Danny Brown passed a lie-detector test that indicates he didn't commit the murder that kept him imprisoned for 19 years, but prosecutors who requested the test don't have enough faith in the results to rule out taking him to trial again.

The polygraph exam, coupled with DNA evidence that proves Mr. Brown didn't rape Bobbie Russell when she was murdered in 1981, convinced the Lucas County prosecutor's office not to fight his motion for new trial or his release on bond two weeks ago.

Despite the clean bill of health he received from an internationally known polygraphist, Mr. Brown's ordeal with the court system may not be over. He likely will be prosecuted again for the murder, said John Weglian, chief of the special units division of the Lucas County prosecutor's office.

“I view the polygraph as being a reasonably reliable investigative tool,” Mr. Weglian said. “For the most part, I would trust testimony and statements given by witnesses more than polygraphs.”

Although Mr. Weglian is generally impressed with the ability of a good polygraphist to ferret out the truth, others question their worth.

Doug Williams, a former polygraph examiner for the Oklahoma City police department, runs an Internet-based business that's based on claims he can teach someone to beat the machine.

He said he puts little stock in polygraphs and has been featured on numerous news programs, including 60 Minutes, to assail the tests, which measure reactions to questions by recording one's heartbeat, breathing, and sweat produced from two fingers.

“The problem with a polygraph is that it's based on a false premise,” Mr. Williams said. “They say that when you lie, you have a reaction that indicates deception. That's true - about 50 percent of the time.

“The other 50 percent of the time, that very same reaction is indicative of nervousness, fear, rage at having been asked the question, embarrassment, or misplaced guilt. Any number of innocent stimuli can cause the same reaction that can brand you as a liar.”

Polygraph proponents contend that a trained examiner can conduct a test that accounts for reactions that generate unwarranted responses.

Mr. Williams said he testified before Congress in the late 1980s in an effort to make it illegal for private businesses to use polygraph exams as a pre-employment screening method. Congress later passed such a law, which allowed a few specific exemptions, such as theft or sabotage. Governmental agencies may still use the tests.

Toledo police value polygraphs for internal investigations of officers, said Detective Sgt. Keefe Snyder, who heads the department's scientific investigations unit. But police most often use the machine on suspects in criminal cases. Sergeant Snyder said polygraphs are extremely valuable during interrogations because when suspects are confronted with evidence that they are lying, they often confess.

Alan Konop, a Toledo defense attorney, said he thinks polygraphs done by police are questionable when officers go into them hoping to obtain a confession. That objective, he believes, can skew the results.

“The problem with any police department doing a polygraph test is that they view it as a method of interrogation,” he said.

Mr. Konop occasionally uses polygraph tests in an attempt to clear his clients, but often goes to private examiners who aren't police employees.

Steve Stechschulte, a polygraphist for the Ohio Bureau of Identification and Investigation, said more important than who the examiner works for is experience.

Mr. Stechschulte said he conducts 225 exams a year, but private examiners generally only conduct30 to 50 tests annually. He said exams conducted by well-trained and experienced examiners usually yield accurate results.

“I think with the advanced training that's being done across the United States, people are seeing more reliability in the way the charts are being interpreted,” he said.

Among the Toledo area's most experienced polygraph examiners is Lynn Marcy, who conducted Danny Brown's test after an initial Toledo police exam was rated as inconclusive.

Mr. Marcy of Otsego, Mich., has been in private practice since 1956 and has been training polygraphists since 1973. He trained the three polygraph examiners for the Toledo police and offers training in other countries.

He said interpreting a polygraph test is a mixture of science and art, similar to reading an EKG or an X-ray.

“It's a diagnostic test that has to do with the skill and experience of the person doing the testing,” Mr. Marcy said.

After giving Mr. Brown an exam on April 4, he concluded the 45-year-old man was telling the truth about not killing Bobbie Russell.

Having Mr. Brown sit for an exam in front of Mr. Marcy or anybody else was a tough call, said Jon Richardson, Mr. Brown's attorney. He said he knew if his client failed, it wouldn't hurt his legal position on a motion for new trial but it would have been “bad public relations.”

“If someone had interpreted the polygraph results adversely to Danny, it would have been a psychological setback,” Mr. Richardson said. “It would have made the prosecutor's office even more intransigent.”

As it is, the prosecutor's office remains unconvinced of Mr. Brown's innocence, even though the semen sample taken from Miss Russell's body matches a man serving a life sentence for a similar crime.

The sample matches the DNA of Sherman Preston, who was convicted last year for the 1983 murder of Denise Howell. Like Miss Russell, Ms. Howell was strangled and sodomized. The match was discovered when it was entered into a DNA databank of violent offenders maintained by the state.

Preston has not been charged with the murder, but Mr. Weglian said that doesn't get Mr. Brown off the hook. At one point in the investigation, Miss Russell's 6-year-old son, Jeffery, said two men were in the Birmingham Terrace apartment when his mother was killed. The little boy later waffled in two court hearings, saying Mr. Brown was the only person who hurt his mother.

Tom Ross, an investigator for the county prosecutor's office, since has contacted Jeffrey Russell. Mr. Russell maintained that two people were in the apartment and that Mr. Brown was one of them, Mr. Weglian said.

First Published April 22, 2001, 10:40 a.m.