Local TC: Darlie Routier case
grif...@ix.netcom.com
This will be in the June 6, 1998 edition of the Fort Worth
Star-Telegram. http://www.star-telegram.com
Darlie Routier's husband fails lie detector test
By Liz Stevens
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Darin Routier, husband of Texas Death Row inmate Darlie Routier, failed
a recent lie detector test
that questioned him about the June 1996 deaths of the couple's two sons,
according to a Waco
millionaire funding an independent investigation of the killings.
Insurance executive Brian Pardo said yesterday that Darin Routier
"utterly and completely" failed a
polygraph test administered May 22 in Pardo's offices by a Waco police
officer and free-lance
polygraph examiner.
The lie detector test, Pardo said, consisted of four questions: Was
Darin Routier involved in any
plan to commit any crime in his home in June 1996? Did he know who
placed a bloody sock down
the alley behind the family's Rowlett home? Did he stab his wife? Could
he identify anyone who
attacked his children?
Darin Routier answered "no" to each question "and unfortunately he
failed each and every one of
those questions, not once but three times," said Pardo, who was not
present at the test.
But Pardo emphasized "that does not make him guilty." Polygraph results
are not admissible in court
and "are fallible," Pardo added.
Darin Routier said yesterday from Lubbock: "There's absolutely no truth
in that test whatsoever. I
voluntarily took it, but Brian Pardo pretty much set me up to do it."
"I'm really concerned that we put this much trust into him and this is
what we get," added Routier,
who had traveled to his parents' home in Lubbock for a weekend stay.
"He's gone off the deep
end."
Several months ago, Pardo agreed to throw substantial financial backing
behind an investigation that
he hoped would prove Darlie Routier's innocence. "What led up to [the
polygraph test] was my
desire to conduct a thorough investigation and to rule out every
possible theory of the case until we
get to the one that's right," Pardo said. One of those theories
questions Darin Routier's knowledge
of the crime. "I emphatically do not feel Darin Routier killed his
children," Pardo added.
Darin's mother, Sarilda Routier, accompanied her son to Waco for the
test and said Darin's
nervousness might have affected the results. She also expressed her
absolute belief in her son's
innocence. Darin Routier lives with his mother-in-law, Darlie Kee, in
Plano.
In January 1997, a Kerrville jury convicted Darlie Routier of murdering
son Devon, 6, in a knife
attack that also killed 5-year-old son Damon in the family's home. Darin
Routier told police he was
sleeping upstairs with the couple's youngest son, Drake, at the time of
the murder. Police ruled him
out as a suspect early in the investigation.
Darlie Routier and her entire family have continued to insist that the
29-year-old mother is not guilty.
In January, they enlisted Pardo's help after seeing him interviewed by
NBC's Dateline news
program. Pardo had led an investigation on behalf of Texas Death Row
inmate David Wayne
Spence, convicted in the Lake Waco murders, and uncovered evidence that
indicated Spence could
be innocent.
Spence was executed in April 1997 despite Pardo's efforts, but the
Routier family saw in him a
potential savior. Pardo agreed to examine Darlie Routier's case after
believing he had discovered
numerous inconsistencies in the state's case against her.
Now, the family's feelings toward Pardo are decidedly mixed, Sarilda
Routier said. "We don't want
to throw Brian away because he's still behind Darlie," but in the
process of helping one family
member, he's hurting others, she maintained.
Pardo said he enlisted Waco police Detective Stuart Ervin to carry out
the test, but Ervin would not
comment other than to say he has been a licensed polygraph examiner in
Texas since 1990. "State
law is very clear that without specific releases I cannot comment" on
tests he administers, Ervin said.
Polygraph tests measure changes in the body such as heart rate,
]perspiration and respiratory
changes, Ervin explained. When a person lies, his or her body reacts
reflexively; "they can't control
it," he said.
Ervin has given more than 2,000 polygraph exams and believes them to be
"better than 90 percent
accurate. I have been proven right way too many times not to believe in
it," he said.
Before the test, Ervin questioned Darin Routier about his knowledge of
the murder and the attack
on his wife, Pardo said. Sarilda Routier said the interview shook her
son so much the lie detector
test was moot. Only a day before the test, she said, Pardo had told
Darin Routier over the phone
about his theory that the husband might have been involved in the crime.
"Darin is incapable of hurting a toenail, let alone those boys," she
insisted.
Evidence in the case included a sock, stained with both the childrens'
blood, that was found 75
yards down an alley behind the home. Darlie Routier's attorneys argued
that she could not have
committed the crime and have had time to place the sock where it was
found before police arrived
at her home.
Darlie Routier is aware her husband did not pass the test. "Darlie
insists she does not believe Darin
attacked her, but she also doesn't remember," said Pardo, who maintains
his belief that Darlie is
"totally innocent." "She's concerned there's a rush to judgment on Darin
just as there was on her."
Nevertheless, on Pardo's advice, Darlie Routier has cut off
communication with her husband for 30
days, Pardo said. Darin Routier confirmed that he and his wife were
cooperating with Pardo's
request, but he insisted "there is no one strong enough to break me and
Darlie apart no matter what
their tactics are."
Pardo, who is cooperating with Darlie Routier's appeals attorney Stephen
Cooper, said he will not
wait for the formal appeal to act.
He hopes to meet with the Dallas district attorney's office and ask the
state to reopen the case on
the basis of the new information he says he has compiled, including his
theory that besides the
Routier family another person, or people, were in the Rowlett home the
night of the slayings.
"They have the resources to find out these answers pretty quickly," he
said of the district attorney's
office. "And I think in the interest of justice they will do so very
quickly."
Maggie8097
<snip of interesting Dallas paper story>
***Linda, Thanks for posting, but that story left me totally confused. Pardo
said Darin miserably failed the polygraph, that he (Pardo) emphatically
believes Darin didn't kill his children and that he believes Darlie is "totally
innocent." So what in the hell does he think happened and why in the world did
he release the results of this polygraph if he believes it's unreliable? Or is
he saying that Darin was involved in a conspiracy to kill the children and that
he (Darin) was the one who stabbed Darlie, but not the children? Based on the
lie detector results that interpretation makes the most sense, but makes the
least practical sense (why would Darin stab the one person who was left alive
and might be able to identify him?). Can you enlighten me?
Maggie
"Everybody has the right to express what he thinks. That, of course, lets the
crackpots in. But if you cannot tell a crackpot when you see one, then you
ought to be taken in."--Harry Truman
THEnoveau
> grifftex posted :
>Darlie Routier's husband fails lie detector test
>
>
Considering that Darlie is the one in jail, I'm wondering why he didn't do one
on her?
Lynn
grif...@ix.netcom.com
Maggie8097 wrote:
>
> <snip of interesting Dallas paper story>
>
> ***Linda, Thanks for posting, but that story left me totally confused. Pardo
> said Darin miserably failed the polygraph, that he (Pardo) emphatically
> believes Darin didn't kill his children and that he believes Darlie is "totally
>
> Maggie
No, not really. (I have "Flesh and Blood" by Patricia Springer, but
I've gotta finish "Street Lawyer" before I can start it.)
The only thing I can figure is that Pardo is checking out theories that
he has heard, and one must've been that Darin was involved. One theory
that I heard is that Darin might have hired a hitman who didn't do the
job he was hired to do. According to a report I read (Star-Telegram, I
think), the Routiers were thrilled to have this financial
backer/investigator working for them. I guess if it were *my*
family-member and I felt she was innocent, I'd grab at any opportunity I
saw to prove her innocence. However, I thought it a bit odd that they
were so impressed with him, since the case that brought him to their
attention ended up with his guy being executed.
I haven't heard of any plans to have Darlie take a polygraph (but then,
I didn't hear of the plan for Darin, either). The paper did say
(several months ago) that the Routiers and Kees were trying to raise
money for Darlie to be hypnotized, but I haven't read anything about it
lately.
Linda
Terry Hallinan
then...@aol.com (THEnoveau) wrote:
>> grifftex posted :
>>Darlie Routier's husband fails lie detector test
>Considering that Darlie is the one in jail, I'm wondering why he didn't do one
>on her?
>Lynn
Obviously he would have to have her permission.
To address Maggie's questions it would seem that if Darin believed his
wife was guilty or even suspected it he might well have failed the
questions asked without having any involvement. As to why the DA
released the results, only God knows.
Best, Terry
"Positive - Being wrong at the top of one's lungs"
- The Devil's Dictionary
grif...@ix.netcom.com
Terry Hallinan wrote:
> To address Maggie's questions it would seem that if Darin believed his
> wife was guilty or even suspected it he might well have failed the
> questions asked without having any involvement. As to why the DA
> released the results, only God knows.
Hi, Terry,
Not the DA, but the millionaire/investigator who requested and paid for
the polygraph test. I, too, wonder why he released the results, since
he's working (*was*, anyway) for "the family". His stated goal is to
prove that Darlie didn't commit the murders, so he's probably looking
for another viable suspect. He says he's going to continue his
investigation, even though the Routiers aren't too pleased with him
these days.
Linda
hall...@borg.com
In article <357E41...@ix.netcom.com>,
Thanks for straightening me out on who released results of polygraph.
Given by a competent tester and understood for what they show, polygraph
results are extremely reliable. Not perfect but then only we are, Linda.
:-}
All a polygraph can show is deception, not guilt or innocence. The questions
asked could have been predicted to show deception in this case even if Darin
is absolutely innocent as seems most likely.
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Tom Smythe
grif...@ix.netcom.com wrote:
: I haven't heard of any plans to have Darlie take a polygraph (but then,
: I didn't hear of the plan for Darin, either). The paper did say
: (several months ago) that the Routiers and Kees were trying to raise
: money for Darlie to be hypnotized, but I haven't read anything about it
: lately.
Reports were that Darlie was privately given one by her own defense team
while she was in the Dallas jail awaiting trial, sometime in the fall of
1996. The results were not disclosed, but it's highly likely she flunked
it. Had she passed it, the defense certainly would have gone public with
the results.