STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IN THE OFFICE OF

ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

COUNTY OF WAKE 01 DOJ 1985

Lonnie Mack Maines, Jr.
Petitioner
vs.
N. C. Private Protective Services Board
Respondent / )
))
)))) / FINAL DECISION

THIS CAUSE coming on to be heard before the undersigned Administrative Law Judge on December 4, 2001, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Present for the hearing were Petitioner represented by his attorney, David R. Tanis; Helen Parker for the North Carolina Protective Services Board, and the Board’s attorney, Charles F. McDarris.

FINDINGS OF FACT

From the stipulation of the parties, the evidence presented in the form of testimony of the Petitioner and a letter from Ron Barker, Sheriff of Forsyth County, and Terry L. Holbrook, Clerk of Superior Court of Forsyth County, the undersigned finds the following facts: The Petitioner is retired from the Winston-Salem Police Department after having served 22 years, approximately nine of which were as polygraph examiner. Since retiring from the Winston-Salem Police Department he has become a special deputy with the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department in charge of a program called Beat the Heat, featuring a souped-up 1967 Plymouth, which is designed to keep children in school and out of trouble. He is not employed as a regular deputy and his duties do not cause him to have to appear in Court. Since retiring from the Winston-Salem Police Department, he has worked as an independent contractor with a company named Atlantic States Computerized Polygraph, Inc., performing polygraph examinations for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department. These examinations include pre-employment examinations as well as examinations in the course of investigations by detectives, but his duties do not require him to testify in Court since the results of polygraph examinations are not generally admissible in evidence. The opinion of Mr. Holbrook and Sheriff Barker are to the effect that Petitioner is not a sworn Court official. The statutes do not appear to define “sworn Court official” and there does not appear to be any requirement in the statutes for persons with the duties Petitioner has to be sworn in as required by North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 7A or any other statute.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

From the above findings of fact the undersigned concludes as a matter of law that the Petitioner is not a sworn Court official as contemplated by North Carolina General Statutes Section 74C-12(c)(1).

PROPOSAL FOR DECISION

It is hereby proposed that Respondent renew the Petitioner’s license as a polygraph examiner.

ORDER

It is hereby ordered that the agency serve a copy of the final decision on the Office of Administrative Hearings, 6714 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-6714, in accordance with G.S. 150B-36(b).

NOTICE

The agency making the final decision in this contested case is required to give each party an opportunity to file exceptions to this proposal for decision, to submit proposed findings of fact, and to present oral and written arguments to the agency pursuant to G.S. 150B-40(e).

The agency that will make the final decision in this contested case is the North Carolina Private Protective Services Board.

This the 11th day of December, 2001.

______

Fred G. Morrison Jr.

Senior Administrative Law Judge