Mass Supreme Judicial Court agrees to review decision allowing Police Chief to order polygraph of Employee

Recently, in Furtado v. Town of Plymouth, 69 Mass.App.Ct. 319 (June 11, 2007), the Massachusetts Appeal court ruled that a police officer can be forced to submit to a lie detector examination under threat of discipline in most circumstances. As noted in our report of the case on June 28, Sandulli Grace attorneys, on behalf of the Massachusetts Coalition of Police, conferred with the officer’s attorneys and filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief with the Supreme Judicial Court, urging that the Court accept review of the case and overturn this troubling decision.

On September 11, 2007, the Supreme Judicial Court granted the request to review the case, and it will now be heard by the full Court. We will, of course, continue to work with Officer Furtado’s attorneys, and will be filing a full Amicus Brief addressing all issues in the case. It is our hope that the SJC will overturn the Appeals Court decision, and affirm the legislature’s intent to prohibit employers from even trying to force their employees to undergo these junk science tests. As always, we’ll keep you posted.