Canadian victims advocate says justice system to blame for wrongful conviction

"Someone made a mistake" but not the cops involved?? Give us a break!

A lobby group that defends the wrongfully convicted said Tuesday it is scandalous that one police officer is taking the fall for the entire justice system that sent Simon Marshall, a mentally handicapped man, to jail for five years for sexual crimes he didn't commit. Three Quebec police officers have been cleared by the Police Ethics Commission of botching the case against Marshall, who was convicted of sexual assaults and later cleared by the Court of Appeal. But the commission blamed one of the three officers for making false accusations against Marshall regarding one of the alleged victims.

"It's a second scandal after the first scandal when it was revealed Marshall was innocent," said Carlo Tarini, director of Injustice Quebec, a group lobbying for victims of judicial errors. "It's a major blunder from the Justice Department and the prosecuting attorneys that is responsible for what happened to Marshall and yet in the end, who gets the blame? One police officer," he added. Tarini renewed his call for a broader public investigation into the entire Marshall case, but the Justice Department has closed the door to such an inquiry.

In 1997, Marshall was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault. Marshall, who was nicknamed the Ste-Foy Rapist, confessed to the crimes, and was released in 2003. Soon after his release, Marshall was arrested on three more counts of sexual assault. Again, he confessed.

He was about to be sentenced and risked being declared a dangerous offender when DNA evidence cleared him. Quebec City's top police officials acknowledged someone made a mistake and overlooked DNA tests. A Quebec Court of Appeal ruling reversed all of Marshall's convictions in 2005. The Quebec government awarded him $2.3 million in compensation in December 2006 for the wrongful conviction, the highest compensation in provincial history.

Quebec's police conduct commission investigated the officers who handled the case - retired Ste. Foy police Lt. Luc Barrette, Det.-Sgt Raymond Matte, who is also retired from the Ste. Foy force, and Det.-Sgt. Helene Turgeon of the Quebec City force. Pierre Gagne, the presiding ethics commissioner in the case, found Barrette, Matte and Turgeon didn't abuse their authority or conduct incomplete investigations. The commissioner found Matte did go against his ethics code by making false accusations in connection with one of the cases in 1997. The charge related to that false accusation was dropped before Marshall's trial started.

Lawyer Robert DeBlois, representing Matte and Turgeon, said the police officers were "very happy" about the decision. "They were judged by the public before the hearings started and are very relieved to see their names cleared," he said. He added the blame against Matte is "minor."

Lawyer Serge Goulet, who represented Marshall during the appeal procedures and negotiations for compensation, said there is only one conclusion to be drawn from the decision. "This means that the police officers didn't go against their ethics code during their investigation, that's it," Goulet stressed. "The commission didn't say anything about the quality of their work. You can botch your job and not go against your ethics code."

Goulet said the Marshall family doesn't cry out for revenge and wants to turn the page. Marshall's family said while in prison he was the victim of sexual, physical and verbal abuse from fellow inmates. He was sent to a psychiatric facility following his ordeal in prison and he is still there, Goulet said. "He still can't stay alone and there is no sign that in the near future he will be able to live in society," he said.

Report here


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