John Jefferson
Polygraph test (KUTV).
A bill to restrict the use of polygraph tests on sexual assault victims in the state of Utah could become law in January.
Democratic Rep. Angela Romero, the sponsor of the bill HB 327, said the tests are unreliable.
Polygraph exams or “lie detector tests,” which measure heart rate, blood volume, and breathing rates, are not generally admissible in the court system due to the unreliability of the body’s responses, particularly when used on a victim.
“Polygraph tests can sometimes be misunderstood and be considered like a lie-detector test, and victims feel like they’re not believed,” Romero told The Salt Lake Tribune, which investigated along with ProPublica the case of a sex assault victim who failed a lie-detector test which prompted the legislation. “Around the country, people are starting to see that this is probably not the best way in which to interview the victim of sexual assault.”
The victim, who reported his therapist had abused him during sessions, said his failed polygraph sent him spiraling, the Tribune reported. The therapist was ultimately arrested and charged in the case, ProPublica reported.
“I had so much trauma,” he told the newspaper. “And so, certainly, when they asked me questions about the particular things that happened in therapy, it’s going to elicit a very strong emotional response.”
The proposed bill includes language that law enforcement may not “request or compel a victim of a sexual offense to submit to a polygraph examination during the course of a criminal investigation or prosecution of a sexual offense,” cannot “use a polygraph examination as a condition of proceeding with a criminal investigation or prosecution of a sexual offense,” and that “refusal of a victim of a sexual offense to submit to a polygraph examination may not prevent the investigation, charging, or prosecution of a sexual offense.”
Utah Rape Recovery Center Executive Director Sonya Martinez-Ortiz told local ABC affiliate KTVX that her organization encounters victims who’ve been asked by law enforcement to take polygraphs, and they are obstacles to reporting the crimes.
“There still is a culture of encouraging or asking survivors of sexual violence if they would be willing or interested in participating in a polygraph, making some assumptions that it might bolster their case or this might help in moving forward the investigation,” Martinez-Ortiz told the outlet.
The trauma response of a survivor revisiting a traumatic event looks very similar to deception, said Marlesse Jones, the director of the Victim Services Commission, at a legislative hearing on the bill in September.
“Deception and nervousness and trauma look so much the same, so the lack of eye contact, the stalling before answering questions, nervousness, fidgeting, erratic, breathing, all of those things are trauma,” she said. “But there are also things that our law enforcement are queued into in terms of trying to decide if there’s something deceptive going on. So this bill addresses that.”
During a hearing in front of the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee on Feb. 12, Romero said more than 25 states have banned the use of polygraph tests when looking at sexual assault victims.
“As we know, polygraph tests aren’t used in court, but I feel like there are other ways in which we can go about gathering evidence,” she told the panel. “I really feel like accuracy is something we should question also, how it makes victims of sexual assault feel that they’re not believed.”
The bill will go to the House floor in January. If it passes there, the bill will go before the Senate for a final vote before reaching the Governor’s desk.
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