James Armentrout

In Brendan Dassey's 2007 trial, psychologist James Armentrout testified for the State on rebuttal to defense psychologist Robert Gordon's evaluation and suggestibility opinion. Before he took the stand, the court permitted testimony about Gordon's tests, their interpretation, and his opinions if a sufficient foundation was laid. It excluded the proposed discussion of whether suggestibility or the Gudjonsson scale was a psychology specialty or sub-specialty.

On Day 8 direct examination, Armentrout questioned the completeness of Gordon's two-subtest intelligence estimate and said the 16-PF statements were too general to connect to specific alleged conduct. He did not believe the Anger Expression Inventory was intended to assess anxiety. Regarding the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale, he said the GSS-1 pages he received lacked recorded responses beyond the cover page, questioned an apparent difference in testing intervals, and offered explanations for changed answers other than suggestibility. He said he would not draw Gordon's suggestibility opinion from the materials he reviewed.

On cross-examination, defense counsel tested Armentrout's qualifications and familiarity with suggestibility research. Armentrout acknowledged that he had not met Dassey, had never administered the Gudjonsson scale, and was unfamiliar with studies counsel named. He described his task as reviewing Gordon's submitted information rather than personally evaluating Dassey. He maintained that he would not reach Gordon's conclusion, while declining to say Gordon was wrong.