RANCHESTER, Wyo. (AP) - A former town maintenance worker has dropped his $3.25 million lawsuit against the town and its former law enforcement chief after failing a lie-detector test.
Stanley Pilcher claimed he was subjected to an ''illegal, unjustified and false arrest'' for allegedly spray-painting graffiti on town property. The vandalism of the town shop and propane tanks happened on Oct. 5, 2001, two days after Pilcher was fired and the same night he was granted a hearing with the Town Council.
Pilcher was found innocent of malicious destruction after a trial before Judge Stuart Healy II. During and since the trial, Pilcher and his attorney, Hardy Tate, of Sheridan, implied that law enforcement officer Michael Kuzara spray-painted the graffiti in an attempt to frame Pilcher.
The town and Kuzara denied Kuzara was to blame.
Pilcher admitted he flunked a polygraph late last month in Ogden, Utah. Kuzara said he took a polygraph with the same company last month and passed ''overwhelmingly.''
A civil trial before a jury had been set for May 17 in Sheridan County District Court.
Pilcher said he did not commit the vandalism and took the lie detector test to help prove it. ''I put trust in the machine. When they told me I completely failed the test, I was devastated,'' he said.
''They told me that every time they asked a question the test results showed my heart rate went up. As far as I am concerned, the lie detector test wasn't truthful.''
Kuzara said he is glad the dispute is over.
AP-WS-10-11-03 2007EDT