The Strong Arm of the Law

The stakes are low in Constable Mike Dupree's re-election campaign--so are the blows

A A A Comments By Matt Pulle Thursday, Feb 23 2006

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"I was stupid; I made a mistake. But sometimes I'll call him and say hello, and he's never rude or mad at me," says the ex. "He's a good person; he's always helping me."

The psychologist who analyzed Dupree for the sheriff in 1979 wrote that Dupree "still has to adjust his perception of the world to true reality." That observation seems just as relevant more than 25 years later. Taken collectively, Dupree's stories and explanations of his failings rarely involve a thorough accounting of what really happened. On his campaign Web site, for example, Dupree writes that he was honorably discharged from the Air Force, though he didn't add that he served for only a month before receiving a medical discharge for a foot condition. On his site, he also notes that he attended Mountain View Junior College, although he failed to include that he only studied there for six months.

Mark Graham

Mr. Clean: Jaime Cortes, Mike Dupree's opponent, top, says he's not running a smear campaign.

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Like all job seekers, when Dupree first applied for a job at the sheriff's office, he was given a polygraph test. While today a gay woman serves as sheriff, back then applicants had to answer questions about their sexual orientation, as if candidates' choices in sexual partners could possibly affect how they enforce the law. He also had to complete a psychological test by completing a series of sentences as fast as he could. Here's how he finished question 19, with his answer in italics. "If I had sex relations with Bo Derek I'd be on Cloud 9." Dupree had not come out of the closet at that point, but when asked questions about homosexuality during the lie detector test, his answers showed a high degree of stress, according to his personnel file.

"I don't think he is psychologically normal," wrote the sergeant who gave him the polygraph. "He kept giving answers in the homosexual areas."

Strapped to a lie detector test and interrogated about his sexuality, Dupree might have learned right there that to stay in law enforcement he had to distort who he was. He had to omit key details about his life and package stories other wanted to hear. He learned he couldn't trust anyone. Those are lessons he hasn't forgotten.