History Main / LyingToThePerp

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', with the Springfield police catching Homer Simpson by sending him a letter that he'd won a motorboat, before nailing him for his unpaid parking tickets. Despite this Homer still demanded his motorboat.

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

-->-- ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', [[Recap/BrooklynNineNineS5E14TheBox "The Box"]]

* Joe Friday of ''Series/{{Dragnet}}'' employs this tactic every now and then.

** The episode "The Drumhead" had an interrogator use this tactic on a young medical bay Lieutenant. A Klingon spying for the Romulans was discovered early in the program shortly after an explosion rocked the ''Enterprise'''s warp core, seemingly committed by sabotage. The explosion was later discovered to be caused by a faulty seal, but convinced of the Lieutenant's guilt by association to the spy, and the fact that his grandfather is Romulan, the interrogator attempts to force a confession out of him by claiming that evidence was found of a corrosive chemical causing the explosion, which the Lieutenant had access to. Subverted when the Lieutenant (rightfully) rebuffs the accusation, and Picard later chides the interrogator for using the tactic as unjustified and uncalled-for. In this case, the unethical interrogator had even opened up the previously private interviews to a public audience; presumably, so that the false accusation would apply even ''more'' pressure by destroying the young officer's reputation whether it was true or not. Picard is then hauled before the interrogator himself for questioning its methods, where he gives her a well-deserved TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, pointing out the similarities with [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything numerous other unfair legal processes in the past]].
** When Worf's family is accused of treason by the Klingon High Council, Picard -- suspecting the accusation is a cover-up -- calls a woman who served Worf's family as witness, falsely claiming that she has new evidence. The bluff reveals the real traitor, though the High Council is too compromised to drop the charges and Worf is banished from Klingon society. In fact, the only reason K'mpec even agreed to accuse Worf's father is because he believed only Worf remained of that family, and Worf was safely outside their jurisdiction. He didn't expect Worf to actually go to Qo'noS to defend his father's honor or for Worf to have a brother, living as member of another House.

-->--''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', [[Recap/BrooklynNineNineS5E14TheBox "The Box"]]

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'':
** Warrick convinces a suspect that an on-site DNA test has [=ID'ed=] him as the perp. Really the test only determines if the substance is human blood.
** Another episode had an interesting variant when Sara and Catherine, without comment, brought in a bag issued to employees of an airline the victim worked for. "Well?" Sara asks. The suspect, talking over his lawyer's attempted warnings, then tried to point out that the bag was inadmissible because they didn't have a warrant to search his car. Then Sara informed him that the bag didn't belong to the victim but did contain a recording device.
** Subverted when Warrick is the one being interrogated for the murder of mob boss Lou Gedda. The detective tries to goad Warrick into a confession, spinning a wild story of revenge and justice, telling him they have evidence that he did it, and even bringing up Warrick's guilt over the death of Holly Gribbs (from the pilot episode). At the end, Warrick calmly looks up at the cop and tells him he's going to have to "step up his game" to get him to crack.

* An early ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' episode has a victim whose head was [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown slammed repeatedly in a restaurant oven]]; the victim staggered out of the restaurant and collapsed on the street. During the interrogation, the suspect is told by Aiden, "Lennie walked three blocks and later was stabbed to death. By you." The suspect immediately admits to the head-slam but not the stabbing, only to discover the victim died of the head trauma and was never stabbed at all.
-->'''Aiden:''' We can lie to suspects. Legally.

** In the movie adaption of ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile'', he tells the murderer that he can prove he fired the murder weapon by applying heated wax to his fingertips to reveal the presence of gunpowder on his fingers. No such test exists, but the killer confesses anyway.

* Can be used in the party game ''TabletopGame/Werewolf1986''. In one case, Player A claimed to be the seer and accused Player B of being a werewolf, hounding him sufficiently to extract a confession. Player A then confessed that he had no evidence of Player B being a wolf in the first place.

* Can be used in the party game ''TabletopGame/{{Werewolf}}''. In one case, Player A claimed to be the seer and accused Player B of being a werewolf, hounding him sufficiently to extract a confession. Player A then confessed that he had no evidence of Player B being a wolf in the first place.

->''"It's legal! The Supreme Court said that we're allowed to lie in an interrogation. I told a perp that I knew Steph Curry a couple of days ago. It had nothing to do with the case, but I could say it."''
-->--'''Det. Jake Peralta''', ''Series/BrooklynNineNine''