Father of missing child offered second chance at lie detector
GREENWICH — The adopted father of Jaliek Rainwalker has been asked again to take a lie detector test, but five days later, police have not gotten an answer to that request.
Police on Friday asked Jeffrey McMorris, lawyer for Stephen Kerr, if Kerr would take a polygraph test administered by the FBI, but as of Tuesday afternoon, police had not heard back from either Kerr or his lawyer, a law enforcement source familiar with the matter said.
Barbara Reeley, Rainwalker’s adopted maternal grandmother, said she was aware of the fact police planned to make the request, but she said Tuesday that she had not heard whether an answer was given.
Cambridge-Greenwich Police Chief George Bell would not discuss the matter Tuesday but said police planned to release more information on the investigation in the coming days. He would not elaborate.
A phone message left for Kerr on Tuesday was not returned. On Friday afternoon, Kerr said he was not aware of a new request that he take a polygraph test.
McMorris would not say whether he was asked to allow Kerr to take a lie detector test.
“I’m not going to discuss any of the discussions we’ve had relative to the FBI,” McMorris said.
He added, though, “We’re not considering any kind of polygraph.” McMorris has pointed out the tests are not admissible in court and said they are considered unreliable by many.
A spokesman for the FBI in Albany, who identified himself only as “Dave,” said the office does have equipment to administer a polygraph test, but he said he was not familiar with the Rainwalker case or whether arrangements had been made for a possible test of Kerr.
Kerr turned down a request to take a State Police-administered polygraph test in early November, the first week of the investigation of Rainwalker’s Nov. 2 disappearance. Kerr has said he did so because investigators were violating his rights and mistreating him, and a lawyer he consulted at the time told him he should not take it.
Police floated the idea of the FBI test after McMorris publicly requested last month that the FBI take over the investigation, saying Cambridge-Greenwich Police and State Police were treating Kerr as a suspect with the belief Rainwalker is dead, instead of focusing on the possibility he ran away and is in hiding.
McMorris said that’s what Kerr and his wife, Jocelyn McDonald, believe happened. Kerr has been posting fliers bearing Rainwalker’s picture around the Albany area.
“We believe we’re being fully cooperative with what we’re being asked to do that would lead to Jaliek returning home,” McMorris said.
McMorris also addressed concerns raised by former foster parents of Rainwalker’s about Kerr and his wife continuing to receive a $1,500-a-month payment from Albany County’s Department of Social Services for caring for Rainwalker. He said the family continues to receive the money because they have expenses for Rainwalker’s care.
“They have a son, and they need to provide for him,” McMorris said.
He said the broaching of the issue over the payment “is more indicative of the hostility” exhibited by the former foster parents toward Kerr.
That hostility between the two sides apparently manifested itself Tuesday afternoon, when police were called to the Kerr/McDonald home on Hill Street in Greenwich by McDonald, who was complaining that Reeley — her mother — wouldn’t leave. Bell said the complaint is under investigation and may result in a non-criminal trespass charge against Reeley.
“She (Reeley) said she brought her grandkids Christmas gifts, and it just went from there,” Bell said.
Reeley has made it clear she does not believe Kerr has been completely forthcoming as to what he knows of Rainwalker’s disappearance.
The troubled boy was reported missing by Kerr on Nov. 2, after spending several days at a respite home in Albany County because of threats of violence he made to a 4-year-old. Kerr told police he awoke that morning to find Rainwalker gone, and a note in which Rainwalker wrote, “Goodbye.”
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