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| Jeanne Hobbs of NorCal Polygraph testing Justin Smeja. Picture courtesy of Ro Sahebi, leave it to a bigfooter to take a blurry picture. No wonder we can't get a clear photo of BF. |
Yesterday afternoon (08.14.2012) I had the pleasure of interviewing the polygraph examiner that conducted the interview with Justin Smeja. Based on the the report from Bigfoot Evidence there were a few details I wanted to clarify. I was curious if the questions were designed by the examiner and if the questions were shared with the Justin Smeja previous to the interview. Both common practices and legitimate practices during a polygraph examinations. I was also curious to the format of the questions, knowing that in all likeliness more than 17 questions were asked.
Below is our conversation with Jeanne Hobbs, thank you Ro Sahebi for arranging this interview. Your a nice guy and have beautiful hair.
Jeanne can you tell me about your background and how you got into becoming a polygraph examiner?I used to work for a private investigator and we were always looking for polygraph examiner, they were hard to come by. Eventually I realized in 2002-2003 that it would be worth it to go to school, become an examiner myself and buy a state-of-the art polygraph machine.
How many tests have you done in your carreer?Over 800
It was reported earlier that Bart Cutino and Ro Sahebi created the questions, isn't it more common for the examiner to prepare the questions?I did prepare the questions. Only the examiner creates the questions for the exam. Bart and Ro had a prepared general outlines of questions they wanted asked and I rewrote some of them as yes and no questions and there were some that I felt might have been redundant, questions about the Fish and Wildlife for example, so I omitted them.
While doing my research I read it is common practice in polygraph tests to share the questions your going to ask with the interviewee, sometime this is done as part of the pre-interview process. Did Justin get to preview these questions?Yes, this is normal during a polygraph examination. The test looks for significant involuntary responses, the physiological reactions that a person would have to be able to control or fake would take years and lots of practice to fake. These questions are not supposed to be "gotcha" questions, they are asked in a specific sequence to determine fluctuation in physiological activities. We create a baseline when the subject is asked to tell a known lie.
There are 17 question on the report, how many questions did you ask all together? 40 questions were asked; four 10-question sets.
Can you talk about the 10 question set?The 10 question set is what we use and is scientifically designed to be used in the exam. 4 Known Truth Questions, 4 Relevant Questions, 2 Know Lies (Control Questions) The "know truth" questions & "know lie" questions are what scores the "relevant" questions.
Was there anything different about this test and the test results?This test went like any of the many other test I performed.
Prior to to this test did you have an opinion about Bigfoot?My brother is a Sergeant for the Washington State Patrol and he has shared some pretty strange stories of bigfoot-like creatures up there. So yeah, it seemed like a possibility to me. there are lot's of strange things that I think are possible, even UFO's You know?
After the test was there a shift in your thinking? I mean not only did Justin see a Bigfoot, but he shot one!Yeah it has definitely reinforced for me that Bigfoot are out there.
One last question, after the interview was complete and the results were recorded what was your impression of Justin as a subject?I believe he was truly scared for his life. His actions were based on protecting himself. Overall he was extremely calm and did not seem to have anything to prove or gain.You can read the results of the 17 polygraph questions in yesterday's post, and images of the original document at Bigfoot Evidence.
