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Body-language analysts scrutinize Roger Clemens

Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens bites his lip during a news conference at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, on Monday. PHOTO: EPA

From his parched, pursed lips to the jut of his shoulders, Roger Clemens was holding something back, three body-language analysts who watched him over the past two days said on Monday.

"There's more to the story," said Janine Driver, a body-language consultant who trains law enforcement officers in truth detection and calls herself the Lyin' Tamer. "There are several probing points that lead me to believe that he's not going to be completely truthful."

Since the release of the Mitchell Report last month, Clemens and his lawyer have issued a series of increasingly angry denials, refuting claims by his former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, that Clemens took steroids.

But it was Clemens' two recent television appearances -- a "60 Minutes" interview on Sunday, and a news conference Monday -- that provided material to truth-detection experts like Driver, who make a living parsing the slightest grimaces, shrugs and words for signs of subterfuge.

In the 60 Minutes interview, for example, the experts noticed that Clemens swallowed hard, looked down, and licked and pursed his lips when answering questions -- all signs, they said, that he might not be telling the truth.

"That's indicative of deception. That's indicative of stress," said Joe Navarro, a retired FBI agent who trains intelligence officers and employees for banks and insurance companies. Navarro also has written a book about how to tell whether someone is bluffing in poker.

Nevertheless, Navarro warned against concluding that Clemens was lying. Even the most skilled body-language experts are right in only about half of all cases, he said, and investigators often study body language to decide when to dig deeper. It is not evidence that someone has committed wrongdoing. Clemens might have been showing stress from defending against potentially career-killing allegations.

"He clearly shows signs of distress, but we don't know why he's being distressed," Navarro said.

During the news conference on Monday, Clemens wondered aloud how his nonverbal actions might be read or misread.

After taking criticism for drinking too much water during the 60 Minutes interview, Clemens asked reporters, "Can I drink water? Is that good or bad?" before sipping water at the news conference. His lawyer told him, "Lighten up."

That anger spilled over several other times during the news conference, in both words and gestures.

At one point, Clemens stood, jutting his shoulder toward reporters in what the behavioral analyst Maxine Lucille Fiel said was a classic sign of aggression.

"That shoulder went right out into the camera, and he was daring someone or he was threatening," she said. "He was ready to rumble."

Clemens also showed detachment, Fiel said, while listening to a taped conversation with McNamee in which McNamee said that his son was dying.

Immediately after that portion of the tape, Clemens sat back and draped one of his arms against a nearby chair.

"He didn't want to hear it," Fiel said. "He really couldn't summon up any sympathy."

Clemens' final gesture on Monday needed no expert translation. He stood up, declared, "I've said enough," and walked out of the room.
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