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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- A judge has denied defense motions to allow polygraph evidence and testimony from an eyewitness identification expert in the trial of Jimmy Davidson Guard, charged in the attempted abduction of a 9-year-old girl who fought off her assailant.
However, 4th District Judge Lynn W. Davis left the door open Wednesday for defense attorney Dana Facemyer to request separate evidentiary hearings to look at both matters in greater detail. The prosecutor said he did not object to further hearings.
Guard is charged with first-degree felony child kidnapping in a November 2004 attack on the Provo girl.
Facemyer had argued that because polygraph examinations were used by police and attorneys throughout the Wasatch Front, Guard's polygraph results should be admissible to a jury at trial.
Deputy Utah County Attorney David Sturgill said that in Utah, polygraph testing is not accepted as reliable by legal and scientific communities.
"This court will not take judicial notice that polygraph testimony is inherently reliable," Davis ruled. "It may be an investigatory tool, may be utilized by defense and the state as it relates to investigations into cases, but it's not generally accepted. I cannot think of a case in the 19 years I've been on the bench where polygraph evidence has been admitted."
Facemyer also wanted an eyewitness-identification expert to testify in the trial about the fallibility of such evidence.
Facemyer said he believes the girl did not get a good look at her attacker and questions the techniques used by police in a photo lineup.
Sturgill said the testimony from the preliminary hearing clearly shows the girl looked at her attacker, especially when she turned and kicked him and when she tried to poke him in the eye. Facemyer argued that in presenting a photo lineup to the girl.
Guard has been held on $250,000 cash-only bail in the case since November 2004.
He is also charged with felony attempted child kidnapping and attempted sodomy on a child in a separate case in which police say a man tried to kidnap and abuse two girls in Springville in July 2004.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
