NEW BRITAIN, Conn.—The lawyer representing Matthew Yussman, the CFO at Achieve FCU, is questioning the results of a polygraph test his client failed when asked about his involvement in the Feb. 23 robbery attempt of Achieve Financial Credit Union.
Yussman has not been ruled out as a suspect according to authorities. Yussman allegedly failed a polygraph test earlier this year, according to a search warrant, the New Britain Herald reported.
On the evening of Feb. 22, Yussman said he was confronted at his home by two robbers who held him and his mother hostage overnight, then attached what he was told was a bomb vest to his chest and told him to drive to the credit union and retrieve cash. There have been mixed reports on the amount of money Yussman alleges he was told to get, ranging as high as $4.2 million.
Although he said he was told not to contact anyone, Yussman called the credit union’s CEO on the way to get the money. The CEO contacted the police, and Yussman never got further than the credit union’s parking lot. He was uninjured, as was his mother, who said she had untied herself and left the house.
“We’re not being critical of the police or anyone involved in the investigation,” Yussman’s attorney, Richard Brown, told the newspaper. “But I’ve consulted several polygraph experts who told me there’s no way you’d get an accurate reading from someone who had just gone through what Matthew had.
“Two strangers come into your home with guns, tell you they’ll blow up your mother if you don’t do what they say, and then they strap what looks like a bomb to your chest,” continued Brown, who works as a partner at a Hartford law firm. “After arriving at the bank, police work for two hours to get the device off you while you’re out in the cold before you’re treated for possible hypothermia and then brought to the police station to answer questions. For someone who had never been involved with the law at all, that’s a very scary thing to happen.”
Brown told the New Britain Herald that Yussman, after being kept up all night against his will by the two intruders, was answering questions for police from about 12 p.m. until 10 p.m. the day of the bomb scare. While with New Britain police, Yussman volunteered to take a polygraph test, Brown said.
The polygraph test indicated Yussman showed deception when asked if he was lying about his involvement in the home invasion, effectively failing the test, the New Britain Herald reported. He ended the test shortly after that question, police have said.
The trauma Yussman had gone through, coupled with the extensive hours he had gone without sleep, would all but eliminate any chance of getting a fair result from the test, Brown said experts have told him.
“I don’t believe in their accuracy,” Brown told the publication. “I don’t even permit my clients to take them.”
Police have asked Yussman to take another polygraph, but Brown has advised against it.
“He wanted to take it, but I won’t let him,” Brown told the Herald. “There’s a reason they’re inadmissible in court.”
Yussman, his lawyer said, has nothing to hide, and the only reason he hired an attorney is because he was so unfamiliar with the law.