5/14/2019

Welcome to Deception Detection

• A Reeve Law Firm Presentation in collaboration with the Washington Self-Insurers

Association.

• Presented by Timothy K. Reeve of RLF for WSIA 2019 Annual Conference in Tacoma, WA
Ph: 206.818.2900 – email: tim@reevelawfirm.com – www.reevelawfirm.com

DECEPTION DETECTION
And What To Do About It
Photo by Deror_avi / CC BY-SA 4.0

LIE, DECEIT, DECEPTION, DISHONEST,

DISINFORMATION, DISTORTION,
“A Man’s Word is His Bond.”

“Above all, I would teach him to tell the “Honesty

truth. Truth-telling,
is The Best Policy.” I have found, is the

keyEVASION, FABRICATION, FALSEHOOD,

-Benjamin Franklin-
to responsible citizenship. The thousands of criminals I have seen in 40
FICTION,
years of law FORGERY,
enforcement have had INACCURACY,
one thing in common:
MISREPRESENTATION, MYTH, PERJURY,
A TALL TALE, FALSIFICATION,
Every single one is a liar.”
MISSTATEMENT, MISREPRESENTATION.
- J. Edgar Hoover “One- may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace
“A half-Truth is a whole lie.” that accompanies it tells the truth.”
-Yiddish Proverb- - Friedrich Nietzsche -

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• The history of lie detection.

• See the White Paper on Deception Detection for More

Information.

History
• The Broad Strokes: We used to use the judgment of the
gods, then people got boiled, then polygraphs,
microexpressionism theory, then brain fingerprinting,
then facial mapping, now a combination of facial mapping,
polygraphs, fMRI, EEG and PET.

Definitions

• There is a glossary of terms in the back of your packet. I encourage you to reference it if
needed.

• But there are two terms I want you to be aware of as we move forward. These two critical
terms frame our discussion.

What is the definition of Perjury?

• A person is guilty of Perjury in the first Degree if in any official proceeding , he or she makes a
materially false statement which he or she knows to be false under oath. The commission of
perjury during a proceeding before the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals is a criminal
felony. RCW 9A.72.020.
• It is a Class B felony.
• A Class B felony carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine up to $20,000. RCW
9A.20.021.

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What about “False Swearing”?

• False Swearing is a false statement under oath which the person knows to be false. RCW
9A.72.040. The difference between perjury and false swearing is that perjury involves a
Materially false statement whereas false swearing involves just a false statement.
• A statement is material if it “could have affected the course or outcome of the proceeding.”
RCW 9A.72.010(1).
• False Swearing is a Gross Misdemeanor rather than a felony. A Gross Misdemeanor is
punishable by confinement in a county jail up to 364 days and/or a fine up to $5,000. RCW
9A.20.021

Deception vs. Lying

• We will be using the terms deception and lying interchangeably today. However, a person can
tell a lie and not be attempting deceit and not have committed perjury.
• Furthermore, a person can be knowingly deceitful and not show any signs of deceit.
• ‘Theory of Mind’ and the origin of deceit.

• For this speech lying and deception are: the intentional concealment, distortion, or
fabrication of information for the purpose of gaining an advantage or leading another into an
erroneous conclusion.

The Oath

•I Solemnly Swear to Tell the

Truth, The Whole Truth, and
Nothing But the Truth

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The Three types of Lies

• There are three types of lies you are trying to detect.

• 1. The lie of commission - aka the lie of fabrication. aka just making it up.
– Protected by “swear to tell the truth”
• 2. The lie of omission - aka the lie of ‘oops I forgot about that fact’. aka hiding something
– Protected by “the whole truth”
• 3. The lie of influence - aka the lie of ‘biggest fish you have ever seen’. aka the perception lie
– Protected by “and nothing but the truth”

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The Three types of Lies

• The first two, lie of commission and lie of omission, are pretty simple to
understand.
• The last, the lie of influence is a bit more difficult to tease out from the truth.
– Lie of influence can be told alongside the truth, or is in fact, the truth itself.
– “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky”
• Clinton was technically telling the truth under the notion that ‘sexual relations’ is defined as
sexual intercourse. However, he was still charged with perjury and was held in contempt of
court. He committed a lie of influence. He had his law license suspended in Arkansas and then
was disbarred.

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Setting up the situation.

• Identifying true deception is not easy. Although some people lie easily and it comes naturally
to them naturally, the number of calculations they are making is daunting.
• These techniques to detect deception take practice; sometimes years or even a lifetime of
practice.

• Your set-up is as important as your face-off.

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Check Your Bias!

• Bias can be defined as the judgments or perceptions regarding an individual that are based
upon societal evidence rather than personal individual evidence.
• The idea of Bias can be split into two forms. One is damaging, one is necessary.

• Impermissible Bias
VS
• Initial Impression

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The Four Areas:

Bias
Constructive
Against
Destructive Uses of
Uses of Negative
Negative Biases
Biases
Bias in favor
Constructive Uses Destructive Uses of
of Positive Biases Positive Biases
Constructive Destructive

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Impermissible Bias

• Most Bias, even impermissible bias, is not a conscious choice. These are not decisions made
because somebody is “out to get” somebody, but rather because we are all biased. The more
you think you are immune to it, the greater the likelihood that our own biases will be invisible
or unconscious to us and thus undetectable to us.
• These all fall under the Destructive Biases both positive and negative.
• Impermissible Bias sabotages rational and logical thought.
• Examples: Gender, Race, Sexual Orientation, National Origin, Tattoos, Age, Use of a Cane,
Hair Color

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Initial Impression

• Now that you performed a gut check and identified your impermissible biases, check your
other feelings or reaction to the individual and evaluate whether they help or hinder your
evaluation.
• A number of studies show that your initial instincts are more acute and likely correct.
• The issue is division:
– Divide your Impermissible Bias from your Initial Impressions.
• Examples: Age, Gender, Tattoo, Use of a Cane, Clothing, Agitation, Nervousness, Hair Color

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An on going calculation

• The calculation between Impermissible Bias and Initial Impressions is an ongoing calculation.
• You must do the calculation each time you are presented with a new fact or new piece of
information regarding the subject of inquiry and adjust your response accordingly.

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Check The Storyteller’s

Perceived Reality

• A person’s perceived reality changes constantly. You must perform a 4-dimensional analysis of
each witness’s story of events.
• Touch on all 6 senses (yes 6)
• The 5 that we can quantify and have clear indication of their cause: seeing, hearing, smelling,
tasting, and sensing (touch).
• The 6th is the imperceptible unconscious mind aspect – We are exposed to roughly eleven
million sensory triggers at any one time; we can only take in 40 to 50 of them and consciously
we are only registering roughly 7 of them. Thus we are consciously registering only 14% -
17.5% of what are mind is taking in.

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Imperceptible Unconscious
Mind

• In interviews with witnesses, you need to develop questions to gather this 6th sense
impression. It can be the difference between someone’s story that ‘checks out’ and one that
you need to look into further.
• Questions like: “Did anything feel off to you that day?” “When Joe told you he had fallen, what
was your impression of him?” “Do you remember noticing anything weird about the ladder
before you climbed on it?”
• This is a Balancing Act

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The 4 Dimensions

• You have your X, Y, and Z axes. Those axes establish where a

person is in relation to the perceived injury.
• Your 4th dimension is Time.
• Time is the enemy of eye witnesses.
• Construct a 3-dimensional model of all witness locations and
crucial details. Then move this 3-dimensional model through
each moment of the accident.

• The case of unseen, but maybe seen, maybe talked about,

definitely heard them though injury.

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Focus your lens

• Now that you have established your own impermissible Bias and registered your initial
impressions, begin to focus your lens on the subject of inquiry.
• At the same time focus the witness’s lens.

• Paint this analogy into your mind. Everybody everywhere is looking through a lens. That lens
is created by everything a person has seen, done, or learned in their past. In order to properly
evaluate a person’s truthfulness, you need to be conscious and perceptive of that lens. Both
your lens and their lens. Only then can you establish the baseline for the storyteller.

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Establish the Baseline

• In order to properly detect deception, you are looking for the variances in a person’s normal
non-deceptive behavior.
• These variances can be verbal, physical, and written.
• In order to find these variances and detect the deception you need establish a baseline to
work from.
• This is where you bring everything you have learned about the claimant and yourself into a
cohesive picture of the person’s ‘normal’ behavior.

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Adjusting the Baseline

• Move your baseline when new facts are presented or an additional bias v. impression needs to
be calculated.
• Make sure to incorporate knowledge of your claimant’s medical conditions such as:
– Medications: psychiatric medications, opiates, muscle relaxers, heart issues
– Injuries
– Pain

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Determine the Irrefutable

and Common Facts

• Now that you have established the person’s baseline, you need to figure out what to look for.
• In every situation there are facts that are so basic that they are irrefutable.
• When trying to figure out if the claimant is telling the truth, compare all of the witnesses’
statements to find common facts that are most likely to be accurate.

• It is helpful to create a chart/table to do this.

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Irrefutable Facts

• Facts that are backed by science or general knowledge.

• Examples:
– A person’s height but maybe not their age
– Anything that can be quantitively measured after the fact, such as the height of the 4th rung of the
ladder
– Facts that were caught on video camera or other real time objective evidence.

• These are the facts that you will use for your test questions to discern a person’s truthful
behavior

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Common Facts

• Facts that are common across multiple witnesses or multiple versions of a story.
• Examples:
– 4 out of 4 witnesses agree that the person who fell was the claimant.
– 3 out of 4 witnesses agree they saw the person’s leg go sideways to the right.
– 2 out of 4 witnesses agree they heard the person yell for help.
– The lower the number of agreeing witnesses = the less common the fact.

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Detecting Deception on Paper

• Inconsistency is your best tool for detecting deception in writing. The lie being committed
could fall under any of the three categories.
– Commission lie: “I fell off the 4th rung of the ladder” (didn’t actually fall)
– Omission lie: “I fell off the 4th rung of the ladder” (slipped off the ladder but also was in a motorcycle
accident day before)
– Influence lie: “I fell off the 4th rung of the ladder” (it was actually the 1st rung)

• You’re most likely to find a lie of influence or a lie of omission.

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Detecting Deception on Paper

• Where Best to Look:

– Explanation of the accident from all sources.
– Eyewitness statements.
– Explanations of pain
– Corroborating diagnostic testing
– Provider hint vocabulary (such as functional or central origin; pain behavior)

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Gathering Extra Evidence

• Hired investigators are a clear option.

• Video evidence (security camera, cell phone, dash cams etc.)
• Medical Record Gathering.
• Recorded Statements.
• Claims Checks
• Washington Court Records search
• If an appeal has been filed: Interrogatories and Requests for Production; Requests for
Admission; subpoenas; discovery depositions.

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Gathering Extra Evidence

• Facebook, Texts, emails

• Employment Security Records
• Employment Application with the employer

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Verbal Deception Detection

• When you can speak with the claimant or witness but cannot see them.
• Each question you ask a person is a trigger. That trigger creates a psychological stimuli.
• That stimuli creates a response.
• That response is either truthful or deceptive. The temporal proximity of the response to the
stimuli is critical.

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5-seconds is all you have.

• The average human speaks at roughly 125-150 words per minute.

• The average human brain thinks at roughly 1250 – 1500 words per minute.

• In 5 seconds, the average human has spoken roughly 10.5 – 12.5 words and thought about
roughly 105 – 125 words.

• By 5 seconds, the stimuli has become psychologically stale.

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Clusters

• A deceptive indicator does not necessarily mean a person is lying.

• It is a sliding scale of deception, the more deceptive indicators that are present the higher the
likelihood that a deception has occurred.
• These groups of deceptive indicators are called clusters. The larger the cluster the more likely
the person is lying.
• A cluster must occur within the 5-second rule.

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Verbal Deceptive Indicators

• Failure to Answer • Inappropriate level of politeness

• Denial Problems • Inappropriate level of concern
• Reluctance or Refusal to Answer • Process or Procedural complaints

• Repeating the Question • Failure to understand a simple

question
• Nonanswer Statements
• Referral Statements
• Inconsistent Statements
• Invoking Religion
• Going into Attack Mode • Selective Memory
• Inappropriate questions • Qualifiers
• Overly Specific Answers • Convincing Statements

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Failure to Answer

• The simplest of the Verbal Deceptive Indicators

• You ask a question, they fail to answer the question.
• You are looking for specificity.
• Be direct in your question so you can get a direct answer.

• Failure to answer does not automatically mean a person is lying. Look for clusters.

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Denial Problems

• Absence of a specific denial in association to a question that involves wrongdoing or has

consequences if answered truthfully.
• Nonspecific Denial:
– The ‘no’ statement is not specific to the question. ‘I didn’t do anything.’ vs. ‘ I didn’t do it.’
• Isolated delivery of denial
– In response to a question of wrongdoing the person buries the ‘no’ in a long-winded answer. What
percentage of the answer actually relates to the denial?

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Reluctance or Refusal to
Answer

• Dodging the question is an indicator of deception.

• ‘ hmmm… I’m not sure I’m the right person to talk to’ when you know they are the right
person.
• ‘Gee, I’m not sure I can answer that.’

• Balance it. There are legitimate reasons for this indicator that are not deceptive.

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Repeating the Question

• Known as the “buying time” deceptive indicator.

• By repeating the questions or asking you to repeat the question, the claimant is buying
himself time and filling the awkward silence while they fabricate a response.
• If they were being truthful, they would just answer.

• Be careful of hard of hearing individuals, low IQ, and drug interactions. Mind your Baseline.

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Nonanswer Statements

• Psychologically the same as Repeating the questions  meant to buy the person time.
• Examples: “That’s a good question.” “I’m glad you asked that.” “I knew you were going to ask
me that.” “That’s a legitimate concern.”

• Also helps direct further inquiry. The answer can tell you what they believed was important.

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Inconsistent Statements

• Keeping the story straight. The most difficult part of a long lasting lie is keeping the story
straight over time.
• The truth is easier to keep straight than a lie because the truth stands on its own.

• This can be both Verbal and in Writing.

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Going Into Attack Mode

• When the person begins to attack the questioner instead of answering the question.
• Usually takes the form of attacking credibility and/or competency.
• Examples:
– “How long have you been doing this job?”
– “Do you know anything about our organization?”
– “Do you know anything that is going on at that employer?”
– “Why are you wasting my time with this stuff?”
– “Why don’t you trust me?”
– “Are you trying to trick me?”
• Balance with the fact that sometimes people are just jerks. Mind your Baseline. Mind the cluster.

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Inappropriate questions

• A cousin of the idea that asking a question in response to a question is deceptive; however,
that doesn’t necessarily indicate deceit.
• An Inappropriate question which indicates deception is when a person answers a question
with a question that is unrelated to the original question.
• Example: When asked, “Why would the stolen laptop have your fingerprints on it?” the
individual responds “How much did the laptop cost?”

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Overly Specific Answers

• The person answers the question too technically or too narrowly.

• OR the person inundates you with over-specificity and detailed information.
• A good example of the later is when a person is asked about their job, truthful people typically
respond with their job title. Deceptive people typically give you a job description.

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Inapproriate Level of
Politeness

• You are listening for a sudden change of politeness. The sudden use of “sir” or “ma’am”.

• Also keep an eye out for sudden injected compliments. “Your tie looks nice.”

• Again, Mind your clusters and Mind your baseline.

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Inapproriate Level of
Concern

• Where a person attempts to diminish the importance of what is occurring.

• Example: “Why is this such a big deal?” or “Why is everybody worried about that?”
– They also might attempt a joke of sorts.

• Be carful of overly nervous witnesses who are just simply feeling awkward. Even in that
situation, such a response as above would signal you to go deeper.

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Process or Procedural
Complaints

• A cousin of the going on attack mode deceptive indicator. This one focuses on the actual
complaints. Similar to a delaying tactic
• Example: “How long is this going to take?” “I have important things to get to, let’s wrap this
up.”

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Failure to Understand a
Simple Question

• A complicated deceptive indicator to understand but an easy one to recognize.

• When you ask a question and the person answers with a slightly different context and a
slightly skewed scope.
• If the person answering can change the scope and boundaries of the question, then they can
answer truthfully.
• You will get this feeling and think to yourself, wait a minute…. That wasn’t my question.

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Referral Statements

• A reference back to an earlier question and answer or an earlier situation.

• Examples: “ As I said during our last meeting .. “ “As we explained in our report … “ “Like I told
the last guy who asked that question. . .”

• Each time a deception is created and told the person hearing it gets closer to believing it.
Essentially, if someone repeats a deception enough, it will be believed.

• Thus it is important to review and know the first original telling of the story to see if it is
different in any way.

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Invoking Religion

• Pretty simple. Balance is necessary. Mind your baseline.

• This is referred to as dressing up the lie. It is very effective.
• Example: “I swear to God…” “As Allah is my witness . . .“ “I swear on a stack of Bibles .. .” “ God
knows I’m telling the truth.”

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Selective Memory

• Really difficult to figure out. Mind your clusters. This is not a deceptive indicator by itself.
• Easy to recognize “I don’t remember”
• It can be entirely truthful or can also be a selective memory alteration showing a deceptive
indicator.
• Context is most important.

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Qualifiers

• Two types of qualifiers: Exclusion qualifiers and perception qualifiers

• Exclusion qualifiers:
– Allows a person to withhold certain information and answer your question truthfully.
– Examples: not really, fundamentally, basically, for the most part, probably, Usually, Possibly, not
significantly
• Perception qualifiers:
– Used to enhance credibility
– Examples: Frankly, to tell you the truth, to be perfectly honest, honestly, candidly, truthfully.

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Convincing Statements

• The lies of influence. Attempting to create a halo effect or skew the answer so an erroneous
conclusion is drawn.
• These are the most difficult to catch because they are nestled in the truth. Thus, they are the
most powerful.

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Convincing Statements
Cont.

• Examples:
– I have a great reputation
– I’m an honest person.
– My word is my bond
– I always try to do the right thing
– I would never jeopardize my job by doing something like that
– I have worked here for over twenty years.

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Pre-Trial Ways of Using

Evidence of deception

• Present the evidence of deceit, to the attending physician. (or any other involved physician)
• Use the evidence of inconsistency and/or deceit in settlement negotiations.
• Hire additional experts if needed
• Question whether further action should be taken (is this a willful misrepresentation situation)
• Take discovery deposition to obtain answer under oath, e.g. two prior contradicting
statements. Which one does he adopt under Oath?

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Prepare for the showdown

• Get the questions that you will be asking ready and in the correct order.
• Memorize the content but not the language of your questions.
• Prepare any impeachment materials and exhibits that will be needed.
• Prepare for the unexpected.

• This is the physical preparation, next is the mental preparation.

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L-Squared mode

• This is not an easy concept to grasp and takes a lot of practice, but can be mastered with
simple practice.
• Our minds default to 1 of 2 phases -> Auditory or visual predominance.
• Either what we are listening to is taking control of our perceived reality, OR
• What we are seeing is taking control of our perceived reality

• Ever turn down the music when you are driving to figure out which exit to take?

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L-Squared mode

• L-Squared Mode is a way to bypass this natural tendency.

• You are looking and listening simultaneously.
• It is not a permanent state and your mind will become taxed and eventually go back to its
natural state of one or the other.
• Purpose: To force your brain to process both what the person is saying and what the person is
physically doing.

• Now that we know how to go into L-Squared Mode……..

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Deception Detection in Person

• We talked about verbal deception detection, that is what you are listening for, but visual
detection focuses on what to look for when a person answers.
• Remember this still falls under our 5-second rule. Timing is critical between the psychological
stimuli of the question and the response.
• Remember to mind your baseline and don’t forget about clusters of deceptive indicators.

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Visual Deception Indicators

• Behavioral pause or delay

• Verbal/ Nonverbal disconnect
• Hiding the Mouth or Eyes
• Throat Clearing or Swallowing
• Hand-to-face Activity
• Anchor-point Movement
• Grooming Gestures
• Microexpressions
• Body Language

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Behavioral Pause or Delay

• A pause between the time the question was asked and the time the answer begins.
• This is contextual in two ways:
– Whether a person needs to think about the answer before responding (i.e. attempting to recall an
unimportant previous date), is contextual to the question being asked
– All conversation falls into a specific and natural cadence. Find what the natural cadence of the
questioning is and the deviations from this cadence may indicate a deceptive behavior.
• A pause or delay is more likely an area that needs more attention in questioning, rather than
an outright deceptive indicator. Mind your clusters.

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Verbal/nonverbal
disconnect

• Our brains align our body’s movements with our verbal actions.
• When the two do not connect, it is a indicator of deception.
• Examples: nodding while saying “no” or moving the head side to side while saying ‘yes’
• Only effective and useful in a narrative answer instead of a direct single word answer.

• Mind your baseline.

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Hiding the Mouth or Eyes

• Deceptive people will often hide their mouth or eyes when being untruthful. It’s a natural
tendency to cover up the lie by moving your hand in front of your mouth as well as closing
your eyes to hide yourself from the reaction your lies have on others.
• The combo of both is an itch to the nose.
• Be careful not to mistake an itch for a deceptive indicator or a blink for a deceptive indicator.
• Also be careful of reflection based eye closing. When somebody is trying to recall something
with difficulty there is a natural tendency to close your eyes to decrease the stimuli you are
encountering in order to properly recall the incident in question.

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Throat Clearing or
Swallowing

• Sometimes throat clearing and swallowing is just physically necessary; other times it is a
deceptive indicator.
• The difference is the degree to which a person clears their throat or swallows. You are looking
for a sudden choking type sensation or Adam’s apple movement. Timing also matters, if a
person swallows before the answer it can be an indicator, after the answer it is less likely.
• Physiologically the question may have caused a spike in anxiety and that spike can cause
discomfort and dryness in the mouth and throat necessitating swallowing or throat clearing.

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Hand-to-face Activity

• Be on the look out for anything a person does with their face in response to your question.
• This is simple high-school science.
• Question  triggers anxiety  creates fight-or-flight response  blood leaves face, ears, and
other extremities to flood vital organs and major muscle groups with oxygen  capillaries in
areas where blood has left become irritated and create sensation of cold or itchiness 
person pulls on their ear.
• Examples: biting or licking lips, pulling on lips, ears, etc.

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Anchor-Point Movement

• Each point of contact with solid matter is an anchor point.

• All movement around the anchor points are considered a single deceptive indicator for the
purpose of clusters.
• Person sitting in a chair has anchor points at his buttocks, his back, and his feet; these are
primary anchor points. If there is a table in front of him, his hands on the table may also be
anchor points; these are secondary anchor points.
• Examples: shifting weight in chair, moving hands from hips to pockets, leg that is crossed
begins to bounce.

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Grooming Gestures

• Simple enough to see and another way to dissipate the anxiety originating from the deceptive
behavior.
• Examples: adjusting tie, adjusting shirt cuffs or glasses, move strands of hair behind ear,
straighten pants or skirts, picking at fingernails.
• Tidying up your immediate surroundings is another grooming gesture.
• All grooming gestures are counted as a single deceptive indicator for purpose of clusters.

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Microexpressions

• The almost imperceptible twitches, tics, and tells.

• There are 6 universal facial expressions:
– Happiness
– Sadness
– Surprise
New Studies tell us that there are actually 21
– Fear universal facial expressions, but the extra 15 are
– Anger made up of combinations of the first 6 such as:
happily disgusted, or sadly angry, or hatred (fear +
– Disgust anger + disgust)

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Microexpressions

• There are 43 muscles in the face.

• Outside of the universally accepted facial expressions, it is theorized that there are over
10,000 expressions that humans make by combining and masking certain elements of the
original 6 using different combinations of the 43 muscles.
• There is no facial expression for lying.
• There is no microexpression for lying.
• There is only compare, contrast, and align.

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Microexpressions

• Don’t feel discouraged. Microexpressions tend to last for less that 1/5 of a second and are
mostly picked up unconsciously.
• This is why you have ‘gut feelings’ about a person even after you have checked your bias at
the door.

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Using Microexpressions

• Learn the original 6 expressions.

• Once a questions is asked you are comparing the anticipated response with the actual
response
• If somebody should be sad when answering the questions but their expressions show
happiness that is a problem
• If somebody should show happiness but instead show fear that is also a problem.

• Compare and contrast your anticipated response with the actual response and align it with
the known facts about the situation.

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Body Language

• Differs from microexpressions.

• Although microexpressions fall within body language, the focus of each area of study is
different.
• Microexpressions focuses on the face while Body Language tends to focus on the rest of the
Body.

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Body Language

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Body Language

• You can only see the top ½ of their

body.
• They can also put their hands under the
table limiting your possible view to body
language tics and tells.
• A chair that doesn’t swivel or adjust
allow firm grounding and limits anchor-
point movement.

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Body Language

• Glass conference table has more

reflective surfaces.
• The more reflective surfaces you have,
the more places you have to see the tics
and tells
• Bonus, you can see through the table
allowing you to process a wider range of
body language tells.
• Swivel chairs exaggerate slight shifts in
posture, anchor-point movements, and
dissipation of anxiety movements.

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Myths about Deception

• Eye Contact
• Closed Posture
• General Nervous Tension
• Pre-emptive Responses
• Blushing or Twitching
• Clenched Hands
• Baselining alone
• Sweating

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Challenge Claimant’s Reality

with Gathered Evidence

• Present Clear Stimulus

• Use the 5-second rule.
• Look for clusters of deceitful behaviors both verbal and nonverbal. The more deceitful
behaviors observed, the higher likelihood of deceit.
• Chasing the Rabbit

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Impeachment

• An attorney “impeaches” a witness’ credibility by pointing out lies, discrepancies or

inconsistencies occurring either before trial or during trial.
• ER 801(d)(2) allows an attorney to question a “party-opponent” about any statement that
may contradict his or her current testimony under oath.
• ER613(b) allows an attorney to impeach a witness’s credibility by questioning the witness
about prior statements, whether written or oral, whether inconsistent or not when the
witness is not a party-opponent

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How to React to Deception During Trial

• Remain calm. Think strategically. Don’t show a tell.

• You are being evaluated just as much as you are evaluating.
• Showing a tell in the middle of trial may afford your opponent the chance to rehabilitate their
witness causing you to lose the advantage.

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What To Do Now?

• Write a detailed memo.

• Concisely indicate what happened and where the evidence of deception can be found.
• You will not remember the details in about 24 hours, you will only remember the broad
strokes. The broad strokes will not be helpful to you in the event you choose to take action
later on.

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Board’s Treatment of
Deception

• The Board recognizes that a case can turn on the issue of credibility and has addressed all
three types of lies.
• On the other hand, the Board has stated that in-person testimony is not integral to Board
proceedings and has created WACs that support this theory.
– The IAJ can be swapped out after hearing testimony and a different IAJ can write the PD&O.
– Claimant’s testimony can be taken telephonically.

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Courses of Action to Take

• The BIIA cannot convict a person of Perjury, it does not have jurisdiction to address crimes.
• A criminal proceeding must be brought by the prosecutor or district attorney.
• Hand the case to the prosecutor completely ready for trial. A charge of perjury must be
brought within 3 years of the perjury and 2 years for false swearing.

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Final Results

• Do not forget about the employer’s business interests. Advise and discuss with your client. Is
the employer more interested in terminating employment because of the deceptive
behavior?
• Keep in mind what a charge of perjury can do to a person. Professionally, personally, and
economically. Make sure you are right.
• Practice Practice Practice. Best places to practice are news interviews with business people
and politicians. Also review past interviews where you now know the person was lying and
test yourself. Don’t practice on your friends and family.

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Let’s Play a Little Game

• Every person in the room has 8 playing cards.

• Please pick up the cards and turn to the person next to you.
• Both Players look at their eight cards.
• Both Players should mentally pick out a card, but do not remove it and do not tell the other
player
• Now swap your cards with the other players

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Let’s Play a Little Game

• The first player flips the cards handed to them over on to the table one by one while the other
player denies that each and every card is the selected card.
• Now the second player does the same thing with the cards handed to them from the first
player.
• What card did the other player choose? i.e. which card were they lying about?

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Let’s Play a Little Game

• You just completed the same test that was used to test the efficacy of
polygraph machines when they were first introduced in the 1930s by Leonarde
Keeler at Stanford.

• Put on the super hero mask that has been provided if you guessed the right
card.

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CONGRATULATIONS

• If you are wearing a mask congratulations!

• You were able to identify and move pass your biases, establish the baseline,
detect the auditory and visual signs of deception, and root out the correct card
by figuring out the lie.

• YOU ARE A DECEPTION DETECTIVE SUPER HERO!

• Go forth and use your powers for good.

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Works cited

• See the attached bibliography for the works cited.

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THANK YOU!

• On behalf of WSIA and Reeve Law Firm I would like to thank you for attending today’s
presentation.
• A Special Thank you to Haile Williams and Betsy Reeve at Reeve Law Firm for their assistance
in the preparation of this presentation.

• Questions?

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