After Jay Wallace had been fired from his job as an Island County deputy sheriff, he asked his fellow deputies to support his fight to get his job back.

Appearing before his fellow union members in July, he told the group that he was innocent, saying, “I would take a lie detector test to prove it.”

His former co-workers took him up on his offer.

Wallace offered more details this week on the polygraph test he took to clear his name. Wallace, who is running on the Democratic ticket for Island County Sheriff, was fired by current Sheriff Mike Hawley in April after police said he lied when asked about his lack of response to a 911 call in Freeland where a woman was reportedly being held hostage.

Wallace said the lie-detector test was set up by Pat Emmal, the attorney for the deputies’ union. Wallace said he was more than willing to take the test.

“A couple of the deputies wanted proof that I am innocent of the misdemeanor charge,” Wallace said.

The polygraph test was administered in the Everett area on July 6. Details of the case against Wallace were fed to the test administrator by the guild attorney.

“I had nothing to do with the questions that were asked about the situation,” Wallace said.

“My ‘fingerprints’ were not on it. It was a totally unbiased test,” he said.

Wallace believes in the accuracy of polygraph tests. Though they are often used in the private sector, polygraph tests aren’t admissible as evidence in the courts.

Test results vary

Dr. Douglas Orr, a polygraph expert from the Criminal Justice Department of Washington State University, said the validity of a polygraph test depends on the questions asked.

“It is just a recording instrument like a variety of tools you would find in a doctor’s office. The polygraph picks up certain physiological reactions when people lie,” Orr said.

“The accuracy of the test depends on how the questions are framed,” Orr said.

A polygraph test consists of specific and general questions. But Orr said he has known of cases where the specific questions were so convoluted that the test was not accurate.

“When a person lies, physical reactions will explode over two to five seconds. It’s the fight or flight impulse,” he said.

“The innocent person focuses on the control questions and the guilty person focuses on the relevant questions,” Orr said.

“That makes the test work,” he said.

Wallace said that the technology used in polygraph tests has been constantly improving, so there is not reason to suspect the results of the test.

“If you are guilty, it’s going to show up,” Wallace said.

“I passed with flying colors,” he added.

Wallace said unless a person is a sociopath, there is no way to beat a polygraph test.

Campaign continues

Wallace talked about his lie-detector test last week, while moving forward with his campaign for Island County sheriff. He pointed to his long record of outstanding public service, and said he was the victim of a political smear campaign.

Wallace was charged by the state Attorney General’s Office in August for allegedly lying on a police report. He pleaded not guilty in Island County court in late September, and a trial is set for Nov. 27

The charges stem from an incident in February when Wallace was on duty and didn’t respond to a 911 hang-up call from a woman who was allegedly being held hostage and sexually assaulted in Freeland.

Wallace was fired in April by Hawley for false reporting and failing to follow the sheriff’s office protocol for 911 hang-up calls.

Wallace said will win his case.

“I am not going to be found guilty. I did not lie in any way, shape or form.” Wallace said.

He also noted he has handled a thousand domestic violence calls in his career, and the woman at the Freeland home did not need any help when he responded to the first 911 call at the house.

Wallace said when he first went to the home where two 911 hang-up calls had been dialed, a woman came to the door while putting on pants.

When she recognized Wallace as an deputy, Wallace said, she ran toward the back of the home and refused to come to the door.

Wallace said he could not see any injuries or evidence of a fight, so he left.

He chose to ignore the second 911 call from the same address to stay close to another incident where he was needed to back up another deputy, he said.

Wallace said didn’t go back to the Freeland home because there had been more than one 911 hang-up call that night that didn’t check out. And secondly, the woman had not appeared to be in distress during his first visit to the home.

He also said that while the incident was later portrayed as a hostage situation, the woman’s first discussion with I-COM emergency dispatchers contradicts that claim.

On I-COM’s 911 recordings of the call, the woman can be heard telling the dispatcher that a man who has several warrants out for his arrest is in her house and won’t leave.

She said he wouldn’t open the door, according to 911 recordings released earlier by Island County.

“Now, who would want to go back in the house if somebody inside wants to hurt her?” Wallace asked.

Wallace said the emergency dispatch center shaped what the woman said about being sexually assaulted.

“If you listen to the tape, you will hear the dispatcher ask whether she was sexually assaulted. There is a pause, then she says yes,” Wallace said.

Wallace said the woman was a drug user who wanted to get rid of the man she had been partying with for a week.

“She wanted Matthew Friar out of the house. If he was arrested for domestic violence, he would be unable to return to the house for two weeks,” Wallace said.

He also questioned the woman’s veracity.

“She is a drug user. Friar and the woman had been together at the house for a week partying,” Wallace said.

Wallace also said “gross mistakes” were made during the internal investigation on the 911 calls.

“They never interviewed me, my wife or my witness,” Wallace said.

Wallace also claims that Hawley, through lawyers, offered him a deal to take back the termination of employment if Wallace would drop any legal action against the sheriff’s office.

“The exact wording was, I could come back, retire, in exchange for forgoing legal actions,” he said. “I denied that, as I wanted to maintain my right as an American to file a lawsuit.”

Hawley denies ever offering such a deal.

“I have four witnesses that will testify that Mike Hawley offered me my job back,” Wallace said, adding that his witnesses are union officials and the union attorney.

The 911 controversy has overshadowed every other issue in Wallace’s campaign for county sheriff.

Hawley is not seeking re-election, and the primary race for the Republican spot on the ticket drew three challengers. Wallace, a former Republican, is running as a Democrat, but the Democratic Party does not support his candidacy.

Despite the 911 controversy, Wallace got the most votes during the September primary. He pulled in 4,363 votes.

Wallace will face off against Republican Mark Brown in November, who got 4,177 votes in the primary.