White Marlin Open releases statement regarding polygraph testing

After the news of a failed polygraph test following the conclusion of the 2017 White Marlin Open broke Friday, tournament officials released a statement Monday morning defending their use of a polygraph system in the annual competition.

The statement is as follows:

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As has been the policy of the White Marlin Open since 2004, at the conclusion of the 2017 Tournament, the top money winners were polygraphed.

Over this past year, the Tournament Directors have demonstrated their determination to protect the integrity of the Tournament as the largest billfish tournament in the world.

The Tournament Directors make every possible effort to ensure complete fairness to all participants, including a post-tournament protocol to verify compliance with the rules. The White Marlin Open, like many other tournaments, has found that the use of polygraphs is an effective method of ensuring compliance with the rules, particularly with over 300 boats participating over tens of thousands of square miles. The rules allow the Tournament Directors to require additional polygraphs for the angler and others on the winning boat, and also provide the angler with a right to obtain a separate polygraph at his or her own expense. After all tests are completed, the Tournament Directors will carefully review the results with the polygraph examiners and other polygraph experts, and will make a decision about each individual angler. The Tournament does not intend to make any further public comment on this year’s results until the process is completed.

After the 2016 Tournament was complete, the winning angler and his entire crew (four persons) were allowed five chances to pass polygraphs and none passed. As a result, the Tournament Directors declined to award the $2,818,000 prize money to the angler, and advocated that the prize money be awarded instead to the anglers next in line. For ten months thereafter, White Marlin Open participated in a Federal Court trial in U.S. District Court in Baltimore before the Honorable Richard D. Bennett, who, on June 14, 2017 rendered a comprehensive Memorandum Opinion wherein he analyzed every facet of the procedures of the Tournament. Judge Bennett specifically held that the use of polygraphs are widely accepted in fishing tournaments, and that White Marlin Open’s procedures are fairly and competently administered.

Regarding the public statement issued last week by Mr. Heasley’s attorney, Christopher Sullivan, the White Marlin Open simply notes that his assertions were rejected by the Honorable Richard D. Bennett, of the U.S. District Court in Baltimore, after patiently listening to trial testimony for eight days. Moreover, after building the Tournament’s reputation for fairness and integrity over the last 44 years, the White Marlin Open Directors are not in need of any advice from Mr. Heasley or his attorneys about how to run the Tournament.

White Marlin Open founder Jim Motsko confirmed Friday that an angler who won prize money in the 44th annual competition failed a polygraph following the tournament's conclusion. Officials would not release the boat or angler involved in the testing.

The angler who failed opted to take a second test from a different organization offered by the White Marlin Open. Officials were given the results Friday morning, but have yet to disclose the findings.

Glen Frost, a Maryland angler, claimed the tournament's top prize of $1.6 million after catching a 95.5-pound white marlin the final day of the competition, however officials said on Aug. 18, "(Frost) did not fail his polygraph." 

The White Marlin Open’s rulebook states any angler who wins $50,000 or more may be required at the discretion of tournament directors to take and pass a polygraph. Tests are administered by polygraph examiners, not tournament officials.

Attorney's for Phil Heasley, who is appealing the decision by Judge Bennett, quickly released a statement expressing their concerns with the polygraph system the White Marlin Open uses in its tournament. 

Heasley is required to pay nearly $282,000 before a judge is able to hear the appeal.