{"id":3748,"date":"2002-10-06T15:30:12","date_gmt":"2002-10-06T20:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/?p=3748"},"modified":"2021-03-05T03:35:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T08:35:34","slug":"tennesean-sponsors-polygraph-test-of-man-who-accused-priest-of-sexual-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2002\/10\/06\/tennesean-sponsors-polygraph-test-of-man-who-accused-priest-of-sexual-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennesean<\/i> Sponsors Polygraph “Test” of Man Who Accused Priest of Sexual Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n

Tennessean<\/em> staff writer Laura Frank reports<\/a> on allegations of sexual abuse brought by John Kline, a former student, against ex-priest Ron Dickman, a former Catholic school principal, in an article titled, “Ex-Ryan principal accused of molesting students; ex-priest Ron Dickman denies allegations.”<\/a> In a sensationalistic stunt, the newspaper paid for a polygraph “test” for Mr. Kline. Excerpt: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polygraph test<\/strong><\/p>

In addition, The Tennessean<\/em> commissioned the former head of the FBI’s national polygraph unit to conduct a polygraph, or ”lie detector” test, on Kline.<\/p>

”There is no question in my mind John is telling the truth,” said Kendall W. Shull, who was chief of the polygraph unit at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., until he started his own consulting firm last year.<\/p>

The Tennessean<\/em> offered Dickman, who declined to be interviewed for this report, the opportunity to undergo a polygraph with Shull, as well. He declined, but his attorneys later commissioned their own, which they say he passed.<\/p>

Dickman’s attorneys released three of the questions he was asked during his polygraph. None asks directly whether Dickman had sexual contact with Kline. The Tennessean<\/em> attempted to interview the examiner who gave Dickman the polygraph, but Dickman’s attorneys declined to give consent and declined to release any more information about the polygraph.<\/p>

A nationally recognized expert on polygraphs who was contacted by The Tennessean<\/em> said he had ”serious reservations” about the way questions were posed to Dickman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Pseudoscientific polygraph “testing” is not a valid way to assess truthfulness. The Tennesean’s<\/em> resort to such nonsense detracts from what otherwise seems to be a well-researched article.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennessean staff writer Laura Frank reports on allegations of sexual abuse brought by John Kline, a former student, against ex-priest Ron Dickman, a former Catholic school principal, in an article titled, “Ex-Ryan principal accused of molesting students; ex-priest Ron Dickman denies allegations.” In a sensationalistic stunt, the newspaper paid for a polygraph “test” for Mr. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,440],"class_list":{"0":"post-3748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-polygraph","7":"tag-kendall-shull","8":"tag-tennesse","9":"anons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3749,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748\/revisions\/3749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}