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Patrick Fisher
Patrick Fischer
(2)
Letter from Patrick Fisher
March 12, 2006
To Whom It May Concern:
RE: Horrible Miscarriages of Justice, Wrongful Convictions.
My name is Patrick Fischer: I am currently serving a life
sentence for a crime I did not commit. You probably get these
kinds of letters all the time from people claiming innocence
for crimes they have been convicted of. What makes me any different?
Well, I'm afraid that I don't really have the answer to that,
but please read on.
The body of Darci Drefko was found off of a dirt road in
Merritt, B.C. on May 15, 1999. My 1st trial, in Kamloops, ended
in a hung jury. My 2nd trial started unusually quickly after
the 1st ended (4 days), but I was convicted of 1st degree Murder
and sentenced to Life with no parole for 25 years. Of course
I appealed, and lost, although I do believe the outcome would
have been different if my attorney had followed my direction
as to a crucial matter of law, but that is neither here nor there.
I then tried for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada,
and they shot me down too, so here I sit, in desperate need of
help.
You may or may not have heard of Kyle Unger, released on
bail pending review of his case by the Justice Minister. I was
convicted the same way he was, by the Police use of the "Mr.
Big" undercover operation. This RCMP tactic is one of the
most outrageous and dangerous tactics used by the police. It
is so dangerous that in the U.S. it has been deemed as too likely
to gain a false confession and too unreliable to be used in U.S.
law. I'm not going to bore you by inundating you with every
conflicting piece of evidence in my case, but I will mention
a couple of the big things. I also must admit that my motives
for writing this aren't completely selfish either. Hundreds
of people are in prison because of this abuse of police power,
whether deservingly or not I don't know. They can't all be guilty
though. "Mr. Big" has got to be abolished.
Most people aren't even aware of the Mr. Big operation, never
mind the lengths that the police go to, to get a confession.
I have had conversations with Correctional Officers where they
think I am a complete liar because they simply refuse to believe
that the RCMP could ever be allowed to do such things. At this
point I would like to tell you: don't take my word for it. I
have made all case files available to anyone who is interested,
transcripts, videotapes, police "T.I.P.S." files, everything.
In my case, I did eventually confess to the crime after denying
responsibility on several occasions. In the Mr. Big operation,
the police hit me at a very bad time in my life financially.
They slowly build up from paying you to help them with seemingly
innocuous things, to a point where you cross the line into what
you believe is criminal activity. Every case is different, but
in my case they had me delivering what I assumed were drugs and
collecting large sums of money. At first, I was a little wary
of all this, but the man I was dealing with seemed to be all
right and we got along good. Almost all interactions with what
I will call the point man, the guy I had the most contact with,
were designed to somehow show me that what I was doing for them
was safe with regards to getting caught, that the people he worked
for were very loyal, that trust was the backbone of their operation,
and that betrayal of the group or their trust would be dealt
with severely. If they had a problem, it disappeared. On many
occasions I was told stories of horrible things that had been
done to people who lied to them or betrayed them. Although they
usually tell you that you are being recruited for their group,
I told the point man early on, when it was first made clear to
me that he was part of a larger organization, that I did not
want membership, and I did not want to meet more people than
I absolutely have to because, while I may be no angel, it just
wasn't what I wanted to do with my life. It was a means to an
end at that time. So they suck you in deep, and then comes the
day when I am told about a particular job and it meant $ 20,000
if I was in. The plan, as told to me, was that a plane would
land in a remote spot and all I would have to do is help unload
it onto a truck. I was shown where this was going to happen
and how it was going to happen in great detail. Then came the
meeting, I did not want to meet the "Boss". At this
point they had me believing that they are Hells Angels. Regardless
of what I said, I was taken to Surrey to a penthouse suite and
left alone with the boss. I would later find out that everything
in the penthouse was videotaped. I tried to act calm and cool,
but if you watch the tapes, you can still tell that I am very
nervous. At this time I was offered beer, not your regular everyday
beer, but the giant king cans. I can't remember if I drank
3 or 4 of these during this time, but it was definitely enough
to give me a good buzz. I really can't say whether the alcohol
was the biggest influence in my confession or not. I don't think
anyone could really say for sure unless they could somehow go
back and do it without the booze. One thing for sure though,
the beer sure didn't hurt their chances of getting a confession.
Mr. Big also used veiled and implied threats when I kept denying
involvement. He did everything to make me believe that I would
be killed if I didn't tell him what he wanted to hear, without
actually saying that he would kill me. Of course, the $ 20,000
doesn't hurt as far as incentives go. So now we have the police
plying a suspect with alcohol, making a suspect believe that
he will be killed if he doesn't confess, and last but not least,
the $ 20,000 "carrot on a stick". Now, of course
the police like to say that I was free to leave at anytime and
that I wasn't being threatened, and they can't help how I may
have perceived some statements. But they know damn well what
they are doing and that is just double talk. Evidently, they
are allowed to make someone believe that they will kill them
as long as they don't actually say the words. I have a hard
time believing that the Canadian public would agree with these
types of tactics.
Unfortunately, trying to find any kind of statistics on these
cases is almost impossible, as this tactic had been shrouded
in total secrecy until 2001. The man who designed the tactic,
Al Haslett, has been quoted as saying things like "we can
get anyone with this tactic", and admitting that the tactic
was designed to make the accused look so bad in the eyes of the
jury that they will convict whether or not they are satisfied
of guilt. The closest thing to a statistic that I have been
able to find is that there have been 180 convictions since 1997
using this tactic. Also, that out of all the people charged
as a result of this method, 80% are convicted. That says to
me that according to our principles of law there is an admitted
20% margin of error because they would not lay charges if a confession
had not been obtained.
During the "confession", I also told them of a
murder that had never even happened. Most of the things I told
them were not true and were proven as such in court. They were
either ways to make myself look tough and streetwise to them,
or in some instances, I would make up stories about why I would
not do certain things for them by saying I had done them in the
past and would not do them again. I told them that I was ordered
to kill this person by a group of East Indians that I was working
for at the time, however, the police conceded that there was
no connection between this group and myself. After I was arrested,
the officer doing the interview said that he knew this story
was not true, and even gave reasons why he knew this, yet in
court the judge ruled that this interview could only be used
by the prosecution for cross examination purposes. The crown
got to "cherry pick" this statement for anything to
use against me, but I was not allowed to use any of this statement
to try to help me. The statement was more helpful for the defence
than it was for the prosecutor, yet even though the jury asked
for a transcript of the interview their request was denied.
That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard!
Since when is exculpatory evidence not allowed to be presented
by the defence? The prosecutor hammered the point to the jury
that it was 1st degree murder because it was murder for hire,
yet one of the police officers testified that my story about
being ordered to commit the murder, had been investigated and
it "proved not to be true". That is 2 separate officers
saying that this is not true, yet that was the foundation for
the prosecution.
The point man had no independent memory of any of the events
and had to read his notes to remember anything. At one point
he misread a passage in his notes and then told of an elaborate
scenario involving a simulated assault and the use of fake blood.
This came about because he thought the word he saw was blood.
In fact, what he had read was a sloppily written $ 30,000.
After this was brought to his attention, he then admitted that
the assault with fake blood had not taken place. He had made
the mistake because that scenario has been used in other operations,
and when he thought he saw the word blood in his notes he thought
of that scenario. If that doesn't ring the alarm bells, then
what does?
Now, the evidence that the Crown was hanging their hat on
was supposedly Holdback evidence that no one but the killer or
police could possibly know; cause of death and body location.
The approximate location of the body was on the front page of
the Merritt newspaper, along with a description and the fact
that several teens camping in the area had seen the police activity
at the site, not to mention that even in the police evidence
photographs there are 2 men on horseback being told by an officer
to leave the area. I did show them an area that looked like
I had been told of, it was pretty close but still the length
of a football field from where the body was actually found.
The cause of death came about as an educated guess. I had seen
Darcy's father downtown and he told me that his other daughter
Susan wanted to talk to me. I went over and talked to her.
She wanted to ask me if the police had talked to me and what
they had asked. After some discussion, she started asking me
about a choking game that Susan calls "sleepers", where
someone is choked to the point of unconsciousness, she said the
police seemed really interested to know if Darci was in the habit
of doing this. Any reasonably intelligent person could come
to the conclusion that if the police want to know if the deceased
was in the habit of playing a choking game, or if she was into
choking during sex, that choking may have been the cause of death,
otherwise, why would the police be interested in that particular
subject? In court Susan said she could not remember having that
conversation with me, but she also completely denies saying other
things that are recorded, even when faced with her recorded statements,
she still denies making the statement.
I have heard through an organization in Merritt, B.C., the
Peoples Advocacy for Police Accountability, that there is talk
about the CBC doing a documentary on police misconduct and harassment
in Merritt. I can sure attest to that as the lead investigator
in my case, Bob Gobeil, as well as other officers had been harassing
me for years. At trial Bob Gobeil produced a computer disk which
supposedly contained a GPS map plot that proved that I showed
the point man the exact site that the body was found. There
was some questioning of his highly unusual evidence storage,
plus the fact that according to the dates on the file, the disk
had been accessed while he was supposedly out of town on leave
with the disk locked in his personal locker that no one else
had access to. Upon further questioning, the technical staff
that he said gave him the disk, denied any knowledge of it, in
fact, not a single person involved with the case knew anything
about this disk. Bob Gobeil, it seems, is the only one that
knew about it. After all the questioning about this disk was
done, the judge ruled that anything to do with this disk was
inadmissible to either side. As far as I'm concerned, that disk
was proof of wrongdoing by at least one officer, yet I am not
allowed to pursue it? When I was 1st questioned about this in
Merritt, my mother had insisted on being present at the interview,
because of the continued police harassment, she had even grown
mistrustful of the police. During the interview, the tape recorder
was turned off a couple of times, during the time that the tape
was off there was a good deal of conversation and at one point
I offered a DNA sample. The response to this was that they didn't
need my DNA because Darci hadn't been raped. Darci had been
involved with pimps from Surrey, and if I tried to bring this
up, the police would shut me right down. They said that they
didn't want to hear anything about her being involved in prostitution,
she was not a prostitute so don't bring it up. Well, the simple
fact of the matter is that she was involved in prostitution and
later in court it came out that they knew this. At trial Bob
Gobeil completely denied that the tape had been turned off.
He said the entirety of the interview had been recorded and that
they would never tell someone in an interview that she hadn't
been raped. After more questioning, Gobeil admitted that I did
offer DNA and they turned me down. After more questioning as
to why that had not been recorded, he admitted that the tape
had been turned off, but there was no conversation while it was
off. The judge did not believe this and gave him a stern admonishment.
Another instance of just plain sloppy police work, according
to the police, I killed her on April 24th. All testimony from
witnesses said that Darci had been assaulted by her Aunt and
Darci went missing a couple days later. All witnesses also said
that the day she was last seen, her father had been sick in bed
all day long. The police reviewed tapes from the Coquihalla
Toll Booth for April 24th, the inbound lanes, presumably to see
if Darci was in any of the cars as there was quite a bit of
talk that she had taken off to Surrey. The problem with that
is, unknown to the police, one of their own officers had taken
an assault complaint from Darci at around 5:30pm on April 24th
in downtown Merritt, while she was with her dad. This was the
assault by the Aunt. This officer had to be called for the defence
because the prosecution did not know about it; sloppy. While
the crown tried to say that no one else but the police and the
killer could have known about the body location, Mr. Big was
on the stand. The defence brought out a copy of the newspaper.
The newspaper article was read to the undercover officer in
the context of how the article affects the holdback evidence;
his response to the reading of the article was "I wouldn't
build my case on it" This same officer then goes on to
explain about the holdback evidence.
10 Q So, if the holdback isn't secure then the-- then--
11. A Well, the --
12 Q -- the confession is not reliable?
13 A You can look at the confession, but how much weight
14 you want to put on it, you have to -- you have to
15 consider that.
16 Q It's crucial isn't it?
17 A It is.
18 Q Holdback has to be --
19 A Holdback -- holdback is crucial. In fact, it's
20 gotten to the point -- point now is when I just
21 left the undercover unit that it's rarely that we
22 would even attempt an undercover operation unless
23 there was some -- some form of holdback. We don't
24 care what it is -- what it is, but, you know, it
25 makes our job a lot easier and it give -- when it
26 comes time for court, it gives what we do a lot
27 more credibility.
After a short recess, the prosecutor came into the courtroom
with a thick folder and stated to the judge that the RCMP had
just disclosed it to him. The contents of the folder was the
police media file, and in it was every newspaper clipping that
had anything to do with the case and all of the official police
news releases. The police knew all along about the newspaper
articles but they tried to hide it. This media file proved a
lot of the things that I was saying, that the crown was trying
to say I was lying about. The crown tried to say there were
no rumours going around town yet a police news release asked
the public to stop spreading rumours. This was a blatant attempt
by the RCMP to withhold evidence to try to make the case stronger.
So, now we have police remembering things that they later
admit never happened, the holdback evidence is useless because
? the town knew, the police don't even know about their own officers
taking reports from the victim, evidence being brought forth
that no one except the officer bringing it knows anything about,
an exculpatory statement that I was not allowed to produce, testimony
from one of the investigating officers that says the story I
told Mr. Big was not true. A confession to a murder that doesn't
exist, absolutely no forensic evidence where even the forensic
technician says there should be. I forgot to mention that when
the body was 1st discovered the family stated that the clothes
she was wearing when they last saw her were different than the
ones she was found in. The prosecutor ended up confusing them
so much that at trial, no one could remember which clothes she
was wearing when they last saw her. The fact that it was acknowledged
at trial that pretty much everything I told the undercover officers
were lies; even most of what I told them about Darcy's murder
doesn't match or make any sense with known facts. And last,
but not least, being plied with alcohol and in fear for my life,
plus the $ 20,000 bonus. Not to mention it was brought up in
court that Susan's boyfriend was involved in the prostitution
trade and we heard there was a fight between Susan's boyfriend
and her father because he had grabbed her by the throat and choked
her. This was quickly ruled as inadmissible by the judge for
some reason. There was also an audiotape of Susan calling someone,
repeatedly harassing them, and making what seemed to be an incriminating
statement about involvement in the crime. There were some people
from Surrey that were charged with raping Darci, now that case
has gone away. And Robert Dezwaan, convicted of killing Cherish
Oppenheim, who coincidentally her father was living with Darcy's
mother. There are some striking similarities between the 2 deaths,
both were 16 when they died; both died of strangulation, both
were dumped in extremely similar spots, just inside the tree
line off a utility right of way.
This is only a fraction of what is wrong in this case, as
I have said, I have made all materials available and to truly
understand the scope of this travesty you would have to go into
the case in detail. I need help here, but more importantly,
if there is this much wrong with my case, just imagine all the
other people. I'm sure that many may be guilty, but many also
aren't. Mr. Big has to go,! The police can not be allowed to
use these tactics because they are too unreliable and dangerous.
If you offer the right incentives people will admit to anything.
If you picked out 10 people knowing they had done nothing wrong
and did this to them, I think you would get at least 3 confessions.
This has been going on for years. If there have been 180
convictions since 1997, I cringe to think what the total number
may be considering they have been doing this for at least 15
years. I think the judge presiding over the Clayton Mentuck
case had it right, his ruling was that the enticements were far
too great to trust the reliability of his confession alone.
There is another case referred to as O.N.E. because the girl
was too young to identify. She confessed, but was subsequently
acquitted. I am not positive of this, but I have heard that
it was later determined that the victim in that case had died
accidentally and was not murdered. Then you have Kyle Unger,
recently released on bail pending a review that was initiated
by the Manitoba Government. There are two other cases that I
am aware of that sound very suspicious, Wade Skiffington and
Dan Nette, and another man that will be on trial shortly in Saskatchewan.
I can't remember his first name, but the last name is Hathaway.
Mr. Big is an epidemic of colossal proportions that has to be
stopped!
I am having an extremely difficult time finding any kind
of statistics, but I have been in contact with a few people and
I am preparing to launch a campaign to abolish the Mr. Big sting.
This can not be allowed to continue. As a society, we want
justice, we want the guilty to be punished. It is said, that
it is better that 10 guilty people go free than one innocent
be imprisoned. It is also said that you are innocent until proven
guilty. For those of us that suffer for other people's crimes,
we know that it is just lip service. The RCMP brags that they
can get anyone with Mr. Big. Well, it is true, they can get
me, they can get you, they can get your children, but at what
price? When you put people in that position and use those tactics,
it is just asking for a false confession. The RCMP says that
there are failsafe to guard against that, like holdback evidence,
but how secure is your evidence when it is printed on the front
page of the local newspaper? The undercover unit says that they
won't do an operation without secure holdback evidence. Also,
in court, they stated that Gobeil assured them on several occasions
that the holdback was secure. Well, we know that was not true,
and Gobeil knew that was not true, so now what do we have? Police
lying to the police. If they won't undertake an operation without
secure holdback then that means Gobeil lied to the undercover
unit so they would investigate. Where does it end? I can almost
see the scepticism on your face, that's ok, I expect it. I don't
expect anyone to believe me, I just say what I always say, don't
believe me, see for yourself. Get the materials, go through
it, I am positive that what you find will shock you. This was
an inept investigation that focused on me because I knew her,
at least partly because of bad blood between me and Gobeil, but
I think mostly because he knew me, he knew what would work, and
he knew it would be easy. When you start throwing money at someone
who never had any, you can make them do anything and they count
on it. Fear and greed are the best motivators in the world and
as such should not be exploited for the purpose of closing cases.
I know what I need to do, but I need help to do it. I have
accepted that I may never get out of jail. My family likes to
talk about Milgaard and Sophonow, and so on, but the truth of
the matter is that for every innocent man freed, there is at
least one that will never be. That and the fact that to my knowledge
BC is the only province in Canada where no one has been freed
from a wrongful conviction, and believe me, it isn't because
we're more cautious of it. I think my case, and more importantly,
the greater issue of this abuse of power by the police, has to
be carefully looked at. Where do we as a society draw the line?
At what cost is it ok to hope that most of the people convicted
this way really are guilty?
All court documents, evidence, police files can be obtained
from my Mother, Linda Fischer. Her phone number is (250) 782-1689.
As I said, I am in desperate need of help. I have the goal
in mind, but I have no clue how to make it happen. I know what
I want to do, I just don't know how to do it.
I'm sorry that this letter ended up being so long. My intention
was to make it as short as possible, but that is very hard to
do. There is so much I want to put down, but if I did I'd be
writing a novel, so here it is. The ball is in your court now.
Please contact me to let me know what you think, even if it
is just to tell me to F off. Arrangements can be made to speak
to me over the phone if you would like. I am an open book, I
am giving you complete access and cooperation. I can do no more
than that. Thank you.
Patrick Fischer
P.O Box 2000
Agassiz, B.C.
V0M 1A0
Dominic McCulloch |
Gone too soon: Two months
after Jaime Wheeler's brutal murder, police are still searching
for her killer; [Final Edition]
Dan Zakreski. Star - Phoenix. Saskatoon, Sask.: May 13, 2000.
pg. A.1.FRO
|
 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
Publisher : Sheila
Steele
Got something
to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!
Click on
any of the following newsclippings below to see the larger size.
You will be taken to the Flickr website where you can view the
clippings in reaonable size (choose "all sizes" above
the photo)
Clippings on the murder of Darcie's sister, Cherish Oppenheim
- 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:
The
Naked Truth -- (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.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5 | 6
| 7 |
- Stephen Williams:
Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police
- Terry
Arnold: : Snitch a
suicide?
- RCMP
scenario stings: Brian
Hutchinson starts digging
- Gary
wells: Faulty eye-witness
testimony
- Tulia,
Texas
- Gilmer,
Texas
- Willie
Upshaw
- Wrongfully convicted in Canada
- Foster Parent false accusations
- Martensville
- Don
Smith obscenity trial: an obscene conviction
- James
Lockyer
- Hurricane
Carter
- Johnny Cochran speaks up for
Bill Sampson
- Vopnis
- Abdulai
Mohamed
- Nfld Defamation story:
- Wanda
Young
- Racism
in the Federal Civil Service
The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns convictions
Trial
set for June 15
We
know part of this disclosure is a forged statement and perjured
affidavit from a Winnipeg cop
-
-
-
-
The
Crown is still fighting Fred Poirier -- and they are losing.
Secret Commissions Case from Northern B.C.
-
-
- 2005: In
the United States the proven wrongful convictions just keep coming
at us!
-
- Brandon Morin:
- Convicted in Oregon
- of rapes which did not happen
- This website has good information
about Measure 11 -- Oregon's Mandatory Sentencing requirements
which have been in place since 1994. In this case we see how
the combination of a flawed grand jury system and prosecutors
who seek not justice but convictions is a recipe for wrongful
convictions.
-
Canadians who
have been wrongfully convicted because of improper investigations
combined with zealous Crown
A round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada
- Robert
Baltovich
- Michael Burns
- Sebastian Burns
- Rodney
Cain
- Wilbert
Coffin
(hanged, 1953)
- Jason
Dix
- Jim
Driskell
- Jody
Druken
- Randy
Druken
- Hugues
Duguay
- Michel Dumont
- Peter
Frumusa
- Walter
Gillespie and Robert Mailman
- Clayton Johnson
- Yvonne Johnson
- Herman
Kaglik
- Darren
Koehn
- Kulaveeringsam
"Kulam" Karthiresu
- Stephen Leadbeater
- Donald Marshall
- Chris McCullough
- Michael
McTaggart
- Felix
Michaud
- David Milgaard
- Guy
Paul Morin
- Shannon
Murrin
- Jamie
Nelson
- Greg
Parsons
- Benoit Proulx
- Atif Rafay
- Louise
Reynolds
- Thomas
Sophonow
- Gary
Staples
- Billy
Taillefer
- Steven
Truscott
- Joe
Warren
- Leon
Walchuk
-
- AIDWYC
- Innocence Project (Canada)
- Innocence Project (U.S.)
- Northwest Law Center on Wrongful Convictions
-
- Kirstin Lobato
- Jeffrey
Scott Hornoff
- Willie
Upshaw
- Hurricane
Carter
- Guildford
4
- Birmingham
6
- Amirault
- Houston
- U.S. wrongful convictions:
Exonerateed
- Kirk
Bloodsworth
- Laurence
Adams
- Ludrate
Burton
- Stephen
Cowans
- Wilton
Dedge
- Albert
Johnson
- Kenneth
Marsh
- Dwayne
McKinney
- James Bernard Parker
- Peter
Reilly
- Peter
Rose
- Sylvester
Smith
- Clifford
St. Joseph
- John
Stoll
- Marty
Tankleff
- Wilton
Dedge
- Ray
Krone
-
- Still working on it:
- Dennis Deschaine
- Dennis
Perry
- Tim
Sandfort
|
