it were solely me running through this world, that is exactly what I would do.  But it is not just me.

I have a daughter, a family and a home to support.  I have responsibilities that I cannot just abandon, that I have to provide for.   

Moreover, try moving on when you are $68K behind in student loans because you defaulted on them long ago.  Try doing that when you are $16K behind in child support payments.  You try "moving on" when there is nothing to move on.  Perhaps you think me lazy?  Weak?  Stupid?

You think I haven't tried to move on?  I have tried, but every job application, every potential employer has turned me down cold; many before I ever get in the door.  The county I live in is the third or second worst county in this state for employment.  

I have no skills to change into a different profession, no money to get new skills to adapt to my new world.  I am trying to find entry level work pitted against younger, more skillful and more able workers in an environment of scarce jobs and I am a felon.  I am struggling for my life every day against my own depression, hurt and anger.  Believe it or not, I am trying very hard not to be bitter but it is so hard.  

And it would be one thing if I had done this to myself by stealing that video projector.  According to the hard line law and order types, once you break the law you do not deserve a second chance.  Ever. In their eyes, I am a thief and deserved what I got and more.  At one blog, one guy even said I DESERVED to never work again.

What they and you do not know for certain is what I know; I did not take the thing.  Nothing on this Earth can change that Truth.  

Do I deserve to have my life ruined forever because of one police detective's LIES, OMISSIONS and TREACHERY?  I did nothing wrong and I am the one who has to "move on?"  I am the one that has to change the course of his life, alter the very FABRIC of who and what he is because some cop got a wild hair one day and decided I had to be the guy who stole something even if he had to MAKE me that guy?      

I cannot support myself, my family or my home.  I may have to sell the only asset I have ever had just to stay afloat.  If I do, where will my child sleep?  Where will my fiancee and her daughter live?  And most of what I get from people is platitudes.  

I know you OR many of you think I am a whiner or that I am a quitter, but I am not.  I have tried over and over again, but have only been kicked in the teeth.  A man has only so much strength and as i get older, I feel my fading.

I even worked at a job hanging parts in a factory.  Sounds easy, huh?  But it was not, especially at my age.  It was hard damn work but I showed up to work every day for $7.75 an hour.  I worked right along armed robbers, drug addicts and dealers.  And you know what?  I relished it.  I relished it so much, I wanted to make a career of it.  However, some kid comes in and threatened to kill me not once, but twice and my own boss did NOTHING because that kid was related to the owners.  The last time that kid threatened me he physically backed me up against a skid.  What was I supposed to do?  Fight?  Ummm, yeah, right...I am a convicted felon; that would be all I need to get into a fight at work....No way...no job is worth that.

You are right I could just let it eat me up inside and to tell you the Truth, it is going to do just that.   

Simply put, some men could accept this injustice.  However, because I will not EVER be able to escape the far-reaching effects of it I cannot.  I will not.

Perhaps it would be better if I were able to find a career?  Perhaps if I were allowed to teach or be a nurse or even work as a truck driver for FEDEX or UPS?  Hmmmm.  Oh, yeah, that's right.  I am a felon.