BSO abuse probe put in doubt

BY DAN CHRISTENSEN
dchristensen@MiamiHerald.com

A police polygraph test used to justify the shutdown of a Broward sheriff's investigation into an inmate abuse claim is now suddenly in question, casting doubt on the agency's handling of the case.

The polygraph was taken last year during a probe of allegations that vengeful county jail guards arranged for other cons to pummel a troublesome inmate.

Jailhouse informant Benjamin Whitfield alleged a fellow prisoner confessed to participating in the December 2005 attack that left Dana Clyde Jones unable to walk or talk.

But then BSO polygraph examiner John McMahon told detectives Whitfield was deceptive when he made that claim, a finding that helped torpedo the case.

But, in a civil lawsuit over the same incident, McMahon later undercut his own conclusion. In an April deposition, he conceded that other experts looking at the same polygraph chart could have concluded the opposite -- that Whitfield hadn't lied about what he heard happened to Jones.

''You could show the same chart to several different people and they could have different opinions,'' McMahon told Jones' family attorney Barbara Heyer under oath.

''One could say deception and one could say no deception?'' asked Heyer.

''That's possible,'' said McMahon, who declined an interview request.

The case raises questions over the validity of polygraph tests, showing how one result can be interpreted two ways. It also begs the question: Did BSO protect its own?

DETENTION DEPUTY

Jail experts said more could have been done to determine whether Jones fell, or, as his family believes, was beaten. For example, detectives didn't take a sworn statement from the detention deputy who found Jones lying in a pool of blood or re-interview under oath prisoners and guards after they were implicated by Whitfield.

Jones, 46, suffered serious brain damage while awaiting trial in a maximum security unit at the main jail for allegedly punching his mother in the mouth.

His family wasn't told he'd been taken to the hospital until a nurse at Broward General Medical Center called six days later.

Jones, who was considered mentally ill before the injuries, now lives in a Pompano Beach nursing home.

BSO detectives have said they don't know what caused the serious head injuries that put Jones into a coma-like state for months. They said he could have slipped and fallen.

Whitfield came forward late in the investigation to say prisoner Lakeary Heck confessed to him that he and three other inmates had attacked Jones. He said Heck, serving a life sentence for attempted murder and robbery, said the attack was ''instigated'' by detention deputies Monica Blair and Arthur Reeves, to punish Jones for rude remarks.

Police said Heck denied it.

Blair, Reeves, imprisoned ex-Sheriff Ken Jenne, and BSO are among the defendants in the Jones case scheduled for trial next month in federal court in Miami.

JENNE UNAWARE

Blair and Reeves declined interview requests, and BSO had no comment, agency spokesman Jim Leljedal said. In an April deposition, Jenne said he wasn't aware of Jones.

Whitfield took a 2006 polygraph administered by Richard Hoffman, manager of BSO's polygraph and case filing unit. After Hoffman concluded Whitfield had shown deception, detectives suspended the investigation.

''Whitfield had proven that he was a professional liar,'' Detective Jeff Mellies testified.

A second polygraph test was ordered in June 2007 after The Miami Herald asked to see Hoffman's original polygraph chart -- which had gone missing. McMahon administered the second test.

The lost file -- never found -- also sparked a quiet internal probe at BSO that led to Hoffman's suspension for five days without pay for policy violations one supervisor called ``unacceptable.''

Investigators determined Hoffman failed to safeguard records, and failed to notify Whitfield about the results of the polygraph test or give him a chance to explain himself.

Hoffman, 66, said in a Feb. 20 deposition that it was the only file to vanish from his unit in 15 years. He declined to comment, Leljedal said.

Hoffman testified that the fiasco led to policy changes -- with all polygraph charts and reports logged and scanned into a computer and saved on the sheriff's network.

`HANDS OFF'

Because he was under investigation, Hoffman testified, he ''stayed hands off'' when McMahon re-tested Whitfield.

But in his April 23 deposition, McMahon said Hoffman reviewed the test results, and expressed his opinion that Whitfield showed deception. McMahon said he agreed with Hoffman's opinion.

''He reviewed the charts,'' said McMahon. ``He is my supervisor.''

It'll be interesting to see how this case develops once they do a real investigation.

That said, every one of you polygraphers out there had better pray that this is not what it looks like.  You had better pray that this is not a bunch of thugs having a man beaten to the point that he has permanent brain damage and then using your creation to protect themselves.

If that is indeed the case, then the entire rationale for your guild goes away.  Isn't the polygraph supposed to help deter such acts and to help find the perpetrators thereof?  Well, if it is as good at doing the opposite, what value is it to society?