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Topic summary

Posted by EosJupiter
 - Nov 16, 2005, 03:59 AM
George,

What is truly the most funny part of the "Glued to the Toilet Seat  trick", is that the polygraph community can not come out and say that its all a lie. Right or wrong this guy saw an opportunity to take advantage of the "SO CALLED" accuracy of the polygraph. Now he will laugh all the way to bank. Another satisfied customer of the polygraph, except this time the examinee has the last laugh. Best laugh I have had in long time. Just like when counter measures can't be caught either.
Posted by George W. Maschke
 - Nov 15, 2005, 03:56 PM
Quote from: Dippityshurff on Nov 14, 2005, 06:32 PMSadly George, I must now report that my agency has decided to adopt pre-employment polygraph screening.

I argued against it. I was outvoted.

Keep up the good work!

Sad news, indeed. Thanks for fighting the good fight.
Posted by DippityShurff
 - Nov 14, 2005, 06:32 PM
Sadly George, I must now report that my agency has decided to adopt pre-employment polygraph screening.

I argued against it. I was outvoted.

Keep up the good work!
Posted by George W. Maschke
 - Nov 12, 2005, 05:56 AM
Kudos to the the Rocky Mountain News for its spot-on analysis in this editorial:

Quotehttp://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_4232586,00.html

Of toilet seats and polygraphs
Meaningless test results

November 12, 2005

We'll reserve judgment on how it happened that Bob Dougherty came to be glued to a toilet seat, and also on whether it happened once, or twice.

But we do have to say that someone who apparently hopes to collect $3 million by suing over a prank doesn't exactly enhance his credibility with a "lie detector" test - because such test results are suspect in almost any context.

Dougherty has sued Home Depot over a 2003 incident in Louisville, when he sat on a toilet seat and became stuck to it. He and his lawyer say the claim is justified because the store's employees didn't respond promptly to his calls for help and because there weren't any paper toilet-seat covers in the restroom.

After doubts were raised about his toilet-seat tale, Dougherty's lawyer said his client would take a polygraph test provided some news organization paid for it. Fox 31 News took the bait, and hired a polygrapher from Wheat Ridge to administer the test. Dougherty took the test in his lawyer's office on Wednesday, and according to the polygrapher, he passed.

The polygraph angle may have made for good television. Unfortunately, it also reinforces the public view that polygraph tests are reliable enough that the results actually mean something.

The American Polygraph Association claims a very high accuracy rate, but then it would. Outside critics give the process much less credence, and in 1998 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a military rule that polygraph results were too unreliable to be admitted even as evidence for the defense.

After all, convicted spy Aldrich Ames passed several CIA polygraph tests. Subsequently experts claimed the results had just been misinterpreted and that Ames actually failed the tests, but that is just the point. Test results are open to interpretation and it is much easier to be right after the fact.

It is true that guilty people who believe lie detector tests are always correct may indeed be so nervous about being caught in a lie that they confess even before being tested, or avoid applying for jobs where they know they would undergo a test. Most private employers are prohibited from requiring job applicants to take polygraph tests, but law enforcement agencies can use them and many do.

But these outcomes, even if they are mildly useful, result more from public belief in the validity of the test than from its actual success rate, which is disputed.

And people who fail a polygraph test because they are nervous, even though they are telling the truth, can suffer serious consequences, including loss of their job.

There are so many spurious reasons that people can pass or fail polygraph tests that it's pointless to accept the results as serious evidence. We wish Fox had just passed on Dougherty's offer.
Posted by George W. Maschke
 - Nov 11, 2005, 04:52 PM
Here is the polygraph-related portion of the Rocky Mountain News story on which the Associated Press article is based:

Quotehttp://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4227106,00.html

Polygraph supports man in toilet tale

Test indicates Dougherty never made 2nd glue claim

By Sarah Langbein, Rocky Mountain News
November 10, 2005

NEDERLAND - The man who said he was glued to a Home Depot toilet seat in 2003 passed a polygraph test administered on Wednesday.

Bob Dougherty, 57, smiled inside his lawyer's office just minutes after learning of the test's results. Wheat Ridge polygrapher Jeff Jenks was paid an undisclosed amount of money by Fox 31 News to perform the test.

Jenks asked Dougherty about 20 questions, Dougherty said. And four of those questions dealt with an allegation by a former town official that Dougherty said he was stuck to a toilet seat in the visitors' center restroom in 2004. Dougherty had denied that allegation.

"In my opinion, he is telling the truth," Jenks told the station.

"I knew it was going to be this," Dougherty said of the polygraph results.

The finding prompted Dougherty to call for an apology from Nederland officials.

"I'm not going to be putting up with crackpots," he told Fox 31. "I don't need any more of this stress."

"I want them to fix my name, now that they've dirtied it."

...
Posted by opp
 - Nov 11, 2005, 02:45 PM
DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- A man who sued Home Depot claiming that a prank left him glued to a restroom toilet seat has passed a lie detector test, a newspaper reported.

The questions covered allegations that he made previous a similar claim in another town, according to a story in The Rocky Mountain News.

Bob Dougherty answered 20 questions in the polygraph test, including four related to a former Nederland town official's allegation that Dougherty made similar claims there, the newspaper story said.

Dougherty, 57, offered to take the test to dispel doubts about his story. The test, administered Wednesday, was paid for by television station KDVR.

Ron Trzepacz, former director of operations in Nederland, where Dougherty lives, said that Dougherty claimed in 2004 that he was glued to a toilet seat in the town's visitor center but pulled himself free.

Dougherty has denied that and has said he did not know Trzepacz.

Dougherty's lawsuit, filed October 28, claims that officials at the Home Depot in Louisville, Colorado, called for an ambulance after he had been stuck for about 15 minutes.

Paramedics unbolted the toilet seat, which separated from his skin, leaving abrasions, according to the suit.

The lawsuit also claims Dougherty was recovering from heart bypass surgery and thought he was having a heart attack when he got stuck.

The lawsuit claims he suffered pain, humiliation and financial losses and seeks $3 million in damages.