Lie Detector Fraud Lands Indiana Man In Prison
Lie detector fraud has landed an Indiana man in prison.
On Friday, Little League coach Chad Dixon was sentenced to eight months in prison for teaching people how to cheat a lie detector test for government jobs. This was considered a threat to national security as almost 100 people paid him to teach them how to get top-secret security clearance by beating the lie detector.
The severity of the sentence wasn’t based on any known damages caused. Federal agents are simply using Chad Dixon’s arrest as an example to deter further attempts to bypass the Polygraph detection methods. In a time when national security is a sensitive subject, the effectiveness of the lie detector test needs to be as high as possible, and that can’t happen if people are being taught to cheat it.
US District Judge Liam O’Grady’s sentencing of the Indiana man for lie detector fraud has also spurred questions of how effective the Polygraph process actually is. If the ability to cheat it can be taught to known felons, how many people have gotten through already that otherwise might have failed? Some courts have already discounted the lie detector test as a form of evidence against criminals, meaning that it obviously doesn’t always work.
Federal agents arrested Chad Dixon as part of an undercover sting to crack down on lie detector fraud, in which the Indiana man pleaded guilty to charges including obstruction of justice.
Chad Dixon’s defense attorney claims the charges are unfair, and claims they are simply using him as a “poster child” instead of meting out actual justice. Attorney Nina Ginsberg says that her client had mostly been teaching people to pass the Polygraph test because their spouses suspected infidelity.
Indiana Man Gets 8 Months for Lie Detector Fraud – AP’s @MattBarakat http://t.co/HY8YvykmE9
— Amanda Kell (@amandamkell) September 6, 2013
A former Oklahoma City police tester was also targeted for the same thing, but there is no admitted evidence of any charges for criminal conduct. Unlike Chad Dixon, Oklohoma suspect Doug Williams claims he did nothing wrong.
Apparently lie detector fraud has become quite a problem, and Federal agents are on the lookout.
