- Dec. 2004: Extradition
goes through. Monique sent to Florida facility where she must
provide her own clothing and food |
-
-
- Sermonette:
June 2004
-
- Media coverage of
Monique Turenne's story illustrates journalistic laziness
When Monique Turenne first
contacted injusticebusters to publicize her story in 2002, the
first thing I did was to punch her name into a search engine
and see what was there. What I found was a series of scurrilous
articles describing her as a murderess and an adulteress. These
stories were in the Sun papers and the Florida press. They described
a person to be wary of. Articles from the winnipeg Free Press
were not available online. Not even through the Saskatoon Public
Library, which subscribed to several news services.
So it was only after Monique
scanned for me a two part series written by Dan Lett and I was
able to piece it together and read it that I was able to form
a more balanced view of Monique Turenne. I cut and pasted the
scans and typed up the story after the Winnipeg Free Press editors
ignored my request for an electronic copy. Now, when you google
her name, this website comes up and her story is here. Unfortunately
the Winnipeg Free Press has also picked up the lie that Turenne
"confessed to Florida police."
This is a human interest story
about a widowed mother so frightened by threats to kill her children
from one of the persons who most likely killed her husband that
she took those threats seriously for several years. She is fiercely
protective of her children, whom I have met, and who are living
examples of well brought up kids.
This is a story that the world
beyond Winnipeg should be interested in. Her murdered husband
was a member of the Canadian military. Jurisdiction for the murder
was in the hands of the military who conducted a thorough investigation
and then cleared her. After that, a gung-ho Panama City cop took
her in for questioning, did a thorough search of her house and
found absolutely no blood -- except for what was on Monique's
bathrobe and shoes from leaning over the body after she discovered
it. There was not a single drop of blood or a weapon to be found
even though the murder was conducted with brutal blows to the
skull with something like a small pick axe. No forensic evidence
in her car. Nothing.
This absence of DNA evidence
is exculpatory. It cleared Monique as a suspect in the eyes of
the Canadian military and in the eyes of the Florida police.
There was nothing to hold her there so with her two children
she was flown home to Winnipeg.
There was inculpatory DNA evidence
-- blood on his car -- which was sufficient to convict Ralph
Crompton, a some-time buddy of David Turenne. Crompton told so
many lies to the Grand Jury and then at his trial that along
with indicting and convicting him, the trial judge enumerated
them (over 40) and characterized Crompton as a compulsive liar.
It seems that the gung-ho Panama
city cop, Mike Jones (who has since retired), was not satisfied
that Monique had been cleared. It would appear that he contacted
the Winnipeg Police Service. Just before midnight, on the eve
of her husband's funeral, Loren Schinkel and Jim Thiessen called
on Monique at her parents house and used a ruse to get her down
to the station (ironically called the Public Safety Building.)
They held her and questioned her without counsel (she had counsel
back in Florida) and without recording their nine hours of badgering
her before allowing her to leave.
She did not confess or admit
to anything which could possibly implicate her in the murder.
Nonetheless, a few months later, a typed nine page confession
was presented in secret to a Grand Jury at a hearing Turenne
knew nothing about -- along with an affidavit signed by Winnipeg
cop Loren Schinkel attesting to its truth. Thus began the process
by which Monique Turenne was indicted for murder and extradition
orders to return her to Florida to stand trial were filed with
the Canadian government.
Greg Brodsky's legal office
in Winnipeg has been fighting the extradition. On May 25 and
26, her case was presented to a panel of Manitoba Appeal Court
judges. The appeal was to overturn an earlier ruling which had
rubber-stamped the extradition order, by a judge who had refused
to look at the irregularities of the process by which the original
indictment had been obtained.
The judge didn't look at the
irregularities because she didn't have to. The law did not require
her to weigh any evidence but simply to take the word of the
Florida grand jury that there was sufficient evidence to send
Monique Turenne to trial. It didn't matter that the "sufficiency"
of the evidence was compromised by being manufactured. The extradition
act of 1985 allows for such grand jury hearings in the U.S. to
be treated similarly to preliminary hearings in Canada: if the
prosecution can demonstrate that it has anything at all to present
as a case against the accused, a trial is ordered. When the crime
occurred in the U.S. and the accused is in Canada, extradition
is automatic.
In this case, Monique was indicted
based on perjured testimony by two people: chronic liar Ralph
Crompton who was seeking to avoid execution by creating an affair
with the victim's wife and claiming she was the master-mind (even
though this was not raised at the trial) and Winnipeg cop Loren
Schinkel who had no authority to interview Monique Turenne but,
claimed in a signed affidavit he had been asked by a NORAD official
to do so (false) and then created a "confession" out
of an illegally obtained interrogation where no such confession
was forthcoming. In Canada, the accused is present with counsel
at a preliminary hearing; in this case, neither Monique Turenne
nor her counsel were present or even aware an indictment against
her was being sought. There was no opportunity for her to challenge
the "evidence" presented to the Grand Jury.
On Wednesday, May 26, Tony
Dalmyn from Brodsky's office presented the Manitoba Appeal Court
judges with this situation which he characterized as unfair.
The U.S. prosecutors were unable to explain to the Manitoba judges
why they had changed their theory of the murder from Ralph Crompton
committing the murder to Crompton playing a lesser role with
Turenne as his director. With an arrogance that is becoming all
too common among prosecutors across the continent, they acknowledged
they had changed their theory -- to one which did not accord
with the original facts of the case -- because they are legally
allowed to do so. Dalmyn pointed out that if they could do this
at the level of a grand jury, there was nothing to stop them
from doing so at the trial proper. This would put Monique Turenne
in the position of facing a potentially unfair trial where her
Canadian rights would not be recognized.
The judges listened. The final
words of Chief Justice Scott were, "The US has acted in
a two-faced manner" before reserving judgment. Their decision
could have a profound impact on the future conduct of preliminary
inquiries as well as extradition law.
Whoever was stringing for the
Associated Press did not hang around until the end of the hearing.
A report was written and published in the Florida papers claiming
Monique Turenne had "confessed" to Florida police.
The report also accepts, without question, that Monique Turenne
and Ralph Crompton were lovers. There is not now and there never
has been any evidence for these claims -- except from Crompton
and Schinkel. Monique Turenne has always denied any involvement
and the evidence is on her side. The report claimed the hearing
would be continuing for another day, although it concluded Wednesday.
Monique Turenne's case raises
similar questions to those raised by the illegal extradition
of Leonard Peltier and the current threatened extradition of
Canadian John
Graham. Justice journalists should be outraged and writing
their hearts out.
 Remember
last year when Jayson Blair of the New York Times was fired after
it was learned that he had "phoned in" stories from
places that he had not been, complete with details about the
weather. Occasionally he had lifted passages from other reporters'
stories. There was a big controversy and now Blair
has written a book, Burning Down My Master's House.
Bad and arrogant as he has
been, I don't think Jayson Blair carried forward defamatory lies
about anyone he wrote about. Reporters who have sensationalized
the story of Monique Turenne have defamed her character and continue
to do so because they are too lazy to check the facts. With the
exception of those writing for the Winnipeg Free Press, they
have been a shameful lot. Monique Turenne has former in-laws
who were greedy for David Turenne's military pension and money
they thought he had (unaware that in his shadowy life on the
Air Force base, he had squandered most of it). These in-laws
had an obvious axe to grind when they fed lies to reporters.
The reporters had an obligation to check their facts.
I write this as I sit 500 miles
from Winnipeg, relying on telephone sources and my own instincts.
If I have misrepresented any of the facts, I hope those who are
more knowledgeable will set me straight. I have formed an opinion
based on the facts as I know them.
Monique Turenne is an innocent
person who is threatened with extradition to a U.S. state which
takes pride in how full it can keep its ever expanding prison
system. She is not seeking to escape justice; she is hoping to
find it. Her request, that she be tried in Canada, is reasonable.
This is the only way she can possibly clear her name.
--Sheila Steele, May 27,
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
- Who we
are:
Publisher Sheila
Steele
- Co-founder: Richard Klassen
New:
injusticebustersblog. Participate!
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.
- More Sermonettes
2001
January: Legal Treachery to keep Dueck's lies safe
2002
March, 2002 -- Gay Bashing still a legal sport in Saskatoon
-- Even when it turns to murder
-
- 2003
-
- Feb. 1:
Where we stand
- Feb. 15, 2003:
Has Saskatchewan learned anything?
- March 1:
Connecting the dots
- March 23, 2003:
From Micro to Macro
- March 25, 2003:
About libel
and malice
- March 27: Gangs
of Saskatoon: the police and prison guards
- April 28, 2003: The
Naked Truth
- May 5: How
low will they go?
- May 15, 2003: Come
clean Calvert, Cline!
- May 30:
Still smearing Milgaard - defamation is alive and well on the
lawn of the Regina legislature and Precendent has been set as
we reclaim our institutions
- June 11, 2003:
--Eric Cline carries on a corrupt tradition
- Nov 7:
Courage -- the only reward is justice
- November 20: Just following orders
- November 24:
Mayor Atchison, community policing and graffiti
- November 25:
Michael Jackson
- November 30: Corrupt officials must be severely punished:
otherwise they just keep on putting the administration of justice
in disrepute!
- December 1: Christmas comes early for injustice
warriors
- December 4: Wide open Saskatchewan?
- December 16: Crawling through the tunnel of justice
since 1991
- December 24: The Crown keeps right on breaking
the law
- December 30: Who will find justice under their tree?
-
- 2004
-
- January 1. 2004: Unprecedented publicity and Happy New
Year
- January 8, 2004: Malice still afoot
- January
10, 2004: Shame
and mugshots
- January
14, 2004:
Telling more truth about the undefamable: McKillop and Quennell,
the static duo
- January
17, 2004: Fifth Estate
returns and A working class hero is something to be
- January
22,23,
2004: Justice is still prevailing -- it is just taking longer
and Bits and pieces are
now coming together to tell the story of the century
- January
27, 2004: Telling the
truth about the undefamable, restoring reputations to the defamed.
- February
5, 2004: Negotiations
and strategies: getting an intransigent government to remedy
its damage
- February
10, 2004: How many
lawyers does it take to ruin a province? and Lawyer continues to treat people's
lives as a cruel game: monopoly?
- Febrary
16, 2004: Calvert
is not King Arthur
- March 29,
2004:
Counting down to the damages trial
- April
16, 2004:
The internet, the courts and now the movies -- We will so what
it takes to get justice
- May 1,
2004:
If Frank
Quennell is any example of what former Justice Minister Chris
Axworthy called "evolving," Saskatchewan is ready to
kiss justice good-bye!
- May 27,
2004: Some observations
on Saskatchewan and justice
- June 7,
2004:Media coverage of Monique
Turenne's story illustrates journalistic laziness
- June 8:,
2004
-- The police not only failed to serve and protect Don and Lorna
Smith and their children but set them up for false charges and
community shunning
- September
2, 2004:
A tale of three cops: Dueck, Gobeil and Schinkel -- with an update
on how they get away with criminal obstruction of justice
- November,
2004:
Wilfred Hathway, Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns -- RCMP stings
offensive to community standards
- November
11, 2004:
Rogue Platoon? Identifying
the rotten apples in Saskatoon Police Service and why we need
a full public inquiry into our whole justice system
- November
28, 2004:
Can Justice Minister Quennell
take a few more steps? The Prosecutors' office is still harbouring
crowns who put the administrative of justice in disrepute
- November
12, 2004: Saskatchewan
Justice in chaos: The Stonechild report suggests it is.
- November
28, 2004: The
price for being a good judge or a good prosecutor
- December
30:
When the government interferes
with the judiciary, we know a Police State is a dangerous possibility
(The government appeal of the Klassen/Kvello decision)
-
- 2005
-
- Jan 1, 2005: Chewed up digested and spit out
- Jan.
5, 2005:
More on chief Sabo
- February
18, 2005:
Tunnel vision: Darren Koehn, Wilf Hathway and Leon Walchuk
- March 2: Fixing the system: Time to quit talking and
implement previous commission recommendations
- March 19, 2005 : Injustice as ShowBiz
|
