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James T. Orr's Credentials |
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James T. Orr began his law enforcement career with the Westland City Police Department in metropolitan Detroit on August 1, 1974. After initially serving as a police cadet, he then served as a uniformed patrol officer before leaving the police department to begin a career as an FBI Special Agent on October 2, 1983. Upon graduation from the FBI Academy, he reported to New Orleans Division, where he worked bank robberies, kidnappings and fugitives and developed a RICO case. He was then assigned to the Baltimore Field Office and succeeded in bringing a number of high profile organized crime and violent crime cases to successful prosecution, earning numerous awards. That was followed by two years on the Violent crime Fugitive Task Force where he was the principal relief supervisor and acting supervisor over the task force and several of Baltimore's satellite offices. He also appeared regularly in a weekly Fox News television program called "Maryland's Most Wanted" where he presented local violent fugitives to the public to garner tips for apprehension. While serving as a case agent in Baltimore, Special Agent Orr also worked undercover in a gambling case targeting the New York Gambino crime family, resulting in convictions of members and associates of the Gambinos. In addition, he worked undercover in drug matters, served as a SWAT Team member and senior team leader, FBI fitness instructor and fitness coordinator, member of interview panels selecting special agent applicants, violent crimes coordinator, fugitive coordinator and polygraph coordinator. FBI Polygraph Career: In January, 1999, Mr. Orr reported to the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute in Fort McClellan, Alabama and completed fourteen weeks of intense specialized training in polygraph. As an FBI polygraph examiner, Mr. Orr has conducted over 2,300 polygraph examinations, including applicant screening, criminal suspects suspects/informants/cooperating witnesses, espionage and terrorism suspects/assets, security testing of on-board FBI employees, Office of Professional Responsibility testing of FBI employees accused of wrongdoing, Witness Security Program participants, and vetting exams of officials in foreign countries being screened to work with U.S. authorities. Mr. Orr traveled to Africa as head of the Baltimore SWAT team to protect FBI personnel after the bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. As a polygraph examiner, he has traveled to Europe, Asia, the middle east, South America and Central America to conduct polygraph exams. That included several deployments to Colombia to combat narco-terrorism, two deployments to Iraq and one to Afghanistan to conduct exams of enemy combatants and government officials. Mr. Orr has conducted over 200 polygraph exams in foreign countries using interpreters. Polygraph experience includes comparison question formats (MGQT, ZCT and DLC), R&I, POT, SPOT, ACQT and blind stim. Mr. Orr conducted 1,000 exams using an analog instrument and over 1,500 exams with a computerized instrument. He has had extensive ongoing education in polygraph and related matters in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. Orr authored an article in the August / September 2011 issue of the FALI Forum, the official publication of the Florida Association of Licensed Investigators. "Polygraph and the Private Invesitagator" may be found on page six of this publication.
Post FBI Private Examiner Career: James T. Orr retired from the FBI on January 1, 2011, after a 27 year career as a Special Agent (SA). SA Orr served as a full-time polygraph examiner in the Baltimore FBI office upon graduation from the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute in Fort McClellan, Alabama on April 2, 1999, and went on to be the polygraph coordinator and senior polygraph examiner in the Baltimore office. In June, 2005, Special Agent Orr transferred to the Tampa FBI office in response to their need for an experienced examiner to head the polygraph program there. In both Baltimore and Tampa, SA Orr conducted exams in all areas of FBI responsibility and trained and mentored new examiners, while serving as liaison with office management and FBI Headquarters and coordinating examinations for himself and the other examiners. SA Orr traveled frequently to FBIHQ and other FBI offices and off-site facilities, to conduct examinations in support of FBI Headquarters and field divisions. He also traveled overseas to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Central America, South America and the Caribbean in support of the FBI's investigative missions, as well in support of Department of Justice objectives. During his tenure with the FBI, SA Orr conducted 2,329 polygraph examinations, each one receiving a quality control review by FBI polygraph supervisors. Upon retiring from the FBI on January 1, 2011, Mr. Orr went into private business as Tampa Polygraph Services, LLC, and later formed James Orr Investigations, LLC. While conducting business as Tampa Polygraph Services, LLC, Mr. Orr has conducted hundreds of examinations for attorneys, law enforcement, international security consulting firms, private businesses and private individuals around Florida, as well as in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Haiti, Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and Panama. On June 15, 2014, he entered into a contractual agreement with E-merging Technologies Group to conduct polygraph examinations for the United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and conducted exams for them in Reston, Virginia and Washington, D.C. for the remainder of 2014. He has also been called upon to conduct quality control reviews of polygraph examinations conducted by other examiners. Mr. Orr has been a guest lecturer at the University of Baltimore School of Law, Stetson University Law School, the University of South Florida Forensic Psychology course, the Deadwood, South Dakota Regional Polygraph Seminar, The Arizona Polygraph Association annual polygraph seminar in Phoenix, the American Association of Police Polygraphists annual seminar in Louisville, Kentucky, the Tri-State Seminar in Greenville, S. C., and the Canadian Association of Police Polygraphists in Ottawa, Canada. He was a primary instructor for four years at the Academy of Polygraph Science in Fort Myers, Florida, a school which is accredited by the American Polygraph Association and recognized by the American Association of Police Polygraphists, and for whom he has also taught polygraph to police in Kathmandu, Nepal. From April, 2016 to the present, he is a Senior Polygraph Instructor at Peak Credibility Assessment Training Center in Cape Coral, Florida, which is also accredited by the American Polygraph Association and recognized by the American Association of Police Polygraphists. Mr. Orr is a full member of the American Polygraph Association, the American Association of Police Polygraphists and the Florida Polygraph Association. Mr. Orr is the recipient of the 2017 American Association of Police Polygraphists Region V Richard O. Arther Director’s Award. Mr. Orr conducted a polygraph examination on Jesus Hernando Angulo Mosquera in which that examination has been admitted as evidence, without stipulation, at trial. United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. United States of America vs Jesus Hernando Angulo Mosquera, Case No.: 8:14-cr-379-T-36TGW, Document 161, Filed 04/09/2014. Subsequent to an evidentiary hearing on 12/23/2014 on the admissibility of polygraph evidence in this matter under Federal Rule 702, the court granted and permitted the polygraph evidence to be admitted at trial. Mr. Orr also testified as an expert witness before Judge Honeywell prior to sentencing regarding a polygraph examination he conducted on Laura Leyva in a healthcare fraud case. United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. United States of America vs Laura Leyva, Case No.: 8:14-CR-00107-CEH-AEP, Document 42, Filed 10/26/2014. In another case, United States of America vs Kathryn Jasen, Glenn Jasen, Case No.: 8:15-cr-214-JDW-TBM-2, United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, a polygraph report of Mr. Orr was utilized by an attorney representing the defendant post-conviction. The report, prepared subsequent to a polygraph exam for the original attorney, was allowed by Judge James D. Whittemore to be considered for mitigation purposes during sentencing. These three polygraph exams were featured in the August, 2017 edition of “The Champion”, a professional periodical of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. The article was authored by Christopher Kerr and was titled “Effective Defense Polygraphs”. This article was reprinted with permission in the January/February Edition of the American Polygraph Association journal. In United States of America vs. Deborah Pierre, Billy Altidor and Evanie Louis, Case No.: 6:19-cr-14-ORL-31 DCI, United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, polygraph reports of Mr. Orr were utilized in sentencing hearings by two attorneys from different law firms who represented two of the defendants in this case. The third defendant was acquitted and the two remaining defendants risked losing cooperation credit for testifying against the acquitted co-defendant. After Judge Gregory A. Presnell admitted their polygraph exams, they revealed they had not committed perjury in testifying against their co-defendant and they got full credit for cooperation at sentencing. MIAMA-DADE STATE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE CASE: Justice Project Polygraph: Thomas Raynard James was arrested on May 9. 1990, for the January 17, 1990 robbery and murder of Francis McKinnon in Coral Gables, Florida. He was subsequently convicted based solely on eye-witness testimony, with no physical evidence to connect him to the crime. The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office (SAO) eventually looked into the case under its Justice Project. The final, and "very important" hurdle, in their investigation was a polygraph examination of the defendant conducted by James Orr on April 25, 2022. The SAO shared the cost of the exam with the defense attorney Natalie Figgers and the State's polygraph examiner, Scott Weigman, monitored the exam. Mr. James was found by both examiners to be truthful when he denied any involvement in the robbery/murder. On April 27, 2022, in the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit In And For Miami-Dade County, Florida, Case No. F90-23928, Judge Miguel de la O issued an order vacating all judgements, convictions, and sentences in this case and Mr. James was released after serving 32 years of his life sentence. Education: Mr. Orr earned a B.S. in Criminal Justice at Madonna College (now Madonna University) while serving on the Westland City Police Department. He also received the top academic award at the Oakland Police Academy. Also while working as a full-time police officer, he completed two years of studies toward a Master of Public Administration at the University of Michigan-Dearborn before his studies were interrupted by employment with the FBI. Other:
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