Ohio judge forces rape victims to take polygraph tests

[ccharles000]

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Juvenile Court judge has ordered at least four teenage girls who were victims of sexual assault to submit to polygraph tests, baffling prosecutors and upsetting the victims.

Cuyahoga Juvenile Court Judge Alison Floyd ordered victims in separate cases to be examined after she had found their attackers delinquent, the Juvenile Court equivalent of guilty.

Floyd also ordered the teenage boys who were accused of rape and other sex crimes in those cases to undergo polygraph examinations as part of an assessment done before the teens would be sentenced.

None of the teen victims has followed the judge's order.

Floyd did not respond to three days of attempts to contact her for comment.

It is unclear from her orders what Floyd's intention was in having victims take polygraph exams or what questions would be asked of them.

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/03/juvenile_court_judge_alison_fl.html

[WCGreen]

1. I met her a while back and she is a piece of work all right...

[nemo137]

16. Can you expand on that a little? "Piece of work" how?

[etherealtruth]

2. WTF

Ah, I forgot Rape isn't like other crimes ... it's usually the victim's fault :sarcasm:

edit, because I clearly can't spell the simplest of words

[Poll_Blind]

3. It's called the Fifth Ammendment and that shit breaks it. n/t

PB

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

9. Not if they are given immunity.

[Poll_Blind]

10. You can be compelled to break the 5th Ammendment if you're given immunity?

My point here is "compelled". I find that hard to believe. I still don't think they can break the Fifth Ammendment even if they promise immunity- this is all based on the position that they do not wish to voluntarily testify.

PB

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

11. This is not about not voluntarily testifying.

This is before sentencing.

[SoCalNative]

4. How disappointing

I was sure she was a Republican but, alas, she's a Democrat.

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:WYcYblrI1pQJ:www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/elections/directives/2006/Dir2006-41.pdf+Alison+Nelson+Floyd+Christopher+McMonagle&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

[lunatica]

5. So a judge who can't allow these tests in court is ordering them?

That's strange. If they aren't reliable in court then they aren't reliable anywhere. Or am I missing something?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

8. They could be admissable in sentencing in a juvenile case.

[JoeyT]

24. That still doesn't make it a good idea

seeing as flipping a coin is about as accurate as a polygraph.
The only people that actually claim polygraphs work are the "experts" that make money administering them. About the only use they ever had was trying to crack a suspect that didn't know they were pseudo-science. Which is hardly the way to treat a rape victim, no matter what the reason.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

27. I never said it was a good idea.

[Ikonoklast]

6. I want that judge to take a drug test.

Pee in the bottle and let's see what's what, Yeronner.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[pipoman]

12. Ah,

that notoriously accurate test best corrupted via asshole manipulation...

[sendero]

13. Polygraph tests...

.. do NOT work and should not be any part of law enforcement or the justice system.

[middle distance]

20. they do have limited value

they are not reliable enough to use as evidence in court, but the government uses them to sometimes weed out false accusations or test suspects for deception. I believe they are generally considered more reliable for detecting deception than they are at successfully detecting truth telling. Thus there is a greater rate of false negatives than false positives.

[Odin2005]

14. This is so fucking wrong!!!

:grr:

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hyphenate]

17. I don't know the judge, the victims

or the alleged offenders, but could this have something to do with many teenagers crying "foul" as a way of getting back at a boyfriend or crush? It seems to me that if both parties are being subjected to a polygraph that this might be the reason. Again, I don't know any other reason.

[Lilith Velkor]

18. *facepalm*

[Quantess]

19. But....I thought polygraph tests don't hold up in a court of law!

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

28. The judge intends to use them in the evaluation for sentencing.

[name not needed]

21. People falsify police reports for other crimes too.

Should everyone that calls 911 have to take a polygraph?

[Liberty Belle]

22. No other crime victims are treated this way, are they?

There are certainly false reports for a variety of crimes -- robbery, domestic abuse, etc. but since when do we make victims take lie detector tests?

[middle distance]

23. other crimes don't have the same evidentiary issues

sex crimes are often the hardest to prove because they often lack evidence. robberies and domestic violence don't have that problem as much. and while false accusations happen in other crimes, sex crimes present more varied possible motivations for a false accusation; also, the very fact that they often have no evidence makes it easier to falsely accuse. for these reasons, authorities may find it useful to give a polygraph to the accuser, particularly if there is evidence to suggest a false accusation.

[Liberty Belle]

26. Wrong! In rape cases you have lots of physical evidence!

Semen,tears, signs of forced entry...not to mention things like his skin under her fingernails, scratches on her attacker, etc.

Certainly far more evidence than one might find in, say, an attempted robbery case.

[Odin2005]

29. Depends on what kind of rape it is.

Most rapes are "acquaintance rapes" (the broader term for date rape and other forms of rape that are not the stereotypical "grab a woman off the street" type of rape), which are essentially he-said-she-said in many cases.

[Liberty Belle]

30. So what? Acquaintance rape still leaves scars and damage.

Tears, scratches, signs of forced entry would argue against it being consensual.

[Odin2005]

31. But then the rapid could argue that it was just "rough sex".

[BlueIris]

25. Holy shit.

That is beyond disgusting, and so are the bulk of the posts in this thread.