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Judge needs more time to decide on release of Los Alamos scientist

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal judge presiding in the case of Los Alamos weapons scientist Wen Ho Lee announced during the third of day of testimony in a bail hearing that he would not rule Friday on whether to release Lee on bond.

U.S. District Court Judge James Parker in Albuquerque said he will need time to review transcripts before he issues a ruling, New Mexico court officials said.

Lee has been held in federal custody since December, charged with 59 counts of mishandling classified information. Federal authorities have investigated Lee for allegedly providing nuclear secrets to China, but Lee has been charged only with downloading files from Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory to unsecured computers and tapes.

The Taiwanese-born U.S. citizen is scheduled to go on trial November 6.

Wen Ho Lee

Earlier Friday in open session, FBI supervisory agent Robert Messemer, a counterintelligence agent based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, testified that Lee easily passed a private security company's polygraph test. Messemer said the tests administered by the private firm did not follow protocols accepted by the FBI, according to The Associated Press.

The FBI does not agree with the polygraph examination's conclusions, Messemer said, even though they were double-checked by and independent polygrapher and a polygraph supervisor.

Justice and FBI officials in both Washington and Albuquerque declined comment on Messemer's testimony Thursday, in which he backtracked on some points of testimony he gave in December during a previous bail hearing for Lee.

Messemer said he had been mistaken when he testified that Lee had deceived a colleague in order to use the man's computer. Messemer said it was an inadvertent error when he testified that Lee had told the colleague he only planned to download a resume on the computer.

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