A federal judge in Baltimore, MD will decide the result of a fishing tournament after the winner failed two lie-detector tests. The tournament rules require winners of $50,000 or more to submit to a polygraph test.
Philip G. Heasley of Naples, Fla., caught the prize winning 76.5-pound white marlin. Heasley was not awarded the prize money and tournament officials are asking the judge to grant an order allowing them to redistribute the $2.8-million prize to 13 competitors who won in other categories.
Heasley and three others that were aboard the boat when the winning marlin was caught, all failed their polygraph tests.
Most fishing competitions have specific rules about when, where and how fish can be caught – if the fish been caught before 8:30 a.m., it would violate tournament rules. On a required report, it appeared the time of the catch appeared to have been changed from 8:15 a.m. to 9:05 a.m.
Heasley denies the violation and questioned the soundness of the polygraph tests.
In the early years of the tournament, they didn’t rely on polygraph tests and when testing began, some fisherman failed, but no one disputed the findings.
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