Features

Condit takes lie-detector test in Levy case

By Mark Sherman Associated Press Writer
Saturday July 14, 2001

WASHINGTON – Rep. Gary Condit took a lie-detector test arranged by his lawyer, and it showed he “was not deceptive in any way” in denying knowledge of what happened to missing intern Chandra Levy, the lawyer said Friday. 

But Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer called the test “self-serving.” He said the lawyer, Abbe Lowell, had not worked with police to come up with questions and agree on an expert to administer the test. 

Lowell said the test was administered by Barry D. Colvert, a polygraph expert who Lowell said teaches FBI officials how to administer the tests. 

Lowell declined to identify all the questions that were asked, but said Condit was deemed to have answered truthfully when he said “no” to the three most important questions: 

—Did the congressman have anything at all to do with Miss Levy’s disappearance? 

—Did he harm her or cause anyone else to harm her in any way? 

—Does he know where she can be located? 

“Congressman Condit has exhausted all the information he can provide, and the spotlight on his should be turned elsewhere,” said Lowell, who noted the congressman has given three interviews to police, allowed a search of his apartment and submitted a DNA sample. 

Washington police had wanted Condit to submit to a test given by someone from the FBI and with questions they supplied. 

Lowell declined to provide any more details about Condit’s relationship with Levy, a 24-year-old federal intern from Modesto, Calif., last seen April 30, including when he last saw and spoke to her. 

Levy’s mother first suggested Condit take a lie-detector test, saying she did not believe he had shared with police all he knows about her daughter. 

A police source has said the congressman acknowledged a romantic relationship with the former Bureau of Prisons intern, despite denials from his office. 

Meantime, police said they had searched more than 70 vacant buildings in the nation’s capital looking for Levy. 

Capt. Willie Smith said officers under his command were trying to get through 100 buildings in the neighborhoods near Levy’s apartment. “We just want to make sure all the bases are covered,” he said. 

Police conceded it was a lack of good leads, rather than specific information, that led them to look at abandoned properties as places where someone could have left a body. 

Police say they are pursuing four theories about Levy, either that was murdered, that she killed herself, that she went into hiding or that she has amnesia. However, police say they have all but ruled out suicide since so much time has passed and no body has been found. 

Authorities planned Friday to release simulated images of Levy with different hair styles.