Polygraph Lie Detector News

Here in New Zealand we don't feel able to publicly share with you our polygraph lie detector testing casework out of respect for the privacy of our clients.

But polygraph lie detector examination results are often reported by the news media in the USA, especially when the results of the polygraph have been admitted as evidence or testimony, by the Courts. (It is a fallacy that the polygraph is not accepted by US Courts).

The following cases demonstrate what a powerful investigative tool polygraph testing is.

 

 

Pennsylvania Police applicant admits underage sex during polygraph
27 January 2015

Most US Police agencies require those wishing to become law enforcement officers to pass a pre-employment polygraph examination.

Twenty-nine year-old Joseph Adam White, who applied to be a Pennsylvania State Trooper is now in custody after admitting during his pre-employment polygraph examination to having had sex with a 16 year-old girl, four years earlier.

His alleged victim was then interviewed and confirmed the claims.

White has been charged with four counts of unlawful sexual contact with a minor and 10 counts of corruption of minors.

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Maryland Police applicant admits arson during pre-employment Polygraph test
3 April 2014

Zachary Yingling, a 25 year-old applicant to join the Maryland State Police has admitted during a pre-employment polygraph examination to involvement in a 2007 arson.  

The polygraph examiner immediately notified the State Fire Marshal’s office and Yingling, instead of pursuing a law enforcement career, is now facing multiple criminal charges.

The fire caused an estimated US$40,000 in damage, but remained unsolved until Yingling’s polygraph examination.

If convicted of all charges, he could face up to 45 years in prison and $55,000 in fines.

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Man cleared with the help of polygraph after 22 years in prison
6 February 2014

Anthony Yarbough of New York was released from prison today after spending 22 years in jail for the murder of his mother, half-sister and her friend.

In 1992 at the age of 18 he had made a false confession to the murders and had been locked up ever since. Three months ago he passed a polygraph examination and then DNA testing later cleared him, too.

On the morning of 18 June 1992, Yarbough came home from a night of partying in Manhattan with his friend Sharrif Wilson to find the bodies of his mother, Annie Yarbough, 40, her daughter, Chavonn Barnes, and Latasha Knox, both 12, stabbed and strangled with electrical cable.

He was arrested for those crimes although there were no witnesses, physical evidence or real motive connecting him to the crimes. Wilson, a scared boy of 15, would eventually confess to committing the murders with Yarbough. But in 1999, while both were still in prison, another woman was murdered in Brooklyn in a similar fashion.

Last year, the Medical Examiner’s Office discovered that the DNA found in the woman murdered in 1999 matched the DNA found under Yarbough’s mother’s fingernails in 1992.

Two lawyers who had been working on the case for four years appealed to the court and the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office to free both men. Wilson recanted his false confession and passed a polygraph requested by the Brooklyn District Attorney, before the DNA match came back.

Polygraph Examiners regular assist the “Innocence Project” – the international organisation dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people.

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Man released after passing Polygraph
13 January 2014

Patrick Reddon was arrested in July 2013 by Florida Police for Armed Robbery

Reddon proclaimed his innocence and a Public Defender requested a Polygraph Examination of Reddon. The results of the Polygraph Examination confirmed Reddon’s claim of innocence.

As a consequence of passing the polygraph, the Public Defender approached the State Attorney’s Office and requested video of the robberies be professionally enhanced. It then became apparent Redden was not the man in the video and on 9 January, the State Attorney’s Office withdrew the charges and Redden was released from custody.

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18 years imprisonment for child sexual abuse
17 December 2013

Samuel Owens of South Carolina was today sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for sexually abusing a child over the course of several years.

The 46-year-old pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor after deception was indicated on a Polygraph test

The victim described the assaults, which occurred on multiple occasions over years, in detailed statements to the Police. Owens will serve more than 14 years before being eligible for parole.

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Michigan sex offender confesses to child sexual assault after failing Polygraph test
7 November 2013

Ashley Poe, a 19 year-old convicted sex offender, has admitted the sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy.

When police arrested Poe, she said the boy was just trying to brag and she asked to take a polygraph test, which she subsequently failed. Poe then admitted sexually assaulting the boy.

The offending occurred just two weeks after Poe was released from prison after serving 12 months imprisonment for sexual assault on a 14-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl

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Ohio Police applicant admits sex offences during pre-employment Polygraph test
10 October 2013

Twenty-four year-old Ryker Hill was today sentenced to 4½ years imprisonment after earlier pleading guilty to unlawful sexual contact with a minor, gross sexual imposition of a victim under the age of 13, and three counts of obscenity involving a minor.

Hill’s offending was uncovered during a Polygraph examination that he was undergoing to become an Ohio State Highway Patrolman.

Hill must also register as a sex offender for 25 years.

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New York man confesses to killing son after failing Polygraph test
9 September 2013

Kevin King has been charged with the murder of his three-month old son after failing a polygraph examination and then confessing to injuring him. The infant died of head injuries and internal injuries.

Police had asked King to take a polygraph test because they doubted the veracity of the story he first told them about how his son was hurt. King first told police that whilst walking down a set of stairs he twisted his ankle and fell on the child, hitting him in the head with his knee.

After being informed he had failed the polygraph test, King gave a written statement admitting he squeezed the baby and had thrown him to the floor because he was angry the child would not stop crying while he was playing video games.

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Philadelphia man teaches child how to find pornography on the Internet
4 September 2013

Robert Girmscheid of Pennsylvania is facing indecency charges after failing a polygraph examination and then admitting to teaching the eight year-old daughter of a neighbour how to search for pornography on the Internet.

Girmscheid has been charged with corruption of a minor and faces up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine if convicted.

Girmscheid has seven previous convictions, including drugs, assault, burglary and theft, and as the time of his arrest was on probation for terrorist threats and assault.

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Serial rapist finally admits offending after failing Polygraph test
24 September 2013

A Court in Pennsylvania today heard that it was only after failing a polygraph test that 20 year-old David Martinez began to admit he was responsible for the serial rape of teenage girls he met on Facebook. The next day he wrote letters of apology to his victims, saying he "needed help with his sex addiction problem."

Martinez faces charges he raped five women and girls he met through social media, the youngest of whom was 14 and two of whom were pregnant.

Martinez was initially charged in only two cases, which involved 17- and 14-year-old girls who said he raped them at his home. One of the cases had previously been closed as unfounded, but was reopened after the second girl came forward.

After his arrest, the District Attorney issued a public call asking other potential victims to contact police. That led to three more victims coming forward.

Police said the assaults spanned from 2011 to January 2013. Martinez would meet the girls online, exchange phone numbers with them, and eventually arrange face-to-face encounters at which he wouldn't take no for an answer, and raped them.

Martinez’s lawyer sought to have the polygraph confession ruled inadmissible but Judge Emil Giordano found Martinez knowingly waived his rights before taking a polygraph and later signing confessions to two rapes.

The Judge ruled Martinez drove himself to both interviews, where police explained in detail he was not under arrest, did not have to answer their questions and that anything he said could be used against him in a court of law.

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