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DPS employee refuses to undergo lie detector test
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Posted on Jun 30 2011
Police Commissioner Ramon Mafnas confirmed yesterday that a Department of Public Safety personnel had refused to undergo a lie detector test as part of investigation into the disappearance of sisters Faloma and Maleina Luhk.
Mafnas refused, however, to confirm or deny if that DPS employee is among those on investigators’ top list of persons of interest in the case. “I would like to respect the privacy of the individual for now,” he said.
In all cases, Mafnas said, there will be persons of interests so they are trying to clear these individuals and check them off the list to narrow down the search or investigative process. It is therefore difficult for investigators to clear an individual from the list if that person does not cooperate and submit himself to a polygraph test, he added.
“We are focusing on all leads and persons of interests. We continue to be hopeful in gathering information that is significant,” he said.
With respect to the searches, Mafnas said they are mindful of the people they choose to include in the operations. “That’s why we eliminated people who are charged with sex offenses. A convicted sex offender won’t be allowed to be a part of the search party,” he said.
Police officer Jason Tarkong said anybody who has a criminal history and on the list of sex offenders were not allowed to join the volunteers in the searches.
Police started doing underwater searches on Wednesday. This week, Mafnas said, they have a targeted search area but they opted not to identify the area because they want to protect the site.
“We don’t want people to go out there and disturb the area or try to conduct the search themselves and possibly compromise any evidence that may be present,” he said.
Yesterday, Mafnas said he sent people to look at certain areas on Saipan.
“We will not give up on this. We will continue to look into every lead that is given us and any person with information should call us immediately. We will jump at any information that we believe is significant or reliable,” he said.
