Editorial comment from the National Post: What is Regina thinking?| See also Brian Hutcinson's Frozen Ghosts, interview with David Burns, and investigative report on RCMP Big Boss stings

 

The Klassen story

Breaking through to the public

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'I was ready to die' Klassen
One man's fight against horrible - and false - charges

Richard Klassen says the malicious prosecution of his family has left him ruined, physically and emotionally.

CREDIT: Gord Waldner, CanWest News Service

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Brian Hutchinson, National Post, Saturday, January 10, 2004

SASKATOON - Forty little sleeping pills, bouncing in his pocket. That's all it would have taken, for the anguish of the last 13 years to finally disappear. Had the verdict gone the other way, the wrong way, Richard Klassen was prepared to die.

His hands shake slightly as he lights up another cigarette and tells his dreadful story.

In July, 1991, Mr. Klassen, his wife, his mother, his father, his sister, two brothers, and other members of his family were accused by three dysfunctional children of the most twisted acts of sexual abuse imaginable. Ritualistic stuff. Eating eyeballs, burning human flesh with knives, cutting skin, throwing wild orgies. A plethora of criminal charges were thrown at the Klassens. They were arrested and jailed; their own children were apprehended.

With the exception of four charges laid against Peter Klassen, Richard's father, the rest were eventually stayed. But the incident left an indelible stain. Seven of the Klassens launched a malicious prosecution suit against a child therapist, a Saskatoon police officer and a prosecutor involved in the case. Richard Klassen, a house painter with a Grade 7 education, led the way. He represented himself in court.

Two weeks ago, he walked into the Saskatoon courthouse where he had spent much of the last decade, arguing his case as a plaintiff. The verdict was at hand.

"I didn't think I'd win," he told me this week, over coffee in a Saskatoon hotel bar. "I was afraid. I've never told anybody this, but I brought a lethal dose of sleeping pills with me. There was no way I was going to live if I lost the case. I had put everything on the line and I was ready to die."

Inside the courthouse, Mr. Klassen was handed a copy of a 189-page decision prepared by Queen's Bench Justice George Baynton. He took the ruling with him into a washroom, and began to read. Mr. Klassen was soon in tears. He and his family had won, convincingly.

"The lives of the plaintiffs have been irrevocably damaged," Judge Baynton declared.

"The unlawful actions of the defendants caused them to be held up to hatred and public ridicule by being branded as pedophiles and wrongfully charged with the most horrible and distasteful crimes in our society ... In my respectful view, the lack of any regret or remorse for what was done to the plaintiffs is a strong indicator of malice on the part of each of the defendants."

Richard Klassen and his wife, Kari, returned to their home in Outlook, Sask., a small town outside Saskatoon. Last week, on New Year's Eve, they threw a victory party. Friends and family came to celebrate. The happy mood did not last through the night.

Mr. Klassen consumed too much Jack Daniels whisky. He also took a handful of sleeping pills; he had become addicted to them over the years, while fighting to remove the "sexual abuser" label from his family's name.

"I went berserk," he told me, glancing at the freshly stitched wounds on his right hand. "I wrecked the house. I guess I did try to commit suicide."

It made no sense. Mr. Klassen had won his battle, hadn't he? Yes, and no.

True, he had received the verdict that he had wanted, and more. This week, Saskatoon's chief of police formally apologized to the entire Klassen family for the role his department played in the malicious prosecution. Superintendent Brian Dueck, the Saskatoon officer who pressed the case against the Klassens, was placed on medical leave and suspended from police work while lawyers hired by his superiors investigate his involvement in the affair.

Mr. Klassen was pleased, but the entire experience has left him ruined, emotionally and physically. "People think I should be happy," he explained, "but it's been 13 years. I am obsessed with this. It became my life. I know it sounds crazy but now I have nothing to do. I can't fight in court anymore."

But two days ago, just after I met with Mr. Klassen over coffee, Saskatchewan's Minister of Justice announced that his department would appeal the malicious prosecution verdict. "No apology," said Frank Quennell. "It is our position that the Crown prosecutors did not commit a wrong."

Mr. Klassen was incensed. "What am I supposed to do? Hang myself on a light post in downtown Saskatoon to get my point across? I think I did right. I think the judge said I did right by coming to the courts where it belonged and I won. What more do they want from me?"

Yesterday, he was back inside the courthouse, delivering documents meant to block the province's appeal. His court fight is not over, after all. Richard Klassen must now return again to where it all began: Red Deer, Alta., 1991.

He was painting houses in that city with his three brothers. They had all left Saskatoon with their wives and children, after their father, Peter, had been convicted and jailed two years earlier for sexually assaulting two Saskatoon children.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the Klassen clan, Peter had also had sexual contact with the three foster children who had been in the foster care of his son Dale and daughter-in-law Anita.

Michael, Michelle and Kathy Ross were born to deaf and mute parents, both alcoholics. Their mother was a prostitute, and would frequently service customers in the family home. In 1987, the three children were apprehended by social services workers in Saskatchewan and placed with Dale and Anita Klassen in 1987. The Klassens were not told that the children had already been sexually abused.

According to Judge Baynton, "it soon became evident to the Klassens that the children were abnormal and constituted a real parenting challenge. They required constant supervision to keep them from inappropriately touching one another and others." Michael was particularly abusive with his sisters, and would constantly sneak into their bedroom at night. In 1989, he was placed in another, "therapeutic" foster home.

Around this time, the children were interviewed by Saskatoon police officer Brian Dueck, then a corporal, in regards to alleged sexual abuse in and around the Klassen home. Apparently, the interviews were precipitated by an incident of sexual abuse by Peter Klassen. Afterwards, Michael supposedly expressed concern that his sisters were being abused at the home of Dale and Anita Klassen.

The girls were then moved to Michael's new foster home, where their older brother continued to abuse them. Ropes and buzzers were attached to his bedroom door "in an attempt to prevent him from entering the girls' bedroom at night to sexually abuse them," Judge Baynton noted.

The effort failed. "It is reprehensible that [child welfare authorities] took no meaningful action to have [Michael] and the girls placed in separate foster homes to prevent further incidents of sexual abuse," he added.

While Michael's abuse of his sisters continued in their new home, Cpl. Dueck and child therapist Carol Bunko-Ruys took seriously his claims that the entire Klassen family had repeatedly assaulted them sexually. Eventually, Cpl. Dueck and Ms. Bunko-Ruys extracted even more lurid allegations from the two girls. Kathy Ross, for example, "related being burned and cut with knives, having knives inserted into her bum and vagina, and ingesting blood, feces, urine and raw fish," Judge Baynton noted. "All three children described in graphic detail the sexual abuse that occurred which includes oral, vaginal and genital contact."

On July 10, 1991, armed with information provided them by Cpl. Dueck and Ms. Bunko-Ruys, RCMP in Red Deer arrested Dale and Anita Klassen, Richard and Kari Klassen, and their brother John and sister-in-law Myrna Klassen. They spent a week in jail before arranging bail; their children were apprehended by Alberta Social Services and then returned.

Police in Saskatoon arrested Peter Klassen and his wheelchair-bound wife, Marie, plus their daughter, Pamela Sharpe, and several others, including two youths. In all, 16 individuals were arrested and charged with more than 70 counts of sexual assault. Peter Klassen pleaded guilty to four sexual assault charges and was sentenced to four years in jail.

None of the other accused had in any way abused the three Ross children; however, they were not given the opportunity to go to trial and clear their names. Instead, their charges were stayed.

The prosecution argued that the three children had suffered enough, that it would not be in their best interest to force them to endure the "trauma" of a full-blown sexual abuse trial. Eventually, the children recanted, and said their allegations had been the result of much prompting and suggestion by Cpl. Dueck and Ms. Bunko-Ruys. This still did not sit well with Richard Klassen. "We had not been declared innocent," he says. In 1994, he launched his malicious prosecution suit against Cpl. Dueck, Ms. Bunk-Ruys, and two Crown prosecutors.

At first, the lawsuit went nowhere. Mr. Klassen claims his lawyers were inept. He stopped working, and wound up on welfare. He moved to Harris, Sask., with Kari and their three children, but their house was vandalized, its interior spray-painted with ugly slogans such as "kiddy humper."

They moved again, first to Manitoba, and then to tiny Outlook, near Saskatoon. After the CBC's investigative television program, Fifth Estate, aired an episode that cast a negative light on the entire child abuse investigation, Mr. Klassen was re-energized. He fired his lawyers, spent $350 on a civil law book, and proceeded with the malicious prosecution case himself.

He also bought a bullhorn and painted signs and marched outside the Saskatoon Police headquarters, loudly accusing Brian Dueck of malicious prosecution. He was charged several times with disturbing the peace and with defamation. He defended himself and was acquitted every time.

"I pushed and pushed until a judge said we were going to trial," he said this week. "I was crazed. I could not sleep. I'd stay up every night, reading my law book and going over documents."

Along the way, he suffered a nervous breakdown, developed a prostate problem, and became hooked on prescription sleeping pills. He overdosed three times, he says. He can barely remember most events leading up to and even during the malicious prosecution trial, which began in September, and concluded with the positive verdict two weeks ago.

Remarkably, he holds no grudges against his accusers. The Klassens speak with the two Ross girls, now 21, almost every day. "They have had a very hard time, even after finally being separated from Michael" says Kari Klassen. "Both of them have had children of their own taken from them." Kathy Ross is living in B.C. Michelle Ross is in a prison for women in Saskatchewan.

Richard Klassen's own family has been torn apart. His mother died in 1995. He doesn't speak to his father, and remains close with just one sibling, an older brother.

He is 42 years old, and struggling to avoid alcohol and pills. A week has passed since his last relapse. He looks haggard. Now that the province is appealing the malicious prosecution verdict, Mr. Klassen is sure to feel the strain that punished him before.

He will not rest, he says, until his family is completely exonerated. "I want a full inquiry to examine how this could have ever happened. I could accept that the Saskatoon police service and the others have evolved. But I want them to show me how."

bhutchinson@nationalpost.com
© National Post 2004

Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell

Truth suppress'd, whether by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com

If you hold the mouth of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb

Truth crushed to earth will rise again. --William Cullen Bryant

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Publisher : Sheila Steele

Co-founder: Richard Klassen

Got something to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!

injusticebusters court advice :

How to walk yourself through the justice system

 

Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)

 

Sermonette: Sucked in, Diegested and spit out by Saskatoon police (You will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this page

Another target of Dueck's malice: Wilf Hathway

Our activism contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the civil trial.

Index to the stories on this website

This is not regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated

Index to Saskatoon Police stories

This is a pretty good scrapbook for the 1998-2002 period.

 

 

The Klassen/Kvello civil Trial

 

September 8, 2003: Trial Begins

September 09, 2003: Pamela Klassen Shetterly's Testimony

September 10, 2003: Anita Klassen

September 11, 2003: Michelle Ross

September 12, 2003: Sheila Verway

September 16, 2003: Michael Ross

September 18, 2003: Ellen Gunn

September 19, 2003: Terry Hinz

September 19, 2003:StarPhoenix editorial, Terry Hinz

September 20, 2003: Louis Dupuis

September 27, 2003: Ron Schindell, Jay Watson

October 01, 2003: Case

against the Klassens weak: documents

October 02, 2003: Judge asked to dismiss suit: No evidence of malicious intent: lawyers

October 2, 2003: Letter to the editor from former "Believe the children" advocate

October 03, 2003: Lawyer details evidence of malice

October 04, 2003: Judge ponders request to drop Klassen lawsuit

October 27, 2003: Judge Baynton's interim decision: Quinney dropped, the rest proceed

October 27, 2003: Claim goes forward

October 29, 2003: Brian Dueck

October 30, 2003: Dueck

October 31, 2003: Brian Dueck

November 01, 2003: Matthew Miazga

November 04, 2003: Matthew Miazga

November 05, 2003: Matthew Miazga

November 06, 2003: Sonja Hansen

 

Injusticebusters daily reports Page 1 | Page 2

injusticebusters' daily reports page one 1 page two

Final judgment: Dec. 30, 2003 |

Post judgment publicity

articles and editorials from Jan 6-9

Sabo's apology

Editorials: StarPhoenix, Leader Post and National Post

National Post front page story, Jan. 10

Sarah Gibb's profile of Richard and Kari Klassen |

Lives ruined by Jason Warick, Feb. 19

April 15/04: Judge Baynton warns defendants' lawyers not to delay damages trial

Dueck drops his appeal

Full transcript of Dueck's examinations for discovery which were part of the read-ins at the civil trial

 

 

Revitalizing the archives From 1998 until 2002, injusticebusters was in the throes of identity crisis. What was it? What were we doing? We grappled with editorial policy at the same time we were learning the nuts and bolts of building and posting a website. Once we had a secure, paid site I had full editorial control, although I talked regularly to Richard Klassen who was forced to move his family several times and did not always have access to the internet. Rick's pages: one | two We posted our earliest and later actions. Early versions of the site can be found on the Wayback Machine. I began following other threads to stories of police and prosecutorial misconduct and the site's character took on another facet: a newsclipping scrapbook where stories could live longer than they would in print form. I also began picking up other stories of wrongfully convicted people. It was an explosion. By 2003 there were over 700 pages. I also had contact with several other people (Don Smith, Leon Walchuk, Monique Turenne, the Vopnis) and kept these stories going. It was the story of the Ross children's treatment at the hands of the Saskatchewan government which grabbed the attention of The Fifth Estate. The civil claim (The $10M Lawsuit as we called it) was only mentioned briefly at the end of their show which aired in November, 2000. When Richard Klassen began to make progress in bringing his civil claim to court, the government and police defendants alleged he was breaking the rules of court by publishing discovery material on the internet. MacNeil clinic (the document which started it all) The Thompson Papers Carol Bunko-Ruys reports This claim was absolutely false. However, rather than risk being thrown out of his civil claim, Klassen undertook before Judge Mona Dovall to sever all ties with the website. The court fights: Les Perreaux report QB271 These pages have links which lead to other pages from that era. Now that some of the dust has settled, I have been going back through the material we had posted in the early days. In the spirit of keeping the scrapbook alive, I have been reformatting and placing links. The original material remains intact. I hope the information, which chronicles our struggle is useful to you. The identity crisis is over. We know who we are --Sheila Steele, March 28, 2005