Did He or Didn't He: Lie Detector

"I volunteered, actually, to take the polygraph. I am looking forward to proving to Pam and Tashika that I did not touch Julia inappropriately," Steven Jr. says.

 

Steve shares his thoughts on his son's impending test. "I do have a fear that it could come out that he actually did do this. It would be hard for me to a

ccept, but I would not love my son any less," he says. "I have a very strong opinion about sexual predators. They should be locked away for life. This is my son. No matter how much it would hurt, I have to stop and think about the innocent child. If Dr. Phil says it, then I'm going to accept that, whether it goes the way that I want it to or not."

 

Steven Jr. meets with former FBI agent and polygraph examiner, Jack Trimarco, who administers the two-hour test. After Jack asks Steven a number of questions, he shares his observations. "I've never seen anything like it," Jack reveals. "I would say in 2,700 tests, both with the FBI and in the private sector, I've never seen a cardio waveform that is so dramatically explosive."

 

Back in the studio, Dr. Phil asks Steven Jr., "Were you truthful?"

"Yes, I was," he says.

"Did you try to beat the test, deceive the test in any way?"

"No."

Dr. Phil addresses Jack. "You said you saw an explosive cardio measure on the chart. Tell me what you saw," he says.

Jack explains that an examinee is supposed to sit still and breathe normally while answering questions. "If there's any type of movement on the exam, it will show up on the charts as distortion. Now that doesn't impact the test; we just continue on," he explains. "However, what I saw with Steven was consistent internal disruption. In other words, there was a major muscle group, or several, at play, which was causing those charts to be unreadable." He points out that Steven Jr. was not p hysically moving, but something was going on inside his body.

"So, are you telling me that the test is compromised?" Dr. Phil asks. "It has artifact in it that makes the charts unreadable?"

"Consistent artifact, anomalies. It just couldn't be read," Jack clarifies. "No determination of truth or deception could be made."

"You and I both know that people come in, and they try to beat a polygraph test," Dr. Phil says. "Was he trying to defeat this test?"

"No, I don't believe so," Jack says. "As a polygraph examiner, based on those charts and what I was seeing, he's got a physiological condition, which will cause this issue to not be solved by polygraph testing."

 

Turning to Steven Jr., Dr. Phil asks, "Did you try and beat this test?"

"No, I did not," he says.

Jack further explains that he thinks Steven Jr.'s condition is physiological or perhaps neurological or behavioral. "There is a possibility that he was causing these things, however, again, I don't think that that was the case," he says.

"What's your gut tell you about this young man?" Dr. Phil asks Jack.

"In that context, with a child's safety on the line, I won't stick my neck out that way," Jack says, "but I will say that when I spoke to Steven, he answered my questions directly and spontaneously, which would lend me to believe that he was preparing to tell the truth. He didn't hesitate, and he didn't, in any way, equivocate about Julia, about the testing. That always gives me a good feeling." He goes on to explain that when someone wants to trick the test, they usually do it in a subtle way. "This was just an explosive polygraph chart that negated the test."

Dr. Phil asks Tashika for her thoughts, and she says, "I don't want to give up the thought that my daughter could possibly be lying or making this up, per se."

"I assume, if you believe this, that you have gotten her counsel," Dr. Phil says.

"Right after she was examined by the professionals, we took her to counseling," Tashika says. "With regret, we did stop taking her because she was really bottled up. She didn't really want to say a lot, so I felt it was going nowhere." 

 

"According to Pam, you stopped taking her because you said you didn't have time," Dr. Phil tells Tashika.

"To the best of my knowledge, that is not what I sa

id," Tashika says.

"Tashika did tell me that she didn't have time," Pam remarks.

"If you believe she's been traumatized in this way, wouldn't you make time?" Dr. Phil probes.

"It was very time consuming, but I did take her on a regular basis," Tashika says.

"Do you and your husband watch pornographic movies?" Dr. Phil asks Tashika.

"If we do, my children are not around," she says. "We do not own any pornographic movies, and we do not have sex with our kids in the room."

"It's my understanding that your husband was quite proud of his collection of pornography," Dr. Phil states.

"He had a couple movies, and this was be

fore this allegation was ever brought up," Tashika says. "This has been a few years back."

"Is it true that once, when asked by your brother how Julia slept that night, she said, ‘Not good, because Mommy was making the bed shake and making panting noises'?" Dr. Phil asks.

"I don't know. That's what I've been told, but kids hear things," she says.

"Is it possible that she has maybe seen something you didn't know she was seeing?" Dr. Phil asks.

"I feel confidant to say no," Tashika says. She notes that when Pam asked Julia if she had seen her parents having sex, she said no.

Dr. Phil points out that Pam only recently asked Julia if she saw her parents having sex, but the incident occurred five years ago.