'I'm not a big believer in polygraph tests. 'Quite frankly, criminal defendants are not famous for being forthcoming with the facts,' Thomas explained. Then they ordered two psychiatric evaluations which concluded that Matthew had no perverted tendencies.ĪBC's Jim Avila asked Thomas about the results of the lie detectors tests and Matt's psychiatric evaluations. They hired two polygraph examiners who confirmed Matthew was telling the truth. The fact that the test indicated that Matt was telling the truth wasn't taken into account.Īnd that's when the Bandy family really began to fight back. The Bandy family contends that Thomas was on a mission and that his desire to convict was so strong that he ignored important evidence - like the fact that Matthew passed a lie detector test. 'They just had it built in their mind that this kid is guilty, and we're going to make sure that he's convicted. 'They didn't care that I denied it, they just kept on asking me and kept on thinking that I did it,' he said. Matthew Bandy found himself outmatched in the national campaign against child pornography - harsh laws designed to keep track of pedophiles and punish them severely. The police and the district attorney had the incriminating photos from the Bandys' computer and the prosecutors were determined to send Matt away. Matt's clean reputation, his good grades and protective family could not stand up to the cold fact that child porn was on that computer. Yet, the evidence submitted by the Phoenix police department did not identify a specific user. 'That was the basis for the search warrants issued by a court.' 'The computer had accessed a 'Yahoo' account where there was child pornography,' Andrew Thomas, Maricopa County district attorney said. What is so frightening about Matt's case? It could happen to anyone. They just had it built into their mind that this kid is guilty.' 'They just kept on asking me and kept on thinking that I did it.

'They didn't care that I denied it,' Matthew said.

'I thought his chances of winning were probably 20 percent,' said Novak. Novak said that the pictures alone were practically all the evidence the police needed. And even though there was no proof that Matthew personally downloaded those nine pictures, it would be difficult to prove his innocence. Matt's dreams had been destroyed and his mother was crushed. I don't want to disappoint anybody, but I just can't go on anymore.'' 'He said 'Mom, I'm hurting,'' said Jeannie. The stress of the situation got so bad for Matthew that he told his parents the charges hanging over his head made high school impossible. The shy young boy could not explain how such pictures appeared on his computer hard drive. 'If they found out that I was wearing an ankle bracelet all of a sudden they would be wondering, why are you wearing that? And I had no good answer for them.'

He wore longer pants to hide the ankle bracelet, but he was scared he would be discovered. Matthew was in an awful predicament, and he tried to keep his house arrest a secret. I didn't know why it was happening,' Matthew recalled. 'When they asked me have you ever looked up or uploaded or downloaded erotic images of minors, I was just taken aback and…I said, 'No,'' says Matthew. Yahoo monitors chat rooms for suspicious content and reported that child porn was uploaded from the computer at the Bandys' home address. According to the warrant, nine images of young girls in suggestive poses were found on the Bandy family computer. Greg Bandy was handed the search warrant and informed that the central suspect was Matthew. 'And then there police officers with guns pointed at me, telling me to get downstairs.' 'The first thing I thought was, someone's trying to break in our house,' Matthew said. Police officers stormed into the house with guns pointed. It was still dark…there was this pounding at the door,' Jeannie Bandy said. It has been two years since police officers stood at the doorstep of the Bandy home with a search warrant bearing a devastating charge - possession of child pornography.

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