Robert L. Moore

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office has asked a judge to prevent Robert L. Moore’s attorneys from presenting evidence regarding a polygraph test a trial witness took in 2014.

Moore, 53, is set for retrial before Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court starting Monday morning, in the 2009 disappearance and presumed murder of Glenna J. White, 16, from a Smith Township home. Moore was the last person known to have been with her.

When prosecutors filed the request July 19, it was unclear what witness was involved, but a defense filing last week says it’s a man who was dating Glenna’s mother at the time of the teen’s disappearance.

The man was a suspect in Glenna’s disappearance, so the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation had a BCI examiner give him a polygraph test, according to a recent filing by Lou DeFabio, attorney for Moore.

During the test, the man was asked whether he knew what caused Glenna to go missing, whether he caused her to go missing and whether Glenna was OK the last time he saw her.

The man said White was OK when he last saw her, denied involvement in her disappearance and denied knowing what caused her to go missing, DeFabio’s filing states.

But the report of polygraph examiner Michael LoPresti found that the man showed “specific reactions of deception” in his answers, the DeFabio filing states. DeFabio wants to use the results of the polygraph during cross examination of the man during Moore’s retrial.

DeFabio also wants to use the polygraph results during other testimony, such as while cross-examining law enforcement officers regarding “the course of their investigation following the receipt of the polygraph exam.”

PROSECUTORS’ VIEW

Prosecutors argued in their filing last month the results of the polygraph are not admissible at trial because “The Ohio Supreme Court has held that results of a polygraph examination are admissible in a criminal trial” only “if both parties execute a written stipulation regarding its admissibility and other rigorous conditions are met to show the reliability of the examiner and the examination.”

In this case, “neither party agreed to the introduction of the polygraph results,” according to the prosecution filing from Patrick Kiraly, Mahoning County assistant prosecutor.

But DeFabio argues that the evidence from the polygraph test is vital to Moore’s right to a fair trial because it may show that the witness “may have caused Ms. White harm and that the investigators ignored” evidence helpful to Moore’s defense.

DeFabio agreed that a 1978 Ohio Supreme Court ruling “generally” prevents use of a polygraph examination without a written stipulation, but added, “The constitutional right to present evidence in his defense overrides the rule barring polygraph results.”

The man took the polygraph test “long before any ‘case’ existed in this court, thus making stipulation impossible,” DeFabio stated. He also cited a Summit County ruling in which an Ohio judge found polygraph results admissible — even though no stipulation was present.

A hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Monday before the trial begins to address the admissibility of the polygraph information.

PAST TRIAL

Moore was tried by a jury before Sweeney in June 2022 that found Moore not guilty of aggravated murder. But the jury could not reach a verdict on murder, so prosecutors chose to try Moore again.

Multiple delays resulted in getting the case ready for the second try.

According to court documents, White was visiting a home on Alden Avenue in Smith Township when she left late June 2, 2009, with Moore. White had earlier that night told others in the home that Moore had touched her inappropriately or tried to rape her.

Moore returned an hour or so later with blood and mud on his clothing. White was not with him, and prosecutors believe Moore was the last person to see her alive. She has never been found.

The trial is taking place in Mahoning County because Alden Avenue is in Mahoning County, but White’s home actually was near Alliance in Stark County. Because of her poor home life, however, she was staying mostly at a friend’s house near Alliance in the months before her death, a witness testified during the first trial.