The Biurny Peguero and William McCaffrey Story

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For those of you who did not watch the ABC 20/20 episode online or on TV last Friday, Biurny Peguero falsely accused William McCaffrey of rape. Even though she went to the hospital and had a rape test done to preserve any possible DNA and none was found, William was still sentenced to 20 years in prison on her emotional testimony, of which he served four years before he was set free.

Read moreBiurny eventually felt so much guilt that she found the church, confessed and eventually came clean. She is now serving time for her deception. She was sentenced to 1-3 years on multiple accounts of perjury. While what Biurny did was horrific, you have to give it to her for coming forward and having a conscience. What she did is unheard of.

I found the video clip I posted here fascinating because it was a great example of a low stakes scenario. The stakes of a once high situation are now gone, and with that, people become a lot harder to read. If you didn’t know this was a low stake scenario and that McCaffrey was already out of prison and cleared, you might have judged William’s smiles or behavior as deceptive. That would be a mistake. I wanted to show you the power of lie stake lies.

I suspect William, when he was interviewed, knew that ABC 20/20 knew he was innocent, so when they asked him about it, he couldn’t help but smile, like he knew he was just repeating this for the sake of the camera. William was amazingly kind and forgiving considering all he had been through, if you watch the entire episode. He is an amazing man, though he hasn’t always made good choices himself.

Many of you noticed the twitches in his face. I speculate that these twitches are connected to William’s emotional memory of the pain he felt by being wrongly convicted. Sometimes when people hold back emotions they twitch like this. People can twitch, however, for many, many reasons and very few would be a hint to deception!

With Biurney, her deception came barreling through regardless of the low stakes, but this does not always happen, I can’t stress that enough. We may have seen it this time because she wasn’t invested in deceiving us as this story was about her confession.

When I heard Biurney say “He raped me”, I was immediately on alert. She was as emotionless as a coffee mug on the kitchen table. The lack of emotions are equally as powerful as the presence of them and hence, they should never be discounted.

If you’ve been violated by a stranger like Biurney said she was, you don’t fail to have an emotional memory. That was a huge clue to the truth here, and likely was at William’s trial as well, but people are emotional creatures, and the idea of someone being raped can cause ill-will and bad feelings towards those in the cross-hairs, which likely resulted in William’s guilty verdict. I see emotional biases rear up on my blog quite frequently, too. It’s part of being human, just few people are aware that they have these biases and that they influence our ability to see the truth. They will absolutely fog us in, if we aren’t aware of them.

At the end of this clip, we see Biurney talk about hearing the news that William was convicted and sentenced to twenty years. She doesn’t seem pleased or happy. She lets out a deep sigh, a stress sigh, and she talks about how she started crying and wanted to be alone. I will bet many of you had a gut response here that something wasn’t right, but perhaps you discounted it? Take that as a warning that your intuitive senses are important and should be acknowledged. You don’t have to just believe them, but at the very minimum you should dig further to see what you can find! It’s your intuitive sense showing you a red flag.

Remember, before you judge someone, be careful to assess the situation. Are there “high stakes” involved? If there aren’t, be very, very cautious!

ABC 20/20 Rape Case

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If you didn’t see ABC 20/20 last night, this case is a must see. Check out your deception skills after watching this clip. Do you trust the man?

Tiffany Tehan Alive and Well

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Tiffany Tehan was found alive and well in Miami with Tres Hutcherson!! You can read the story here. Police have planned a press conference at 10:30 today, which will be streamed live over the web, if you want to check it out.

Tehan has now been in contact with her family. What was this woman thinking? Clearly, she wasn’t using her better judgment. You have to feel sorry for David. My heart goes out to him. I’d be so mad, I wouldn’t even be able to look at Tiffany.

This case is important because you must consider the evidence before you judge a smile. We had evidence that we couldn’t dismiss–a video of Tehan with another man, that could explain why her husband wasn’t potentially panicky anymore.

Fascinating story!!!

UPDATE 10:31 AM:
Tehan and Hutcherson were romantically involved.
She says she left voluntarily with the intent to start a new life!
She’s got some esplain’n to do! Read more here.

 

Tiffany Tehan’s Husband Speaks

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David Tehan went on the Early Show with his father-in-law and a law enforcement today. It’s a unique video because David grins and continually shows positive emotions until he is asked if he knew the man his wife was seen with on the video surveillance. At that time, his grin dissipates.

Read moreI am unable to draw anything from this video of David. It is possible that David was grinning because he was focused on his daughter and her actions as she is all he has right now. It also could be plausible that he could be grinning because he now believes his wife may have done something she is going to be held accountable for, and he doesn’t believe from what he knows that his wife’s life is in danger. That’s just speculation, of course. He just doesn’t seem to show much concern, which is notable, but by itself doesn’t mean anything because he isn’t contradicting himself in any way.

The correspondent on the Early Show does say to David , “You have understandably been too distraught to talk about it”. It is plausible that David’s emotions have changed from the fear of a random abduction to the potential that maybe his wife ran off with another man she knew and was involved with. It can’t be ruled out. We’d need to talk to him more to know.

The body language between Tiffany Tehan and Tres Hutcherson was friendly. They are turned toward each other, and each are holding a cup — mirroring each other’s body language. There is no tension in them that is discernible from the footage shown in the video. They appear to be friends, if not more.

We just have to hope that Tres Hutcherson didn’t decide to do something erratic last Saturday. That’s the fear. His wife, who was questioned by reporters said Tres drained the family back account and believes he is with Tiffany, however, she said she didn’t believe he would harm her.

Casey Anthony’s Friend, Maya Derkovic

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There is video of Casey Anthony’s jailhouse friend talking about the Casey Anthony. Maya Derkovic speaks candidly with a reporter from WFTV.com.

It’s important for me to stress that Maya Derkovic is not in a high stake scenario. That is, she has nothing to gain or lose by telling this story, so hence if she does lie, the clues to deception could be muted, if they are even visible at all.

It’s not hard when we have no pressure to change facts. It’s easy to say red when we mean blue, or whatever the topic is at hand. Embellishing stories has no consequences for us.

Read moreI can’t stress enough how important high stakes are to the consideration of deception.

I’ve seen people in high stakes scenario leak out clues like a sieve. I’ve seen the same people, a couple of years later, talk about the same situation once the high stakes were gone, and not one single clue emerged in their continued lie. It was so intense once that I doubted my original beliefs until I went back to view the story being told under high stakes, where it was clearly undeniable what the truth was– the person was lying.

With Derkovic, while I only watched the first 10 minutes, some of what she says is logical and supportive by what we’ve seen in this case– that Casey Anthony was jealous of Caylee. I believe her here. Yet when she talks about the chloroform, she tells her stories in a roundabout way, without ever directly telling us what Casey said. She talks in present tense instead of past, which is odd for a memory. She further says “…like a wash rag” as if it just came to her, which does not support it came from a memory. Is Derkovic embellishing here? She raises my eyebrows, but I won’t say with any certainty.

I have to say that I am gun-shy about reviewing low stakes lies after what I witnessed above!

Sadly, Derkovic confessed to strangling a 15-year old girl when she was part of a gang.