Opinion ID: 2514211
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Did the factual information set forth in the affidavit fail to establish probable cause?

Text: The affidavit in support of the telephonic warrant issued by Judge Fisher on April 3, 1995, set forth: Roxanne Doll was reported missing by her mother, Doll-Iffrig, at about 10:00 a.m. on April 1, 1995; Doll-Iffrig last definitely saw Roxanne alive at about 8:30 p.m. the previous night upon putting Roxanne and her siblings to bed; Clark and Roxanne's father, Iffrig, were drinking at that time at the next-door neighbors' house while Doll-Iffrig left with a friend to see a movie; Doll-Iffrig returned home about midnight to find her husband passed out on a living room sofa; Doll-Iffrig thought but was not certain she saw Roxanne in bed with the latter's sister in the top bunk of their bunkbed at midnight; that Clark returned to the Iffrig house around 1:00 a.m. that morning; Clark was at the Iffrig house earlier that evening and was seen driving his van to and from the residence; Clark has a 1988 conviction for unlawful imprisonment when he restrained a four-year-old girl and sexually molested her; a polygraph test was administered on Clark by an agent of the FBI on April 2 during which Clark denied knowledge of and responsibility for Roxanne's disappearance; in the FBI agent's opinion, Clark was clearly deceptive in his denials during the polygraph examination; had the victim been removed from her house in the van she would have left trace evidence behind in the van; and that when questioned after the polygraph examination Clark stated he had not hurt Roxanne. The trial court found that although the affiant, Detective Herndon, did not use the word kidnap during the telephone conversation with Judge Fisher, the latter knew the crime with which he was dealing. The police knew that they were restricted to searching for trace evidence left behind after a kidnapping. 5 Clerk's Papers (CP) at 993. Clark contends that his presence near the victim's house on the night she disappeared, his prior conviction, and his purported failure of a polygraph examination are insufficient bases for probable cause. However [p]rior convictions of a suspect are a factor which can be considered in determining whether probable cause exists. State v. Stone, 56 Wash.App. 153, 158, 782 P.2d 1093 (1989). Here Clark's prior conviction was for unlawful imprisonment of a young girl for ostensibly sexual purposes (the affidavit set forth that after binding her in his garage with a pair of socks, Clark groped this girl's vaginal area outside her clothing). This was a crime of the same general nature as that in which Detective Herndon was attempting to uncover evidence, and therefore was not only proper but helpful in establishing probable cause. Greenstreet v. County of San Bernardino, 41 F.3d 1306, 1309 (9th Cir.1994) (citing United States v. Conley, 4 F.3d 1200, 1207 (3d Cir.1993)). Further, although polygraph results are not admissible at trial unless stringent conditions have been met, see State v. Renfro, 96 Wash.2d 902, 905-08, 639 P.2d 737 (1982), such evidence may be considered in a magistrate's probable cause determination. State v. Cherry, 61 Wash.App. 301, 305, 810 P.2d 940 (1991). Here Clark's polygraph performance was deemed deceptive by the administering FBI agent. Clark challenges the conclusion of the FBI agent in that his qualifications and indicia of reliability were not set forth in Detective Herndon's affidavit. However in State v. Lair, 95 Wash.2d 706, 712, 630 P.2d 427 (1981), we noted that information from a reliable informant has corroborative value even if the informant's basis of knowledge is not specified. Here the FBI agent's basis of knowledge is the administration of the polygraph and his clinical and common-sense observation of Clark's performance. Clark seems to be claiming that no foundation is laid in the supporting affidavit to support the agent's qualifications. But the agent need not submit a curriculum vitae to the affiant for his conclusions developed during the administration of the polygraph to be probative and corroborative as the magistrate makes his probable cause determination. The state compares the affidavit in this case to that in State v. Gentry, 125 Wash.2d 570, 888 P.2d 1105 (1995), where the challenged affidavit set forth that a young girl had been sexually assaulted and murdered; that the hair of a black person was found on her shirt; that Gentry, a black man, was seen near the time of the murder within a mile of where the body was found; and that Gentry had been previously charged (in an unrelated event) with the rape of a young girl. The facts in this case are similar in that a young girl had been kidnapped; Clark had a previous conviction for the restraint of a young girl; Clark was undisputedly in and around the victim's house around the time of her suspected abduction. While Clark may be correct that no single one of these evidentiary bases may have been enough to establish probable cause per se, there is no basis for believing that, taking this information on the whole, the issuing magistrate could form no reasonable belief that Clark was probably involved in the criminal activity under investigation.