Lawmakers are pushing to ban lie detector tests for victims of sexual assault

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Police call lie detector tests an effective tool. But one lawmaker doesn’t want police to use them on sexual assault victims in Utah ever again, even if the victim wants it. She believes a failed lie detector test may have derailed the investigation into a man accused of assault. She says the results are simply not reliable and that the test only makes the victim relive their trauma.

But other lawmakers believe eliminating the tests entirely would be a big mistake, even if the results couldn’t be used in court.

In November 2023, Provo resident therapist Scott Owen was arrested and booked into the Utah County Jail on suspicion of sodomy and object rape. He reportedly agreed to turn himself in but did not report to police. Detectives later found him in Thistle and arrested him after an hours-long standoff.

This was the case that brought District 25 Representative Angela Romero into action.

Romero says a man reported Owen to the Division of Professional Licensing years before Owen’s arrest. This man was reportedly asked to take a lie detector test.

During a September Interim Committee on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice meeting, Romero said, “This person thought that with this lie detector test he would prove that this had happened to him.”

However, the exam results came back saying he had lied.

She said: “He took the test and they said he was fraudulent.”

Afterwards, more people came forward and claimed that Owen had done the same thing to them. Investigators claim they interviewed 12 victims who said Owen told them that touching and kissing was “part of therapy.” Now Romero wonders what would have happened if the original accuser had simply been believed.

She asks, why should the results of a polygraph examination be used on victims of sexual assault since they are not admissible in court? She is proposing a bill that would stop police from requiring polygraphs on people who report sexual assaults. Ultimately, however, she would like to ban these examinations of victims entirely.

Romero asks: “We need to think as a state about how do we protect everyone?” How do we make sure we get the right evidence? There are other ways to find out the truth without taking a lie detector test.”

We contacted the Division of Professional Licensing and asked why they would ever recommend a polygraph to someone reporting a sexual assault. It seems that this is the only case that has ever happened. They declined an on-camera interview, but a statement from department head Mark Steinagel said in part…

“To our knowledge, there has only been one instance in which a polygraph test was offered as an option to both a licensee under investigation and the party filing the complaint. In this case, the lie detector was offered to the complainant but not required because the complainant and the investigator both had a desire to substantiate their complaint in response to the licensee’s contradictory representation.”

Brian Morris is a licensed lie detector examiner and has tested victims before. He says an exam isn’t just about putting electrodes on someone and asking questions.

He says: “I think there are a lot of people who have misconceptions about what happens on a polygraph and how far our interviews and surveys go.”

He also admits that the tests have their shortcomings.

“All of these tests, X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, lie detector exams… they all have known error rates. We know they’re not perfect,” Morris said.

However, Morris says that doesn’t mean they’re completely unreliable, and as long as the pre-test interview is conducted properly, the test can still help investigators obtain valuable information.

Morris says, “As a polygraph examiner, my biggest concern is always the person who comes in there to tell you the truth.”

So why can the tests show that someone is lying when they are actually telling the truth? And if these tests can backfire on someone reporting an attack, why do some lawmakers still think eliminating these tests is a bad idea? Find out in the second part of our 2News Investigates report.

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