Polygraph results indicate deception

But Aurora expert says tired accuser should have waited

Katie Kerwin Mccrimmon, Rocky Mountain News

Saturday, November 4, 2006

A national expert on polygraph tests said Friday that the accuser in a sex scandal should never have taken a polygraph test Friday morning because he had slept only a couple of hours and was complaining of a headache.Mike Jones has accused a powerful Colorado Springs evangelical minister, the Rev. Ted Haggard, of paying him for sex several times during the past three years. Jones volunteered to take a polygraph test at 5 a.m. Friday.

The results, which were announced live on Peter Boyles' morning show on KHOW radio, indicated deception in answers to key questions.

Aurora polygraph examiner John Kresnik conducted the test for free. He is willing to do a second test, but he urged Jones to wait a couple of weeks until he can rest and the controversy dies down.

He said it's rare for a second test to differ from the first.

Kresnik acknowledged that conditions for the test were not ideal.

"I'd rather have done it when he was well-rested and well-fed," Kresnik said. But, he said that Jones was eager to take the test and was disappointed when his answers to two key questions showed deception. Jones took the test at Kresnik's office from about 5 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.

Kresnik first talked with Jones, then went over the questions he would ask. He then hooked Jones up to sensors to monitor his skin, breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. Kresnik said he has conducted thousands of similar tests in 25 years.

While the polygraph test showed deception, analysis of recorded voice mail messages support Jones' claims.

Richard Sanders, a nationally recognized audio forensics expert and University of Colorado at Denver music professor, compared the recorded messages with video recordings of Haggard's voice for KUSA 9News and said it's highly likely that Haggard is the person on voice mail messages that Jones saved.

Sanders compared a total of 26 words from the two audio sources and found that 20 are very good matches. The other six were inconclusive. He also said the comparison of the phrase, "I don't know" was strikingly similar.

"It's very probably his voice on the phone answering machine," Sanders said. "It doesn't say anything about whether they had sex or not. That wasn't in the message. In the message it sounds like someone wanted to buy drugs."

Experts disagree about the conflicting polygraph.

Jack Trimarco, an FBI agent for 21 years and a nationally known expert on polygraph tests, said subjects must be rested and physically well or the results can be suspect.

Trimarco, who is now a private polygraph examiner based in Beverly Hills, Calif., said he would have rescheduled the test once he learned in the pretest interview that the subject was not in peak condition.

What's more, he said, a test in such a high-profile case should have been conducted under perfect conditions.

"Knowing that this is going to be a high-profile test, everything has got to be done correctly.

"It has to be videotaped and another examiner should be there so there is an immediate quality control," Trimarco said.

"It's really the way things are done on really important cases."

Kresnik videotaped the session, but he is not releasing the tape or the charts from the session.

Jones declined an offer to have results checked by another polygrapher.

Another retired FBI agent, James Earle, of Colorado Springs, said in his experience, after conducting nearly 12,000 tests in the past 27 years, that results are usually quite accurate.

He said the examiner should have been able to tell that Jones was exhausted and adjust for that in the scoring.

"If they were really exhausted, it could be a factor. But, it's not going to invalidate the test," said Earle, who used to supervise polygraph tests for the FBI throughout the western U.S.

Earle has a doctorate and just finished a term as a vice president of the National Polygraph Association.

He also served as president of the Colorado chapter.

"Exhaustion will never affect breathing or the cardio response. It does seem to affect body temperature," Earle said.

While in the FBI, Earle conducted tests on a range of suspected criminals from informants to kidnappers, murderers and embezzlers.

He also had to take the tests himself every year.

He said the tests are much more advanced technologically than they used to be.

The sensors that attach to the body are much more sensitive.

Haggard has admitted booking a massage with Jones, but declines they had sex.

Trimarco, the Beverly Hills polygraph examiner, usually charges $1,700 for a test.

But he made an offer in case Haggard wants to prove his denials are true.

"Tell the minister I'll come out there and do one for free."

Polygraph questions

According to a polygraph administered to Mike Jones on Friday, these questions showed deception:

• Did you lie when you said you had a three-year sexual relationship with Ted Haggard?

• Did you lie when you said you had sexual contact with Ted Haggard for a period of three years?

mccrimmonk@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2502