Passing polygraph test gets charge dismissed

An assistant prosecutor said dropping charges as a result of lie-detector tests has occurred before.

WARREN — Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court has dismissed charges against former Warren police detective Dewey Gray.

Judge Logan on Monday granted the dismissal, which was requested last week by Chuck Morrow, an assistant county prosecutor. Morrow said he requested the action after Gray passed a stipulated lie detector test — the kind admissible in court — that indicated he was innocent of the charges.

Gray, of Bristol Champion Townline Road in Bristolville, was accused of stealing a traffic ticket written by a Warren police officer for a Warren man, and improperly disposing of it. Those accusations led to a felony charges of tampering with evidence and theft in office.

But on July 23, Gray offered to take the lie detector test, and prosecutors agreed push his trial back several weeks to await the results.

Morrow said Monday that a lie-detector test being used in this way to get charges dropped has been used “a number of times” in the past — and will be used again.

“If justice is that a case is dismissed, then it is dismissed,” Morrow said, adding that Gray had the opportunity to take such a test before his case was presented to a grand jury — which resulted in his indictment — but he turned that opportunity down at the time.

Co-defendant’s plea

A co-defendant, Eric Fisher, 32, of Francis Avenue Southeast, pleaded guilty to obstructing official business, a misdemeanor. He is set to be sentenced Aug. 27.

Jeff Goodman, one of Gray’s attorneys, said Fisher gave $350 to another person who knew Gray and told the intermediary that the money was available to pay the fines and court costs associated with the ticket. Goodman blamed an FBI agent and a Warren detective for seeking the charges against Gray because they couldn’t find a traffic ticket.

“He attempted to have his traffic ticket taken care of,” Morrow said of Fisher.