Legal Question in Criminal Law in Colorado

Re: accused of embezzlement

Generally, no.

The Fifth Amendment prohibits the State from requiring you to incriminate yourself, and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prevents the State from using your silence (refusing to take the lie detector test) as evidence of guilt.

More locally, Mills v. People, 139 Colo. 397, 339 P.2d 998 (1959) prohibits introduction in a criminal trial of evidence of an accused's refusal to submit to a lie detector test.

That said, a case decided this year by the Colorado Supreme Court, People v. Summit, indicates that a narrow use of a refusal to take a lie detector test -- to show consciousness of guilt -- might be permitted. One Justice cited a case in Maine where the defendant refused the test because he believed the test was accurate. In other words, he believed the test would prove he did it. The refusal was admissible.

So, if you did it, and you told someone there's no way you're gonna take a lie detector test because you think those suckers really work, a prosecutor may well try to introduce that evidence against you. The prosecutor would introduce it not to prove that you did it, but to show you had a guilty mind.

Good luck.

Re: accused of embezzlement

No, it can't be used against you by law enforcement.