Latest news with #polygraph
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Gary Coleman's Ex-Wife Shannon Price to Take Lie Detector Test amid Suspicion Surrounding the Actor's 2010 Death
The new A&E series, Lie Detector: Truth or Deception, digs deeper into the circumstances surrounding Gary Coleman's 2010 death His ex-wife, Shannon Price, voluntarily completed a polygraph test for the show after years of public speculation about her involvement in the death The two-hour premiere airs Thursday, July 10 at 9 p.m. on A&EThe search for answers surrounding Gary Coleman's 2010 death is continuing. The new A&E series, Lie Detector: Truth or Deception, will put the late actor's ex-wife, Shannon Price, in the hot seat. The two-hour premiere, hosted by investigative journalist Tony Harry, is set to air on July 10, more than 15 years after Coleman died inside the Utah home that he and Price shared. 'Coleman's ex-wife Shannon Price agrees to take a polygraph test to address persistent public suspicion regarding her potential involvement in his death, even though she was never charged in connection with it,' the logline reads. 'The episode revisits the circumstances surrounding Coleman's passing and explores whether Price has been misjudged by public opinion — or whether the results raise new questions.' The Diff'rent Strokes star and Price got married in August 2007, but divorced the following year, although they continued living together. In May 2010, Coleman suffered an intracranial hemorrhage after falling in his kitchen, and two days after being placed in a medically-induced coma, Price removed him from life support. Many people have expressed concerns about her decision in the years since, including his former partner Anna Gray, who claimed in a Peacock documentary that Coleman 'had an advanced healthcare directive where he stated he wanted at least two weeks of care before any plugs were pulled." Price also participated in the special, which aired in February and was titled GARY. She stated that she was in bed when she asked Coleman, who was born with a congenial kidney defect, to make her food after he got home from dialysis. After hearing a 'big loud boom,' she explained that she found Coleman, who was 42 years old at the time, in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. In a recording of her 911 call reporting the incident, Price could be heard refusing to listen to the operator's instructions to help her former husband. Price has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, saying in the documentary that she 'would never hurt my husband, ever.' In an interview later that month, Inside Edition Chief Correspondent Jim Moret asked Price why she didn't 'try to help Gary after he fell.' 'You know, I did help him,' Price replied. 'I actually had to run around looking for a towel because we didn't have any in the downstairs bathroom.' 'What people have to understand and realize is this is the first real traumatic situation I ever had to witness,' she added. In 2010, Santaquin Police Chief Dennis Howard told PEOPLE that 'there was absolutely nothing suspicious about [Coleman's] death' and 'there was 'no [criminal] investigation going on.' Coleman's death certificate also listed his manner of death as an 'accident.' Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Lie Detector: Truth or Deception premieres on Thursday, July 10 at 9 p.m. ET, followed by new episodes every Thursday at 10 p.m. ET beginning July 17. Read the original article on People
CTV News
12-06-2025
- CTV News
‘I know it would be a big help': Stepfather of missing children shares details of polygraph test
The stepfather of the missing Nova Scotia kids Lilly and Jack Sullivan says he volunteered for a polygraph as part of the investigation. Six-year-old Lilly Sullivan and four-year-old Jack Sullivan were last seen the morning of May 2 at their home on Gairloch Road in Lansdowne Station, N.S. Since then, investigators say they've chased down every lead. The RCMP says the investigation is still active and confirms officers have interviewed 30 people, conducted polygraph tests and received close to 500 tips – but there is still no sign of the siblings. Polygraph test The children's stepfather Daniel Martell says he was the first to volunteer for a polygraph. 'I know it would be a big help in the case and kind of narrow down maybe some of the speculations and just provide more evidence,' said Martell. RCMP Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay told reporters Wednesday afternoon 'the truth verification unit is engaged.' 'There's multiple facets to those investigations and those experts are examining every question and answer that those individuals are providing and it could guide the investigation.' Police have not said how many tests were administered, who took the tests, or what the results were. Stepfather of missing NS kids speaks out During the polygraph test, Martell says he was asked whether or not he was involved in the disappearance of the children. He adds his cellphone, and that of his estranged wife, was confiscated and searched by investigators. Chris Lewis, CTV's policing expert and a former polygraph examiner for the Ontario Provincial Police, says it's significant the RCMP has administered polygraph tests. 'You don't do polygraph tests and waste that resource on people that maybe just saw something or heard something or is a real remote suspect. That's not the way it works,' Lewis told CTV News Wednesday. 'If they are doing polygraph tests and examinations on people, those are people they suspect might be involved in some way or for whatever reason aren't being honest.' 'I have nothing but time to just think' At this point, there has been no major break in the case. Martell says the silence inside his once busy home is deafening. 'Going from a family of seven to just me, I have nothing but time to just think,' he said. The emotional toll has left its mark on Martell, who has lost of custody of his daughter Meadow. 'I haven't even got to see my own kids, not even Meadow yet, but I'm still hopeful. I have supervised visits coming up with CPS,' said Martell. The children's stepfather says he's grateful for the investigators and the people who continue to share tips. He adds the family remains hopeful the children will return home safe. Four-year-old Jack Sullivan, left, and six-year-old Lilly Sullivan, right, seen in this handout photo, went missing on May 2, 2025 in the community of Lansdowne Station, N.S. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Nova Scotia Ground Search and Rescue Association *MAN... Four-year-old Jack Sullivan, left, and six-year-old Lilly Sullivan, right, seen in this handout photo, went missing on May 2, 2025 in the community of Lansdowne Station, N.S. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Nova Scotia Ground Search and Rescue Association *MANDATORY CREDIT* Police across Canada involved in investigation Police say more than 11 Nova Scotia RCMP units are working on the case, along with the National Centre of Missing Persons, Canadian Centre for Child protection, and provincial and municipal police agencies across Nova Scotia and Canada. Police say the information gathered during the investigation, including all ground search and rescue efforts, has not identified any new search areas at this time. The RCMP first launched an extensive air and ground search for the siblings, which covered 5.5 square kilometres of heavily wooded and rural terrain, shortly after they were reported missing. The search, which involved hundreds of people, dogs, drones, divers and helicopters, was scaled back five days later. Additional searches took place on May 8, 9, 17, 18, 31 and June 1. In the latest search, 78 trained searchers from across the province focused on specific areas around Gairloch Road and a nearby pipeline where a boot print was previously found. Anyone with information about the missing children is asked to call the Northeast Nova RCMP Major Crime Unit at 902-896-5060. To remain anonymous, contact Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers, toll-free, at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
CNN
05-06-2025
- General
- CNN
The Trump administration revives an old intimidation tactic: the polygraph machine
When President Ronald Reagan's White House threatened thousands of government officials with polygraph exams, supposedly to protect classified data (but probably also to control press leaks), his Secretary of State George Shultz threatened to resign. Reagan's White House backed down and agreed to impose the tests only for those suspected of espionage, according to a 1985 New York Times report. In terms of catching spies, polygraph tests failed spectacularly in key moments. More on that in a moment. First, consider the second Trump administration, which is leaning in on polygraphs, presumably to ferret out leakers, but also as an apparent method of intimidation. 'The polygraph has been weaponized and is being used against individuals who have never had a polygraph requirement, whether pre-employment or security, in their entire federal careers,' said Mark Zaid, an attorney who specializes in representing people who work in national security, after a slew of published reports about polygraph threats throughout the Trump administration. The tests are frequently being used to identify not leaks of classified information but rather 'unclassified conversations regarding policy or embarrassing decisions that have made their way through the rumor mill or directly to the media,' said Zaid, who has previously testified before Congress about the use of polygraphs and sued federal agencies for their practices. ► At the FBI, the New York Times reports, an increased use of polygraphs has 'intensified a culture of intimidation' for agents. ► At the Pentagon, officials publicly threatened to conduct polygraph tests as part of an effort to figure out how the press learned that Elon Musk was scheduled to get a classified briefing about China, which a billionaire with business interests in China probably should not get. It's not clear if polygraph tests were ultimately administered as part of the probe, according to CNN's report. ► At the Department of Homeland Security, according to CNN, polygraph tests have been used on FEMA and FAA officials in addition to those in more traditional national security roles. Administration officials have defended the practice as a way to protect government information. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem defended the use of polygraph tests during an interview on CBS in March. 'The authorities that I have under the Department of Homeland Security are broad and extensive,' she said. Previously, per Zaid, polygraphs have been used as a sort of 'weeding device,' not unlike a physical fitness test for large pools of applicants to national security and law enforcement roles. After that, some employees — particularly in the intelligence community — may be given exams every five or 10 years, sort of like a random drug test. What's happening now is something different. Polygraph tests are 'being used against individuals who have never had a polygraph requirement, whether for pre-employment or security, in their entire federal careers,' Zaid said. Most Americans have never been subjected to a polygraph, and that's in large part because Congress acted to largely outlaw them from use in the public sector in 1988, a time when millions of Americans were being polygraphed each year and companies were using them to bar people from jobs and conduct coercive internal investigations. For an example of why polygraphs were problematic, look back at an old '60 Minutes' segment in which Diane Sawyer submits to an exam and hidden cameras are used to show how the bias of the examiner affects results. 'If you're trying to find one leaker in an organization of 100 people, you could end up falsely accusing dozens of people,' according to Amit Katwala, author of the polygraph history Tremors in the Blood: Murder, Obsession and the Birth of the Lie Detector. 'And you might not even catch the culprit — there's no evidence to suggest that an actual lie detector is even scientifically possible,' he told me in an email. The Employee Polygraph Protection Act was signed into law in 1988 by Reagan, years after his showdown with Shultz. But the law kept polygraphs for the public sector, particularly for national security and law enforcement. In the national security world, the principle of protecting the innocent is 'flipped on its head,' according to Zaid. 'We would rather ruin 99 innocent people's careers than let the one new Ed Snowden, Aldrich Ames or Robert Hanssen get through,' he said. If polygraphs have a spotty record in detecting lies, they have a horrible record in detecting spies. A Senate Intelligence Committee report from 1994 explores how the CIA officer Aldrich Ames, who spied for the KGB, evaded detection for years in part because he passed multiple polygraph exams. At the same time, the same report describes how another CIA employee who aided the KGB, Edward Lee Howard, did so in part because he felt jilted by the CIA after he was fired for failing a polygraph exam. Then there was the shocking trial of FBI official and Russian spy Robert Hanssen, who had never been given a polygraph in his career, there was an uptick in their use at some agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Energy. At the turn of the 21st century, the US government commissioned a large-scale report on the efficacy of the polygraph undertaken by a special committee at the National Research Council. They found the scientific evidence on polygraphs to be more than lacking. 'As a nation, we should not allow ourselves to continue to be blinded by the aura of the polygraph,' Stephen Feinberg, the Carnegie Mellon professor who led the study, testified before Congress. Ames offered his assessment of the polygraph machine in a letter from prison published in 2000, calling the polygraph 'junk science that just won't die' and saying it is most useful as an instrument of coercion. 'It depends upon the overall coerciveness of the setting — you'll be fired, you won't get the job, you'll be prosecuted, you'll go to prison — and the credulous fear the device inspires,' he wrote. Polygraphs are frequently used in criminal investigations, but rarely used in court. The idea behind the polygraph, which was first developed in the '20s, is that lying causes stress. The examiner hooks a person up to monitors that gauge things like blood pressure and fingertip sweat. A pre-interview helps formulate common questions that create a baseline and reactions to more probing questions are compared to that baseline. But it's not a scientific process, and it can be beaten, or misled, since at its core the machine is simply measuring physiological responses. Frequently, incriminating information is offered by nervous exam-takers who don't understand exactly how the process works. Pop culture often suggests that when a person is hooked up to a polygraph machine, their lies will be detected. But that is not exactly true. 'The polygraph works because we think it works. It's a tool of psychological coercion in an already intimidating environment—particularly when it has the weight of the federal government behind it,' Katwala told me. But the intimidation is probably the point. 'Using the polygraph may not help you catch the leakers, but the idea of it could well scare any potential future leakers into keeping their mouths shut,' Katwala said. The man credited with fully developing the polygraph, a Berkeley police officer named John Larson, who also had a PhD in psychology, would later turn on his invention as unreliable, according to Katwala. Larson was inspired by the truth-telling machine of William Marston, himself a psychologist, but one with an active imagination and a flair for the theatrical. Zaid described him as the PT Barnum of polygraphy. Here's a video of Marston using a polygraph-like machine and claiming to identify the varying emotions of blonde, brunette and redheaded women. His conclusion was that redheads like to gamble, brunettes are looking for love and blondes are easiest to scare. Okay. Marston also invented the comic book hero Wonder Woman, with her Lasso of Truth. Katwala warns that there are new technologies being developed with the help of AI or revolving around brain waves, but he argues they should be viewed just with the same skepticism as the polygraph machine. 'None of them get past the Pinocchio's nose problem — everyone's different, and something that works for one person might not work for everyone,' he said. But they could all be used in the same coercive way as the polygraph machine.
CNN
05-06-2025
- General
- CNN
The Trump administration revives an old intimidation tactic: the polygraph machine
When President Ronald Reagan's White House threatened thousands of government officials with polygraph exams, supposedly to protect classified data (but probably also to control press leaks), his Secretary of State George Shultz threatened to resign. Reagan's White House backed down and agreed to impose the tests only for those suspected of espionage, according to a 1985 New York Times report. In terms of catching spies, polygraph tests failed spectacularly in key moments. More on that in a moment. First, consider the second Trump administration, which is leaning in on polygraphs, presumably to ferret out leakers, but also as an apparent method of intimidation. 'The polygraph has been weaponized and is being used against individuals who have never had a polygraph requirement, whether pre-employment or security, in their entire federal careers,' said Mark Zaid, an attorney who specializes in representing people who work in national security, after a slew of published reports about polygraph threats throughout the Trump administration. The tests are frequently being used to identify not leaks of classified information but rather 'unclassified conversations regarding policy or embarrassing decisions that have made their way through the rumor mill or directly to the media,' said Zaid, who has previously testified before Congress about the use of polygraphs and sued federal agencies for their practices. ► At the FBI, the New York Times reports, an increased use of polygraphs has 'intensified a culture of intimidation' for agents. ► At the Pentagon, officials publicly threatened to conduct polygraph tests as part of an effort to figure out how the press learned that Elon Musk was scheduled to get a classified briefing about China, which a billionaire with business interests in China probably should not get. It's not clear if polygraph tests were ultimately administered as part of the probe, according to CNN's report. ► At the Department of Homeland Security, according to CNN, polygraph tests have been used on FEMA and FAA officials in addition to those in more traditional national security roles. Administration officials have defended the practice as a way to protect government information. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem defended the use of polygraph tests during an interview on CBS in March. 'The authorities that I have under the Department of Homeland Security are broad and extensive,' she said. Previously, per Zaid, polygraphs have been used as a sort of 'weeding device,' not unlike a physical fitness test for large pools of applicants to national security and law enforcement roles. After that, some employees — particularly in the intelligence community — may be given exams every five or 10 years, sort of like a random drug test. What's happening now is something different. Polygraph tests are 'being used against individuals who have never had a polygraph requirement, whether for pre-employment or security, in their entire federal careers,' Zaid said. Most Americans have never been subjected to a polygraph, and that's in large part because Congress acted to largely outlaw them from use in the public sector in 1988, a time when millions of Americans were being polygraphed each year and companies were using them to bar people from jobs and conduct coercive internal investigations. For an example of why polygraphs were problematic, look back at an old '60 Minutes' segment in which Diane Sawyer submits to an exam and hidden cameras are used to show how the bias of the examiner affects results. 'If you're trying to find one leaker in an organization of 100 people, you could end up falsely accusing dozens of people,' according to Amit Katwala, author of the polygraph history Tremors in the Blood: Murder, Obsession and the Birth of the Lie Detector. 'And you might not even catch the culprit — there's no evidence to suggest that an actual lie detector is even scientifically possible,' he told me in an email. The Employee Polygraph Protection Act was signed into law in 1988 by Reagan, years after his showdown with Shultz. But the law kept polygraphs for the public sector, particularly for national security and law enforcement. In the national security world, the principle of protecting the innocent is 'flipped on its head,' according to Zaid. 'We would rather ruin 99 innocent people's careers than let the one new Ed Snowden, Aldrich Ames or Robert Hanssen get through,' he said. If polygraphs have a spotty record in detecting lies, they have a horrible record in detecting spies. A Senate Intelligence Committee report from 1994 explores how the CIA officer Aldrich Ames, who spied for the KGB, evaded detection for years in part because he passed multiple polygraph exams. At the same time, the same report describes how another CIA employee who aided the KGB, Edward Lee Howard, did so in part because he felt jilted by the CIA after he was fired for failing a polygraph exam. Then there was the shocking trial of FBI official and Russian spy Robert Hanssen, who had never been given a polygraph in his career, there was an uptick in their use at some agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Energy. At the turn of the 21st century, the US government commissioned a large-scale report on the efficacy of the polygraph undertaken by a special committee at the National Research Council. They found the scientific evidence on polygraphs to be more than lacking. 'As a nation, we should not allow ourselves to continue to be blinded by the aura of the polygraph,' Stephen Feinberg, the Carnegie Mellon professor who led the study, testified before Congress. Ames offered his assessment of the polygraph machine in a letter from prison published in 2000, calling the polygraph 'junk science that just won't die' and saying it is most useful as an instrument of coercion. 'It depends upon the overall coerciveness of the setting — you'll be fired, you won't get the job, you'll be prosecuted, you'll go to prison — and the credulous fear the device inspires,' he wrote. Polygraphs are frequently used in criminal investigations, but rarely used in court. The idea behind the polygraph, which was first developed in the '20s, is that lying causes stress. The examiner hooks a person up to monitors that gauge things like blood pressure and fingertip sweat. A pre-interview helps formulate common questions that create a baseline and reactions to more probing questions are compared to that baseline. But it's not a scientific process, and it can be beaten, or misled, since at its core the machine is simply measuring physiological responses. Frequently, incriminating information is offered by nervous exam-takers who don't understand exactly how the process works. Pop culture often suggests that when a person is hooked up to a polygraph machine, their lies will be detected. But that is not exactly true. 'The polygraph works because we think it works. It's a tool of psychological coercion in an already intimidating environment—particularly when it has the weight of the federal government behind it,' Katwala told me. But the intimidation is probably the point. 'Using the polygraph may not help you catch the leakers, but the idea of it could well scare any potential future leakers into keeping their mouths shut,' Katwala said. The man credited with fully developing the polygraph, a Berkeley police officer named John Larson, who also had a PhD in psychology, would later turn on his invention as unreliable, according to Katwala. Larson was inspired by the truth-telling machine of William Marston, himself a psychologist, but one with an active imagination and a flair for the theatrical. Zaid described him as the PT Barnum of polygraphy. Here's a video of Marston using a polygraph-like machine and claiming to identify the varying emotions of blonde, brunette and redheaded women. His conclusion was that redheads like to gamble, brunettes are looking for love and blondes are easiest to scare. Okay. Marston also invented the comic book hero Wonder Woman, with her Lasso of Truth. Katwala warns that there are new technologies being developed with the help of AI or revolving around brain waves, but he argues they should be viewed just with the same skepticism as the polygraph machine. 'None of them get past the Pinocchio's nose problem — everyone's different, and something that works for one person might not work for everyone,' he said. But they could all be used in the same coercive way as the polygraph machine.
The Independent
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Kristi Noem accused of ramping up the polygraphing of DHS staff to root out people leaking embarrassing stories to the media
Kristi Noem has ramped up the use of polygraph tests to determine whether DHS staff have been lying about leaking unflattering stories to the media, according to a report. The practice was first reported in March when Noem and President Donald Trump 's border czar Tom Homan blamed the low number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests on internal leaks tipping off agents' targets. According to The Wall Street Journal, employees under suspicion at the DHS's Virginia headquarters have been ordered to sit in a seat designed to record uncomfortable body movements and wear a blood pressure cuff, an oxygen monitor, and a tube around their chests. At the same time, their superiors look on through a one-way mirror and observe their responses to questioning. The interviews are reportedly being carried out by an obscure office within the Transportation Security Administration, which is typically concerned with screening passengers and baggage at airports. Those believed to have taken the test so far include employees at immigration agencies, including leadership, and FEMA, an agency which the Trump administration has moved to dismantle. Cameron Hamilton, FEMA's former acting director, is one person known to have been ordered to sit for a test after he was suspected of leaking details about a meeting he had attended with Noem and her top adviser Corey Lewandowski concerning his agency's uncertain future. Press office employees have also been asked to take the exams in cases where they have been suspected of overstepping the mark when briefing journalists. However, the newspaper's sources said none of the leaked stories featured classified information. The interview sessions are said to last anywhere between 90 minutes and four hours and have resulted in some people being placed on administrative leave and others preferring to resign rather than comply. While administering polygraph tests is not unprecedented at the DHS, it has primarily taken place as part of security clearance surveys, job applications, and investigations in the past. The Journal reports that it has only been deployed under Noem to attempt to root out discontent. 'There's no precedent for this,' said Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the DHS during the Barack Obama administration. The current situation has reportedly 'created a chilling effect inside the department,' with the 'seeming randomness' of the selection process causing unease among some workers. Others dismiss the whole approach as a non-strategic 'fishing expedition' hoping to get lucky. But Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the practice, commenting: 'Under Secretary Noem's leadership, DHS is unapologetic about its efforts to root out leakers that undermine national security. 'We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment, or status as a career civil servant – we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.' 'None of this is about disloyalty. Information doesn't have to be classified to be confidential or not for public consumption,' McLoughling added. The Independent has contacted the DHS for more information about the policy and the rationale behind it. Noem was previously asked about polygraphing her own employees on CBS's Face the Nation in March and said: 'The authorities that I have under the Department of Homeland Security are broad and extensive, and I plan to use every single one of them to make sure that we're following the law, that we are following the procedures in place to keep people safe, and that we're making sure we're following through on what President Trump has promised.' She is not the only Trump administration secretary or agency head to have begun employing the technique, however. Senior ICE official Madison Sheahan 'routinely threatens to subject employees to polygraphs in meetings,' according to the Journal. At the same time, both the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense have been linked to the practice.
