History Main / LyingToThePerp

* In ''Theater/{{Doubt}}'', Sister Aloysius claims she spoke with some nuns at Father Flynn's last church when [[spoiler: confronting him about his relationship with Donald]]. She later admits to Sister James that she did no such thing.

* There is a scene from the short-lived Denis Leary show ''The Job'' where the detectives in question lie to a suspect's mother, telling her that he is dead, to make her cry, while two other detectives tell the man that the others are beating his mother. It works, and he's only too happy to talk.

* An undercover cop pulling a buy-and-bust on ''Series/BreakingBad'' rouses Badger's suspicions, but he covers himself by saying "If you ask a cop straight-up if he's a cop, they ''have'' to say yes. [[MustStateIfYoureACop It's like, in the Constitution or something]]." He's asked, he denies it solemnly with his hand to God, and they complete the deal. About five seconds after completing the deal, the cop busts Badger.

** One particularly memorable episode involved Jason Gideon helpfully providing prayer time/rugs/etc. for an imprisoned Muslim fellow, but really he was just manipulating the guy's sense of time.
** Another time, a character convinced a serial killer who was holding him at gunpoint not to kill him right away by claiming "I know why you stutter". Not only did the investigator not know why this particular man stuttered, but ''nobody knows'' why stuttering occurs (though there are theories).

** Perhaps the ultimate example was when Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson told the perp that [[RefugeInAudacity she was the public defender assigned to him]].
** Having just finished a semester of Criminal Procedure at law school, one can say that lying to suspects is not just a trope but often TruthInTelevision; this, however, would be a violation of the suspect's Constitutional right to counsel, making this a case of [[HollywoodLaw failing Constitutional Law forever]] (and probably getting any evidence obtained from the discussion thrown out of court in RealLife.)

* ''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 [[WhatAnIdiot Homer still demanded his motorboat]].

* Inverted in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' when Warrant Officer Falman interrogates [[AxeCrazy Barry the Chopper]] by checking his memory of his crimes to see if he really is what he claims to be: [[spoiler:the infamous criminal's soul bound to a suit of armor]]. Among the crime examples he uses, Falman changes the date of one of them, and Barry calls him on it.

** Detective Bayliss convinces a perp that his special camera can detect the image of the last thing a murder victim had seen by photographing the dead man's eyes.

* Happens all the time in {{meitantei}} series, since they're centered on detective work. They're usually set by having the culprit believe their work was successful when it hasn't, then catching him or her before getting away and revealing the bluff. i.e, a case in ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' involved [[spoiler: Conan and Heiji pointing at a rich family's young servant for the death of said family's butler despite having deduced that the family's son was the culprit, so the real killer would lower his guard and then give them the chance to uncover his crime.]]

'''Bester:''' Absolutely! [[NotSoDifferent Just like... your badge, and... your uniform.]]

** This backfires on the cops in another case. After Bodie's crew gets into a gunfight with another crew and a young boy is killed by a stray round, Stringer tasks Bodie with disposing the guns that were used. The disposal part goes wrong[[note]]Bodie puts them in a satchel, and tosses the satchel out as he's driven over a bridge. He doesn't see them land on a barge beneath the bridge[[/note]], the cops get ahold of the guns, and bring Bodie in. Norris and Cole try to break Bodie, but when Bodie won't implicate himself, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RstJ8jzlCCo they pull out the guns]] and [[BluffingTheMurderer Cole claims they have his fingerprints on one of them]]. Bodie knows he cleaned the guns ''very'' thoroughly, so he calls Cole's bluff by asking which gun supposedly has his fingerprints. [[CluelessDetective Cole]], rather than making up an excuse, points to one of the guns at random. It turns out he's pointing to a gun Bodie never held, giving away that the cops have no actual hard evidence. Bodie promptly asks for a lawyer.

* In ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy The Girl Who Played With Fire]]'', Dan, a new reporter at the Millennium magazine, wants to interview a policeman about the sexual trafficking he participated in (as a customer), but the man is understandably evasive. Blomkvist instructs Dan to mail the perp a new phone and tell him he's won a lottery and is legible for bigger prizes if he agrees to participate in a "survey". The guy takes the bait, hook, line and sinker.
* ''In Film/ZeroDarkThirty'' this is what finally breaks the suspect and gets him to talk, where hours of ColdBloodedTorture does not. After a long period of stress positions, confinement and sleep deprivation, Maya [[EstablishingCharacterMoment establishes her credentials as a savvy and manipulative agent]] by sitting down for a friendly meal with the suspect. She tells him that the information he'd given was instrumental to stopping an attack, congratulates him for helping to save lives, and promises him better treatment, going forward. This was all a lie, but he'd been so exhausted and traumatized that he couldn't remember what he said. Believing that he'd already broken and betrayed his people made him give up hope, and he started actually cooperating.

* Can be used in the party game 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.

[[folder:Videogames]]

** The detectives are investigating the immolation of a journalist who was investigating this sick girl. Turns out [[spoiler: the girl never existed, and was her "parents" tricking people into giving them money or medical equipment they could sell for profit]] They tell the girl's "parents" that said Journalist left some money to her and they'd get it if they helped catch the murderer [[note]] a woman who truly believed the girl existed and killed the guy because he was sure she didn't and was going to expose that. [[/note]] After they do, the woman asks when they get the money, with the cops explaining there is no money and arresting them, causing the woman to yell to the murderer something along the lines of "you ruined everything!"

** The quote at the top comes from an episode where SVU had apprehended the girl and her boyfriend as suspects for the girl's mother's murder. Olivia told the girl that her boyfriend had ratted her out when he actually hadn't.

* An early ''Series/CSINewYork'' episode has a victim whose head was [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown slammed repeatedly by a restaurant oven]]; the victim staggered out of the restaurant and collapsed on the street. During the interrogation, the suspect is told by Aiden "then you followed him out and shot him dead." The suspect immediately admits to the head-slam but not the gunshot, only to discover the victim died of the head trauma and was never shot.
-->'''Aiden:''' Officers can lie to the suspects. Legally.

->''"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."''

* Lampshaded in ''Film/FourBrothers'', where the brothers go over their game plan for being interrogated and mention the convenient "hair sample" the cops always use to try and scare a confession out of them. Some of them even laugh when the interrogator pulls out the little baggie and waves it at them.

* ''In Film/ZeroDarkThirty'' this is what finally breaks the suspect and gets him to talk, where hours of ColdBloodedTorture does not. The captured prisoner is denied sleep for a long time, then offered a friendly meal with his captors; in contrast to the thuggish CIA torturers, Maya [[EstablishingCharacterMoment establishes her credentials as a savvy and manipulative agent]] by lying to the suspect that the information he'd given was instrumental to stopping an attack, and congratulates him for helping to save lives. In reality, the suspect had done no such thing--but he was so exhausted that he couldn't tell, and begins cooperating with the Americans from then on.

* Captain Smoker uses this on Mr. 11 in ''OnePiece'', in order to confirm his theory that there's a criminal organization using numbers as code names running around.

->'''Carrie Eldridge''': You lied to me? She can't do that, can she?!\\
'''Simone Bryce''': They do it all the time; that's why I told you to stop.\\
'''Carrie Eldridge''': (to Olivia) You lying bitch! I hate you!
-->-- A [[SelfMadeOrphan girl who killed her mother]] learns about this trope the hard way on ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''

->'''Carrie Eldridge''': You lied to me? She can't do that, can she?!
->'''Simone Bryce''': They do it all the time; that's why I told you to stop.
->'''Carrie Eldridge''': (to Olivia) You lying bitch! I hate you!

-->'''Patrolman''': You know something?
-->'''Friday''': What's that, Dave?
-->'''Patrolman''': I still don't remember them.
-->'''Friday''': You don't have to now, Dave.

-->'''Friday''': That's alright, Mr. Turnbull. You've answered the one that matters. You told us which one was lying.

--->'''Cragen''': "[[SarcasmMode Oops]]."

--> '''Gideon''': Is that why you stabbed him in the groin?
--> '''Suspect''': It's what he deserved!
--> (The victim had, in fact, been stabbed in the head).

-->'''Rose''': You said you didn't have a gun, you lied!
-->'''Barbara''': To a bad guy. It's okay to lie to a bad guy.

* Early on in VideoGame/SuikodenI, Odessa uses this to confirm that the pick-up man for a vital blueprint she needed delivered was the real deal (he is).
-->'''Kage''': My name is Kage. I have been sent by Sir Mose, chief of the secret factory.
-->'''Odessa''': Mose certainly keeps unusual company. How is he? I received a letter from him mentioning that a pigeon of his was sick. I find it hard to imagine Mose taking care of a sick pigeon.
-->'''Kage''': Very strange, lady. Sir Mose does not keep any pigeons.

* * The ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series has an [[Literature/TheElderScrollsInUniverseBooks in-game book]] titled ''[[http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:A_Game_at_Dinner A Game at Dinner]]'' which includes this on a BatmanGambit scale. A Dunmer (Dark Elf) spy is writing a letter of resignation from espionage, and explains why. He was invited (along with several other Dunmer and at least one human) to dinner by Hlaalu Helseth, the head of the [[TheClan House]] the narrator is spying on. The narrator describes having seen a renowned alchemist (who makes [[MasterPoisoner exceptionally unpleasant poisons]]) visit the host. The narrator attends the dinner, and fakes eating and drinking. After everyone has eaten, Helseth announces that the disloyal have been given a fast-acting poison, the faithful have been spared, and [[CarryingTheAntidote the antidote]] is in a broth he had just had brought out (there was enough food available at the feast that nobody would have any other reason to drink any). The narrator wonders how this was possible, as all ate from the same plates and drank wine from the same chalice. Helseth announces that the utensils were actually poisoned, so even feigning eating would poison you. Due to this, not only would you die, but you would have "sadly, missed an excellent roast." Eventually, one of the human guests jumps up and drinks a large quantity of the broth, and then confesses his espionage. Helseth smiles when he finishes, and explains that the "antidote" was actually the poison, and that he does NOT, in fact, have an antidote to it. The narrator finishes his letter of resignation by informing his superiors that he sincerely does not want to describe the agony in which the poor man died, and that the paymaster to whom the letter is addressed does not want to know. The tale ends with the narrator begging his superiors to be removed from his position. "I cannot win at the games [[MagnificentBastard he]] mastered long ago."

-->'''Bunk:''' Let's start with an easy one. Is your name in fact [=DeShawn=] Fredericks?
-->'''[=DeShawn=]:''' Yeah. ''[Landsman presses the button. The machine spits out the first "truth" sheet]''
-->'''Ed Norris:''' Truth.
-->'''Bunk:''' And do you reside, in fact, in the 1200 block of Woodyear Street in West Baltimore?
-->'''[=DeShawn=]:''' Yeah.
-->''[Landsman presses the button. The machine spits out the second "truth" sheet]''
-->'''Ed Norris:''' Truth.
-->'''Bunk:''' And did you and Monell shoot your boy Pookie down on Cary Street just like Monell said you did?
-->'''[=DeShawn=]:''' No! No.
-->''[Landsman presses the button. The "false" sheet is spat out]''
-->'''Ed Norris:''' Lie. You're a lying motherfucker.
-->'''Bunk:''' ''[imitates losing horns]''
-->'''Jay Landsman:''' The machine is never wrong, son.

* In ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', this is a tactic Peralta wants to use on a murder suspect, but Holt advises against it, saying that it could backfire. Peralta uses it anyway, and just as Holt warned the suspect spots the lie immediately, weakening Peralta's position immediately.

* From ''Series/BreakingBad'':
** An undercover cop pulling a buy-and-bust rouses Badger's suspicions, but he covers himself by saying "If you ask a cop straight-up if he's a cop, they ''have'' to say yes. [[MustStateIfYoureACop It's like, in the Constitution or something]]." He's asked, he denies it solemnly with his hand to God, and they complete the deal. About five seconds after completing the deal, the cop busts Badger.
** Hank gets Huell to flip on Walter by claiming that Walter is cleaning up all his loose ends and has already killed Jesse. He even presents a faked photo of Jesse's body.

* An undercover cop pulling a buy-and-bust on ''Series/BreakingBad'' rouses Badger's suspicions, but he covers himself by saying "If you ask a cop straight-up if he's a cop, they ''have'' to say yes. [[MustStateIfYoureACop It's like, in the Constitution or something]]." He's asked, he denies it solemnly with his hand to God, and they complete the deal. About five seconds after completing the deal, the cop busts Badger.