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background (also see links on sidebar) Sask
to give inquiry another $700,000
Commission
of Inquiry Into the Wrongful Conviction of David Milgaard:
(Page 6)
Honourable Mr. Justice Edward
P. MacCallum, Commissioner
| Commission website
Pre-inquiry
publicity | 2004
| Day 1 | Day
2 | Page 3 | Page
4 | Page 5: The Relentless
interrogation of Nichol John |
Lockyer shows similarities with
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Police fed murder details
to Milgaard friend
Travelling companion tells inquiry he just agreed with officer's
statements
Betty Ann Adam,
The StarPhoenix, March 18, 2005
Two teenagers who gave police
the same false story in 1969 about David Milgaard killing Gail
Miller didn't come up with the details themselves, the inquiry
into Milgaard's wrongful conviction heard Thursday.
One of them, Ron Wilson, now
53, told the inquiry that in May 1969, he simply agreed to statements
that were put to him by Saskatoon police detective Eddy Karst,
who made notes about the answers. Wilson then read the document
and signed it.
Wilson said he didn't implicate
Milgaard in the murder until he had been in Saskatoon police
custody for two days, during which he was shown the scene of
the crime, questioned repeatedly and shown the victim's bloody
dress by Calgary police officer Art Roberts, who administered
a polygraph test on him.
Wilson said he had been a heavy
user of drugs, such as marijuana, LSD, mescaline and amphetamines,
for more than a year at the time. He just wanted to get out of
police custody so he could get high on drugs, he said.
The polygraph interrogation
on May 23, 1969, consisted of two sessions that each lasted about
two hours, he said. Wilson said that during those sessions he
realized he could end the questioning by changing his answers
and incriminating Milgaard.
Wilson said he understood he
was implicating his friend in a murder he didn't commit.
"It got to the point where
I didn't care. I'd gone a couple of days without any drugs and
it was starting to hurt," he testified Thursday.
No record exists of the polygraph
test. Roberts is now dead. The inquiry has heard excerpts of
his testimony at Milgaard's 1992 Supreme Court hearing, where
Roberts said he didn't know what became of his notes from the
Wilson interviews or the polygraph chart.
Roberts and a Saskatoon officer
also showed Wilson six paring knives and asked Wilson if he had
seen any of them in Milgaard's possession. He indicated one with
a maroon handle the police kept going back to, he said. The inquiry
has heard that the murder weapon was a maroon-handled paring
knife.
Wilson and Nichol John, a teenage
friend of Wilson's and Milgaard's, were placed together for about
an hour that day, Wilson said. During that time, he suggested
to her that they both give police "what they wanted"
to "sink" Milgaard.
Wilson said he didn't know
and didn't care what John was telling police or if her story
would contradict the lies he was telling.
Wilson signed a statement saying
he was separated from Milgaard for 15 minutes around the time
of the murder. The statement included many new details which
were not in his previous statement that did not incriminate Milgaard.
The next day, on May 24, John
signed an 11-page statement that also included the same new details,
which also had not been in her original statement.
That day, as well, another
page of details that matched those in John's new statement was
added to Wilson's statement of May 23. Both teens were driven
home to Regina on May 24.
On Aug. 15, 1969, Wilson was
convicted of two unrelated offences, conspiracy to commit fraud
and possession of LSD. He was serving a sentence for that at
Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., when Milgaard's preliminary hearing
began Aug. 18. Karst was sent to Alberta to escort Wilson to
the preliminary hearing. Wilson was escorted back, after he testified,
by Charles Short of the Saskatoon police.
Months later, when Wilson was
in Saskatoon waiting for his turn to testify at Milgaard's 1970
trial, Crown prosecutor T.D.R. Caldwell came to Wilson's hotel
room to make sure of the length of time Wilson said he and Milgaard
were separated the morning of the murder, Wilson said.
Wilson did not meet with Milgaard's
defence lawyer, Calvin Tallis, or anyone from the Milgaard family
before the trial, he said
Milgaard was convicted and
spent 23 years in prison before he was released in 1992 after
Wilson recanted and the Supreme Court of Canada reviewed the
case. DNA was used in 1997 to prove Milgaard's innocence and
to convict serial rapist Larry Fisher of the crime in 1999.
The inquiry is looking into
the original death investigation, the prosecution of Milgaard
and the actions taken by justice officials when new information
about the case became available.
Wilson will return to the witness
stand when the inquiry resumes on Monday.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Police forged Milgaard
theory
lawyer
Betty Ann Adam,
The StarPhoenix,March 16, 2005
Senior members of the Saskatoon
police force formulated a theory about David Milgaard killing
Gail Miller and then had investigators obtain statements to support
the theory, Milgaard's lawyer told a wrongful conviction inquiry
Tuesday.
Hersh Wolsh based his comment
on a police document that lays out information police had gathered
about the Miller murder and their theory of events.
The theory included items that
later showed up in statements signed by Nichol John and Ron Wilson,
the two teenagers who travelled to Saskatoon with Milgaard the
morning of the murder, Jan. 31, 1969.
However, the theory appeared
to be based, in part, on a statement attributed to John that
she had not yet made, Wolsh showed the Milgaard inquiry.
The document says that John
admitted seeing a woman who looked like a nurse near a funeral
home, and that Milgaard asked her for directions.
The first time John said Milgaard
asked a woman for directions was in a statement she signed May
24, 1969, after she and Wilson had been brought to Saskatoon
from Regina, shown the place where Miller's body was found, kept
in the police station for one and two nights respectively, interrogated
by a polygraph expert and shown the victim's bloody uniform.
That statement has John claiming
to see Milgaard stab Miller. John has never repeated or confirmed
that allegation. Prior to that, throughout the first 11 weeks
that she was questioned, John maintained Milgaard was not involved
in Miller's death.
There was no date on the police
document, but Wolsh said it pre-dates John's May 24 statement
because it ended with a suggestion that John, Wilson and another
man be brought to Saskatoon where, with all present, "the
true story can be obtained," even if hypnosis or a polygraph
was necessary.
Wilson was brought to Saskatoon
on May 21, 1969.
John also acknowledged she
didn't know the building in question was a funeral home until
police told her on May 22.
"The police had a complete
theory . . . and eventually you and Ron Wilson gave them what
they wanted," Wolsh asked John. "It looks like it,"
John said.
Milgaard spent 23 years in
prison for the murder he didn't commit. He was released in 1992,
after the case was reveiwed by the Supreme Court. DNA was used
to prove his innocence in 1997 and was used to convict serial
rapist, Larry Fisher, of the crime in 1999.
The inquiry is looking into
the original death investigation, Milgaard's prosecution and
the actions of justice officials in the years afterward.
John, who was on the witness
stand for six days, has said she cannot remember most of the
events from 1969 nor most of the important, related events since.
Wolsh and James Lockyer, who
represents Milgaard's mother, Joyce Milgaard, spent a day and
a half leading John through evidence that shows police pressured
John and Wilson into giving false statements against Milgaard.
John has shown little emotion
during the long days on the stand, but her voice quavered as
she agreed with Wolsh that she was a 16-year-old without parental
guidance or legal counsel, who was locked away in a jail setting
until police obtained the statement that was "totally created."
Wolsh said the police theory document implicating Milgaard was
prepared between May 7 and May 21, 1969, by senior members of
the Saskatoon police.
Police who questioned John
before the police theory was documented commented in their reports
that John was convincing and seemed to be telling the truth but
they appeared to have been over-ruled by superiors in the police
department who did not believe her, Wolsh said.
Meanwhile, Lockyer became involved
in an exchange with commissioner Justice Edward MacCallum about
MacCallum's position on Milgaard's innocence. Lockyer wanted
assurance that MacCallum agrees Milgaard is factually innocent,
while MacCallum refused to make a declaration and asked that
he not be drawn into Lockyer's argument.
Commission counsel Doug Hodson
re-read the commission's terms of reference, which says: "The
commission shall perform its duties without expressing any conclusion
or recommendation regarding the criminal or civil responsibility
of any person or organization, and without interfering in any
ongoing criminal or civil proceeding."
John was excused from the stand
Tuesday. Ron Wilson will take the stand today. Transcripts of
the hearing and documents referred to are available on the commission's
website at www.milgaardinquiry.ca.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Travelling companion lied
to end 1969 interrogation
Truthful answers didn't satisfy operator of polygraph, inquiry
told
Betty Ann Adam, The
StarPhoenix, March 17, 2005
Ron Wilson wanted to end an
interrogation session when he lied in 1969 and implicated David
Milgaard in Gail Miller's murder, Wilson told the Milgaard inquiry
Wednesday.
Milgaard was wrongfully convicted
and spent 23 years in prison before Wilson's recantation helped
win his release in 1992. DNA was used to prove his innocence
in 1997 and to convict serial rapist Larry Fisher of the crime
in 1999.
Wilson recanted in 1990 when
he was interviewed by an investigator with an American organization
called Centurion Ministries, which took up the case on behalf
of Milgaard and his mother, Joyce Milgaard.
That admission helped Milgaard
obtain a new hearing at the Supreme Court of Canada, which directed
the justice minister to quash the conviction. The government
of Saskatchewan decided not to order another trial.
On March 2, 1969, Wilson, then
17, gave police a truthful statement about a trip to Saskatoon
he had made with Milgaard and Nichol John on Jan. 31, the day
of the murder, he said Wednesday.
Eleven weeks later, on May
21, he gave police blood and saliva samples and agreed to go
to Saskatoon from Regina for a polygraph test, which he was confident
would show he was not lying, he said Wednesday.
Once in Saskatoon, police took
Wilson to the alley where Miller's body was found, pointed out
a landmark church and funeral home, and showed him that Miller's
wallet was found near the house he and his friends had visited
that morning.
Wilson was held in police cells
overnight and taken back to the locations on May 22. He was allowed
to spend that night at the Ritz Hotel.
On May 23, Wilson was taken
to the Sheraton Cavalier, where a Calgary polygraph expert, Art
Roberts, gave him the lie detector test and interviewed him for
several hours.
Wilson testified Wednesday
he had been using LSD in the days before the questioning and
didn't feel well during the "long and arduous" questioning.
He realized the officer was not satisfied with the truthful answers
he gave in which he denied suspecting or knowing Milgaard was
involved in the murder.
Roberts "kept coming back
to the questions over and over," Wilson said.
"I thought I'd see what
happens if I changed the answer. When I did, the question disappeared,"
he said. "I changed the answers to see what would happen,
if the questions would quit."
Wilson's new answers indicated
that Milgaard had referred to a woman on the street as a "stupid
bitch" after they asked her for directions, that Milgaard
had been separated from him and John for about 15 minutes around
the time of the murder, that Milgaard had returned to the car
panting, that John was afraid of Milgaard after that point, that
Wilson had seen blood on Milgaard's clothing, that John had found
a cosmetic case in the glove compartment and that Milgaard had
thrown it out the window, that in Calgary Milgaard had confessed
to stabbing a girl in Saskatoon and that Wilson had told John,
who said she already knew.
Wilson and John were placed
together during a break in the questioning that day, he said.
During that meeting he suggested to John that he and she should
give the police what they wanted and "sink him," Wilson
said.
The next day John signed a
statement saying she had seen Milgaard stab a woman. John has
never repeated that statement. She said at Milgaard's trial,
and ever since, that she can't remember what happened.
Wilson testified against Milgaard
at his 1970 trial. He returns to the witness stand today.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
'I knew I'd lied,' witness
tells Milgaard inquiry
Betty Ann Adam, The
StarPhoenix, March 22, 2005
The youth whose lie helped
convict David Milgaard of a murder he didn't commit "went
home and got wired" after he learned of the guilty verdict,
the Milgaard inquiry heard Monday.
"I knew I'd lied. I knew
he hadn't (comitted murder)," Ron Wilson said.
Wilson said that while he was
being interrogated by Art Roberts, a polygraph expert from Calgary,
he came to believe that Milgaard had killed 20-year-old nursing
assistant Gail Miller on Jan. 31, 1969, when Milgaard, Wilson
and Nichol John were travelling through Saskatoon.
"To me it was kind of
true at the time," he said.
Milgaard spent 23 years in
prison before he was released in 1992 after his case was reviewed
by the Supreme Court of Canada. DNA was used to prove his innocence
in 1997 and to convict serial rapist Larry Fisher in 1999.
The commission of inquiry is
looking into the original investigation, the wrongful conviction
and actions taken by justice officials when new information came
out afterwards.
After the May 23, 1969, interrogation,
Wilson changed his earlier, non-incriminating statement and gave
one that implicated Milgaard in the murder. John, who was also
interrogated for three days, also changed her earlier statement
and signed one that contained most of the same new details as
Wilson's, as well as a claim of having seen Milgaard stab a woman.
In the eight months from the
interrogation until Milgaard's January 1970 trial, Wilson said
he continued to think Milgaard had committed the murder.
By the time Milgaard's trial
ended, however, Wilson said he knew he had lied.
"I really started thinking
about it and I knew I'd lied. I knew he was innocent and there
was nothing I could do about it. I just filed it and went home."
Wilson also said Crown prosecutor
T.D.R. Caldwell met with him before the trial and questioned
him about the length of time he had been separated from Milgaard
that morning. It gave Wilson the impression Caldwell wanted him
to increase the length of time he had been gone, he said Monday.
"To me it sounded like
he wanted it extended, so I extended it (during testimony),"
he said
"They wanted an extended
time period, they got it," he said, explaining that by "they"
he meant Caldwell.
Wilson said he thought John's
statement of having actually witnessed the murder would have
been more harmful to Milgaard than his account of being separated
from Milgaard long enough for him to have committed the act.
It was years before he learned
that John had "clammed up" at the trial, where she
said she couldn't remember seeing the stabbing.
Wilson applied for the $2,000
reward the Saskatoon police had offered when they were seeking
leads in the Miller investigation. He said the prospect of a
reward did not influence his testimony against Milgaard.
The police never offered Wilson
any kind of deal to testify against Milgaard, Wilson said.
"That never happened,"
he said.
Wilson said he didn't think
about his role in Milgaard's conviction very much during the
1970s, when he used drugs heavily, including heroin.
It began to bother him again
after he talked to Milgaard's mother, Joyce Milgaard, in 1981.
Even then, however, he didn't
admit the truth to her. Wilson was afraid of David Milgaard in
1981.
"He had to be a little
ticked. Because he knew I'd lied.
"I wanted to tell the
truth to somebody, but I thought, 'Who's going to believe me?'
It would pop up in my mind. Sometimes I'd cry about it,"
Wilson said.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Wilson haunted by lies for
decades
Betty Ann Adam, The
StarPhoenix, March 23, 2005
The Milgaard inquiry ended
90 minutes earlier than usual Tuesday after Ron Wilson, the man
who recanted lies that helped wrongfully convict David Milgaard,
complained of dizziness while on the stand.
An ambulance was called to
the Radisson Hotel, where the commission of inquiry is sitting
this week, but left without a patient after about 15 minutes.
It was Wilson's fourth day
of testimony answering questions from commission counsel Doug
Hodson. Eleven parties with standing have the right to cross-examine
Wilson after Hodson is done.
Wilson, 53, said earlier Tuesday
he was haunted by the knowledge his lies helped send Milgaard
to prison.
"I felt I was screwed.
I wasn't treated right (by the police officers) and that's how
everything went wrong," Wilson said, adding he still feels
he was a victim along with Milgaard.
Wilson was 17 in 1969 when
he, Milgaard and Nichol John travelled through Saskatoon on the
morning nursing assistant Gail Miller was raped and stabbed to
death. He told police that he saw blood on Milgaard's clothing
and that Milgaard later confessed to him. Milgaard was convicted
on Jan. 31, 1970, one year to the day after the murder.
Milgaard was released in 1992,
after the case was reviewed by the Supreme Court of Canada. DNA
was used to exonerate him in 1997 and to convict serial rapist
Larry Fisher of the crime in 1999. The inquiry is looking into
the original investigation, the wrongful conviction and actions
taken by justice officials after new information came out.
In 1990, Wilson recanted in
an interview with Paul Henderson, an investigator working on
Milgaard's behalf.
He had been intimidated and
manipulated by the police into lying against Milgaard, he said.
When asked what, exactly, police
had done to cause him to fabricate a statement, Wilson said Saskatoon
police officers Eddie Karst and Charles Short used the power
of suggestion when they dragged him to the scene where Miller's
body was found and showed him where evidence was located in the
area.
At the time, Wilson was regularly
using drugs, such as LSD, speed, marijuana and later, heroin.
He was coming down from LSD on the days he was held and questioned
in Saskatoon, he said.
Wilson said he was also manipulated
into lying by Calgary polygraph expert Art Roberts, who, Wilson
said, interrogated him for about six hours over two sessions
on May 23, 1969. Wilson said Roberts asked him the same questions
so many times that he stopped telling the truth and gave Roberts
the answers he wanted.
"My mind was exhausted.
I was mentally scrambled. . . . I remember it was like brainwashing,"
he said in the June 4, 1990, recanting statement.
Wilson wanted to end the questioning
so he could go home and get stoned, he said.
Wilson said police officers
didn't make him lie at court, but by that time he had come to
believe the lies he was telling. He was mentally unstable because
of all the drugs he was using, he said Tuesday.
He said he realized soon after
that he had been manipulated. He wanted to tell somebody but
didn't until 20 years later. During the 1970s he used drugs heavily
and put the matter out of his mind, he said.
He was reminded of his guilty
secret in 1981, when Milgaard's mother, Joyce Milgaard, contacted
him with questions about his experience with the police who investigated
Miller's murder.
Wilson didn't admit the truth
to Joyce Milgaard then. At the time, he was in the midst of a
years-long effort to get off drugs.
He said he wanted to tell someone
but didn't know what to do until Henderson approached him in
July 1990.
Henderson gave him transcripts
of his testimony at Milgaard's trial and the two statements he
had given police, the first was the truth and the second the
lies.
"I read them to myself
and I couldn't believe how damning it was," Wilson said.
He gave Henderson a statement
recanting and then contacted Milgaard, apologizing to him on
the phone, he said.
If Wilson is well enough to
continue today, the inquiry will continue as scheduled through
Thursday and then take a break until April 4. If Wilson can't
take the stand today, he will be asked to return April 4.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Witness blamed polygraph
expert for damning statements
Betty Ann Adam, The
StarPhoenix, March 24, 2005
Three years after he recanted
his damning statements against David Milgaard, Ron Wilson continued
to think of two Saskatoon police detectives as "good guys."
Wilson blamed Calgary city
police officer and polygraph expert Art Roberts for intimidating
and manipulating him into giving false statements that helped
convict his friend of murder, according to remarks he made during
a 1993 telephone call with RCMP, who were looking into the possibility
of police wrongdoing in the investigation of Gail Miller's death.
"Roberts suggested to
me a lot of what I said," Wilson said in the taped interview.
The commission of inquiry into
Milgaard's wrongful conviction listened to a tape recording of
the interview Wednesday in Wilson's absence.
Wilson, 53, experienced dizziness
while on the stand Tuesday afternoon, his fourth day of answering
questions. He will continue testifying when the inquiry resumes
on April 4, following a previously scheduled break in the hearings.
The inquiry is looking into
the murder investigation which led to Milgaard's wrongful conviction
and the actions taken by justice officials when new information
came out in the years afterward.
Milgaard was a 16-year-old
hippy travelling through Saskatoon the morning of Jan. 31, 1969,
when Miller was raped and murdered. Three of Milgaard's friends
who originally declared neither he nor they had anything to do
with the murder implicated Milgaard after police questioning.
He was convicted and spent
23 years in prison before being released in 1992, after his case
was reviewed by the Supreme Court.
DNA evidence was used to prove
his innocence in 1997 and to convict serial rapist Larry Fisher
in 1999.
Wilson was one of Milgaard's
travelling companions the day of the murder. He testified for
the prosecution at Milgaard's 1970 trial but recanted in 1990.
He said at the time police had intimidated and manipulated him
into agreeing with statements that implicated Milgaard.
Wilson testified to that effect
at Milgaard's Supreme Court hearing.
During the 1993 RCMP interview,
Wilson tried to answer questions but many of his answers contradicted
answers he had given in previous interviews before and since
he recanted.
Wilson remained constant, however,
in his negative assessment of Roberts, the polygraph expert.
He compared Roberts with the two Saskatoon officers, Eddy Karst
and Charles Short.
"If Karst and Short were
on a hill top, Roberts was in the sewer," Wilson told the
RCMP.
When asked if he harboured
any ill will toward Karst and Short, Wilson replied that, "They
were pressured into doing a job and they did it."
Wilson also blamed the officer
who first questioned Albert Cadrain. Cadrain was the first person
to implicate Milgaard, telling Saskatoon police he had seen blood
on Milgaard's clothing.
The Crown prosecutor in the
case should share some of the blame because he knew other rapes
that had occurred in the neighbourhood had not been fully investigated,
Wilson said in the 1993 interview.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
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