Dotson Telling Truth, Examiner Says Following Polygraph Test

Gary Dotson took a lie detector test Monday night and the polygraph examiner said he believed that Dotson told the truth when he said that he had never seen Cathleen Crowell Webb before she accused him of raping her in 1977.

Dotson was asked five questions about his relationship with Webb, and specifically whether he had had sexual relations with her, Robert C. Cummins, a polygraph expert, said. Dotson’s answers indicated that he had nothing to do with her on the day she purportedly was raped or any time before, Cummins said.

Webb, 23, now of Jaffrey, N.H., said in March that she had lied when she accused Dotson of raping her in 1977, when she was 16. She said that she had made up the story because she feared that she was pregnant and wanted to prevent her foster parents’ learning that she had had sex with another teen-ager. Dotson was convicted in 1979 of rape and aggravated kidnaping and sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison. He was freed on bond last week.

“In my opinion he’s telling the truth,” Cummins said.

The test was administered in secret because Dotson and attorney Warren Lupel did not want the media to arrive and possibly upset Dotson, Cummins said.

Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson had requested the polygraph exam for a clemency hearing.