FBI expert: Nick Houck untruthful when asked about Crystal Rogers

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette/ WBRT Radio

Monday, Oct. 19, 2015, 11 p.m. — A July 24, 2015, polygraph exam administered by an FBI agent to former Bardstown Police Officer Nick Houck revealed Houck was not truthful in answers to questions about what happened to Crystal Rogers or her whereabouts.

NICK HOUCK

In a video obtained by the Nelson County Gazette, the FBI polygraph examiner discusses the results of the test with Houck. The video begins as Houck’s polygraph test ends and the examiner has read the results.

“It’s pretty clear to me you haven’t told me the complete truth today,” the examiner tells Houck. “The questions you are having problems with are the ones about Crystal, in particular, the one about whether you know where she is right now.

“It’s no longer a matter of just wondering do you know anything about what happened,” the examiner tells Houck. “I’m no longer asking if you know. You do.”

The examiner notes that on the date of the polygraph Houck already believed Rogers was dead.

Investigators did not believe it to be a planned murder, the examiner told Houck, and he invited him “to step up and be a man and say ‘here’s the deal, this is what happened’.”

Houck also lied about where he went at various times, the examiner told him. “We can prove today you were places you said you weren’t.”

Houck remained silent, except to repeatedly tell the examiner he was not involved and knew nothing about Roger’s disappearance.

DENIED BLOOD IN HIS CRUISER. Houck told the examiner he’s tired of being called a “f*cking liar,” and tired of the lies being created about him. He disputed claims by investigators that bodily fluids were found in his police cruiser.

“There’s no way in hell there’s any blood in that car,” Houck told the examiner. “Today with you I have been 100 percent honest and I don’t know nothing about it.”

Officer Nick Houck talks with an FBI expert following a polygraph examination at the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office on July 24, 2015.

The examiner insisted Houck knew more than he was telling. Twelve minutes into the conversation, Houck stopped the examiner in mid-sentence to ask, “Do we need to take this any further? You’re talking crazy.”

“You told me before you had nothing to do with it. Now we’re past that because I’ve shown that you did have something to do with it,” he said.

“I’m not saying you did it, but you know more about it than we do,” he said. “But my hunch is its something your brother told you.”

Houck once again tells the examiner he is being honest, at which point Houck is asked why then was he untruthful when testifying before a Nelson County grand jury.

During the conversation, Houck admitted making the phone call to his brother during the interview with Detective Jon Snow of the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office. Houck said he didn’t trust Snow.

“I figured Jon was screwing him around and I wanted to figure out what was going on there,” Houck said. He told the examiner Snow had told him and other officers in the past that he lied to juries in court.

Houck called his brother “a calm, laid-back dude” who successfully manages a lot of rental property who was not prone to violent outbursts.

Nick Houck was fired from his job as a Bardstown Police office on Friday, Oct. 16. He has 30 days to appeal his termination in Nelson Circuit Court.

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