Polygraph test to decide winner of fishing tournament

Fishermen are known to tell tales, but this time the truth isn’t getting away.




The Destin Deep Water Shark Tournament wrapped up Sunday evening with an awards dinner, but one division’s prizes weren’t handed out and now need to be settled through a lie detector test.
Cherie Mills’ first-place catch in the Lady Angler division has been challenged, and the Navarre resident will take a polygraph test today to prove whether she caught the shark herself.

The challenge comes from Rodger Kunkle, captain of the Moon Dance, and angler Virginia Lipscomb, who caught the second-place shark on his boat.

The contention is Mills had too much help from others on the Teaser Too, including her fiancé, Daniel Adams, and Capt. Ken Jorgensen when reeling in the 480-pound tiger shark.
“I was hoping we could resolve this without going to a polygraph, but that’s what it’s come to,” said Jim Roberson, chair of the tournament’s rules committee.

Questions are in the process of being written for the test, and results should be immediate, he said.

“The tournament is doing everything we can to level the playing field and make sure she was the one who reeled the shark in,” Roberson said.
On the line is the first-place prize of $1,500.

An independent polygrapher from out of state will conduct the test today at the Destin History and Fishing Museum.

Mills said the shark fought for six hours before giving up in the late hours of Saturday and early Sunday. She’s confident the test will exonerate her.

“I have no doubt,” Mills said. “I caught that fish. They didn’t believe a girl like me could catch a fish like that.”
It was a first for her, and she wanted to call it quits but kept with it, Adams said.
“She was sweating, she was miserable, she was almost in tears,” Adams said.

While some forms of assistance would violate rules set by the International Game Fish Association, the tournament doesn’t adhere to those restrictions, and latitude is left to the rules committee, Roberson said.
The rules state, “The rules committee shall be the sole judge of any violation of the rules. Their decision is final.”

But the rules also state, “A polygraph examination may be required and must be passed in a conclusive manner,” and failure to submit could result in disqualification.
So it’s up to Mills to pass and keep her prize money and, maybe more importantly, the bragging rights of bagging the shark.

Telephone listings couldn’t be found for Kunkle or Lipscomb.