Meyers v. Arcudi

947 F. Supp. 581, 46 Fed. R. Serv. 80, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18457, 71 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 44,809, 1996 WL 711329
District Court, D. Connecticut·Decided December 6, 1996·No. Civil 3:95CV223 (PCD)·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

RULING ON MOTION IN LIMINE

DORSEY, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff alleges violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as amended), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1985, and state common law. Plaintiff seeks admissibility of a polygraph test which purportedly sustains her credibility, crucial to her case. She offers affidavits of Victor Kaufman (“Kaufman”) and Frank S. Hor-vath, Ph.D. (“Horvath”) to support her contention that expert testimony based on a polygraph test should be admitted. Defendant offers the affidavit of William G. Iacono, Ph.D. (“Iacono”) in opposition.

*583 I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff alleges, inter alia, that, beginning in 1993, defendant Areudi sexually harassed and intimidated her. Plaintiff alleges that the harassment continued after he became plaintiffs employer. Defendant denies the allegations.

Before commencing this lawsuit, plaintiff underwent a polygraph examination. Defendants did not receive notice of the test. Using the control question technique (“CQT”), Kaufman asked plaintiff the following questions, which he concluded she answered truthfully:

Q: Did Joseph Areudi, against your will, place your hand on his penis?
A: YES.
Q: Did Joseph Areudi, against your will, push your head toward his naked penis?
A: YES.
Q: Did you ever, for the purpose of sex, invite Areudi to your home?
A: NO.

Plaintiff seeks to introduce these results to corroborate her claims.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Daubert

Before Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), the test for admissibility of expert opinion evidence was whether the scientific technique on which the evidence was founded was “generally accepted in the relevant scientific community.” Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C.Cir.1923). Daubert rejected that test in view of the intervening adoption of Fed.R.Evid. 702, a more liberal standard of admissibility. Daubert, 509 U.S. at 589, 113 S.Ct. at 2794-95.

“That the Frye test was displaced by the Rules of Evidence does not mean, however, that the Rules themselves place no limits on the admissibility of purportedly scientific evidence.” Id. at 589, 113 S.Ct. at 2795. Frye permitted deference to the relevant scientific community in deciding admissibility of expert testimony. Daubert requires application of the Rules and a determination whether the proffered evidence is relevant and reliable. Id.

The reliability analysis for expert opinion evidence admissibility mandated by Daubert starts with Fed.R.Evid. 702, which provides: “If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise.”

The polygraph evidence is not claimed to be technical or otherwise specialized, but grounded in scientific knowledge. To be “scientific,” evidence must be grounded “in the methods and procedures of science.” Daubert, 509 U.S. at 590, 113 S.Ct. at 2795. The term “knowledge” “ ‘applies to any body of known facts or to any body of ideas inferred from such facts or accepted as truths on good grounds.’ ” Id. (quoting Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1252 (1986)).

Although these standards reflect that the term “scientific knowledge” involves more than speculation and objective opinion, scientific testimony is not required to be “known” to a certainty. Daubert, 509 U.S. at 590, 113 S.Ct. at 2796. Rather, it is subject to an ongoing process by which it is reinforced, modified or replaced. It is not absolute, but everchanging. Id. Therefore, to qualify as “scientific knowledge,” the proposed testimony must be based on the scientific method. Id.

Rule 702 also requires that the expert testimony “assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue.” This requirement is essentially a relevance inquiry. Id. at 591, 113 S.Ct. at 2795. Thus, the testimony must not only be based on valid scientific theory, but must also relate to an issue in the case. Id.

B. Second Circuit and Scientific Evidence

The Second Circuit, prior to Daubert, departed from a strict application of the Frye general acceptance test, though, as in Dau- *584 bert, acceptance of the proffered evidence in the scientific community has been a considered factor. United States v. Williams, 583 F.2d 1194 (2d Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1117, 99 S.Ct. 1025, 59 L.Ed.2d 77 (1979); See United States v. Jakobetz, 955 F.2d 786, 794 (2d Cir.1992), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 834, 113 S.Ct. 104, 121 L.Ed.2d 63 (1992) (noting that the Second Circuit was one of the first jurisdictions to abandon Frye in favor of the permissive approach of the Federal Rules of Evidence). After Williams, the Second Circuit twice sustained District Court exclusions of polygraph evidence for want of demonstrated reliability. United States v. Bortnovsky, 879 F.2d 30, 35 (2d Cir.1989); United States v. Rea, 958 F.2d 1206, 1224 (2d Cir.1992) (referring to absence of demonstrated reliability and relevance of polygraph evidence in record, as later mandated to be considered in Daubert). Therefore, defendants argue that under the standard later enunciated in

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Meyers v. Arcudi, 947 F. Supp. 581, 46 Fed. R. Serv. 80, 1996 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18457, 71 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 44,809, 1996 WL 711329 (D. Conn. 1996).

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