BENTON -- Prosecutors and the defense attorney for a former Benton Police Department lieutenant facing rape charges agreed to exclude his polygraph test from his trial.
The former officer, Monte Hodge, 42, has pleaded innocent to three rape charges and two second-degree sexual-assault charges. He surrendered to authorities Jan. 22 on one rape charge and is out on bond. He is accused of raping and sexually assaulting a boy for about a decade, according to his arrest affidavit.
Hodge's attorney, Bobby Digby, said during a hearing Thursday that the two parties reached the agreement to exclude "anything discussing the polygraph" from the trial.
The state Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that the results of a polygraph test and testimony that apprises a jury of the results of the test are inadmissible in trials. But, the court ruled, juries can be apprised that a test was taken as long as "no inference as to the result is raised."
The sides agreed to not mention during the trial that Hodge had taken a test, after Digby said it would be harmful to Hodge.
Hodge failed a polygraph test in which Arkansas State Police special agents asked whether he had had any sexual contact with the boy and later voiced concern about passing the test to a Police Department colleague, according to the arrest affidavit. State police put the polygraph results in the arrest affidavit, and they appeared several times in the investigatory file, Digby said in a motion.
References that Hodge took a polygraph test would "raise an inference that the results would be harmful" to Hodge, according to the motion.
The affidavit also details interviews with Hodge, the boy -- who was 17 when he reported the allegations -- and the boy's mother. The specially appointed prosecutors from the Lonoke County prosecutor's office said during the hearing Thursday that they've asked investigators to conduct more detailed interviews with witnesses.
According to the affidavit, the boy ran away from home to go to the Cooper-Anthony Mercy Child Advocacy Center in Hot Springs on Oct. 25. Hospital officials reported the allegations to the state police's Crimes Against Children Division.
Hodge started sexually assaulting the boy when he was 7, the boy told investigators. He began touching the boy and forcing the boy to touch him, and about three years later, Hodge began having sex with the boy, the affidavit states.
The boy told investigators that when he was 13, Hodge threatened to kill anyone who "helped me if I told anyone what he was doing to me." When the boy was 15 or 17, Hodge forced him to perform a sexual act in Hodge's parked truck near Bauxite, according to the affidavit.
"[Hodge] has also put a gun in my mouth and told me to kill myself [about two years ago]," the boy told investigators. "I pulled the trigger but nothing happened."
The boy only told two adults a couple of months before the investigation began because he was scared to report the purported rapes, he said in the affidavit. He begged the adults not to tell anyone.
The boy has had to describe Hodge's genitals to investigators.
Special agents called Hodge in for an interview in November, when he said he "never sexually molested the juvenile," according to the affidavit. That same day, Hodge took the polygraph test, which investigators later said reached "a decision of Deception Indicated."
The next day, Hodge expressed his concerns with the test to the department colleague, the affidavit states. The colleague said Hodge would only fail if he lied.
During Thursday's hearing, Digby asked prosecutors for a bill of particulars, which would further detail the basis of each charge. Based on the boy's information, prosecutors said they couldn't produce exact dates of when each purported sexual act happened but began listing the types of sexual contact they charged Hodge with.
Prosecutors also revealed Thursday that they believed the boy was the only victim.
Digby asked the judge to exclude a statement from the victim, who said Hodge "told him 'to kill himself like all the other's that I've done it to in the past,'" according to a separate motion. Digby said the statement gave the impression that there are other victims, and prosecutors have said there aren't any more.
Prosecutors contended the statement showed Hodge was in a position of authority and believed he was "above the law." Retired Judge John Langston, who was specially appointed to the case, sided with prosecutors but said the parties can revisit it during the next hearing.
Hodge, an 18-year veteran of the Police Department, was placed on administrative leave Oct. 26 and fired Jan. 29.
Metro on 07/25/2014