Posted on 08/14/2004 8:53:01 AM PDT by Wally_Kalbacken
Facing the prospect of a federal corruption indictment, former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell took the offensive Friday with the announcement he had passed a polygraph examination.
The examination, which cost Campbell $600, was administered Friday by a former director of the FBI's polygraph unit who is now a private examiner in Knoxville.
Kendall Shull, who retired from the FBI in 2001, said he asked Campbell questions about whether he took bribes as mayor and engaged in illegal fund-raising activities.
"He passed," Shull said.
This summer, federal investigators have interviewed witnesses and lawyers representing witnesses who are cooperating in the corruption probe of Campbell's administration. Federal authorities have obtained convictions of 10 people with business contracts or connections to City Hall or Campbell, who served as mayor from 1994 to 2002.
A federal grand jury continues to hear testimony and weigh evidence, and lawyers familiar with the investigation say prosecutors are nearing a decision on whether to seek an indictment against the former mayor.
The timing of the polygraph is further indication that Campbell's defense team believes a decision is imminent. It also shows how aggressive Campbell's lawyers will be in combating any possible charges.
This wasn't the first time that Campbell has taken a polygraph in an effort to clear his name. In 1993, when he was a city councilman, Campbell announced he had passed one after a concessionaire at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport claimed Campbell had accepted bribes.
It remains to be seen whether the results of Friday's polygraph will ever be heard by a federal jury if the former mayor is indicted.
In his exam, Shull said he asked Campbell the following:
• Did you ever take any official action in exchange for campaign contributions, cash, gifts or other remuneration?
• Did you receive anything of value in exchange for taking any official action as mayor?
• Did you know of or did you participate in any illegal fund-raising activity in connection with your mayoral races?
• In connection with your races for mayor, were you aware of any illegal fund-raising activity?
Campbell answered, "No," to all the questions, Shull said, adding that his analysis showed "no deception." The examiner said the only other possible results are "deception indicated" or "no opinion."
Shull said he had yet to generate a report of his examination. He also said he would allow another examiner to review the charts generated by Campbell's polygraph. This is standard procedure and would be done by the end of the weekend, Shull said.
Atlanta lawyer Steve Sadow, one of Campbell's defense attorneys, said the former mayor insisted that he take a polygraph and that the "hardest tester possible" give the examination.
"The insistence of this polygraph was Bill Campbell's and Bill Campbell's alone," Sadow said.
Sadow also said that if federal prosecutors agree to allow Shull's examination to be admitted into evidence — if Campbell is ultimately charged and goes to trial — "we'll take [another] polygraph with any FBI polygraph examiner the government chooses."
Although polygraphs cannot be admitted into evidence in Georgia's state courts, they can be admitted in federal court in limited circumstances, Atlanta criminal defense attorney Don Samuel said.
"I've never seen it successfully done without another party's consent," Samuel said. "But it's possible, particularly if you allow yourself to be subjected to a polygraph administered by the government."
Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter said he suspects the results of Campbell's polygraph examination taken Friday will never be seen by a jury — and Campbell's defense team knows it.
"This is an attempt to poison the well, to make sure that it's in the minds of potential jurors," Porter said. "It's good strategy. This also may be saber-rattling with the prosecution in an effort to head off the grand jury."
In the 1993 Hartsfield airport corruption case, then-City Councilman Campbell announced he had passed a polygraph test administered in Texas to rebut accusations from a former airport concessionaire. Harold Echols, who owned one of the largest food-and-beverage operations at Hartsfield-jackson, had told federal investigators he paid bribes to Campbell.
When he produced the results of his polygraph, Campbell called Echols' allegation an "outrageous lie." The councilman was never charged in the airport corruption scandal and was later elected mayor.
One very interesting aspect of this that the AJC cannot seem to see, despite its presence right under their noses, was Campbell's departure from Atlanta. he was hosting a radio talk show in the months after his last term ended, and on a Monday he announce he was leaving to move to Florida, that Thursday. He joined the law firm of Willie E. Gary, and as far as I know, has stayed out of the 100 mile radius of the subpoena power of a grand jury sitting in Atlanta, ever since.
The polygraph trick doesn't fool anyone.
LOL.....your last sentence should have been the first sentence.
Wonder if this is the same guy that gave Gary Condit HIS polygraph??
My first thought. Condit's lie detector test...
LOL..what a charade.
If that world class, former FBI polygraph expert had asked the mayor about being given gambling money for Tunica casinos, we'd never have heard about this "test", because Campbell would have flunked. (And by the way...we don't know how many "practice" tests he was given before he "passed" this one.)
Let's give this test to Kerry and Clinton...
And has anyone noticed that Clinton is really close to Klingon?
I made a typo the other day and saw it.
And beating the exam is not at all difficult.
Maybe he will parade around Atlanta with chains wrapped around his body. The mayor of Birmingham ,Al performed this victim portrayl, accompanied by joseph lowery and the rest of the usual communists friends from SCLC. Polygraph exams are easy to beat just rehearse enough, like betty currie/gary condit/oJ. A psuedo victim of racial injustice in Hotlanta. I imagine Campbell is saying, These Honkies, are becoming more obstreperous!!!! Bush/Cheney 2004
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