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< < < | Can we
trust Saskatchewan forensics? |update
> > > 2005: New
trials ordered
Tisdale Rape
case
Another Saskatchewan
disgrace
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Over the summer this case became
a cause celébre for several organizations, including a
group calling for harsher treatment of child molesters who capitalized
on the publicity from this case and the Holly Jones abduction/murder
in Toronto. In Saskatchewan, MLAs from the Saskatchewan Party
spoke at rallies in Saskatoon and Prince Albert. Many of the
same people who encouraged people to rally under the slogan "Believe
the children" participated.
Social Services apprehended
the children from the Campeau home on a First Nation near Tisdale.
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The first trial saw a conviction,
the second two acquittals. The cast was slightly different at
the second trial. The racism was there although the Crown and
defence lawyers protested otherwise. Everything will likely be
appealed. Different interpretations of racism have been expressed.
What no one has stated is that the mother-of-all-racism, social
and economic inequality, drove this case from beginning to end.
Three privileged young men, well-mannered when sober, got drunk
and acted out some kind of privilege on a twelve year old girl
from an impoverished family. Nothing in the conduct of anyone
at that trial suggested how these conditions might change. There
is a lot of bitterness all round. And no justice. There can be
no justice without learning. The girl will have learned that
society is just as bad as her mother told her it was. The three
young men will likely not talk about it much so that any learning
they experience will become part of some weird ironic core which
forms most men from farming communities -- growing up in rural
Saskatchewan is kind of like having been to war. it is neither
and both as horrific or heroic as they make it out to be and
that "strong silence" gets glorified into myth. --Sheila
Steele, June 28, 2003. (All I could think to say for now) See
Seattle Report on flawed forensics
| See also the Vopni case which involves
the same prosecutors
The trial of the first of
three men charged with sexual assault after picking up a 12 year
old girl, getting her drunk and taking her into the bush resulted
in a guilty verdict despite crown prosecutor Gary Parker's failure
to provide any solid evidence against the accused. The trial
was so full of errors that the conviction will most certainly
be overturned on appeal.
Harradance should have asked
for a directed verdict before the jury was ever allowed to convene.
While it is important for
the justice system to send a strong message to the community
that we do not tolerate adults picking up children, giving them
booze and taking them to the back roads, there are more effective
ways to do this than railroading an accused person.
What was Judge Kovach thinking
of when he allowed into evidence a taped interview of the accused
by RCMP which ignored his request for a lawyer and encouraged
him to place the blame on his companions in exchange for leniency?
Before we can send any messages
to the community, we have to send a telegram to the police.
Long before RCMP Corporal
Jack Ramsay played
fast and loose with northern girls in 1953, and continuing to
this day there are cops who use their position to get sexual
favours from vulnerable minors.
Whether they like it or
not RCMP officers must set an example in the communities they
police. The use of bad interrogation
techniques, acceptance without scrutiny of information provided
by social workers and mishandling of evidence -- bending the
law -- cannot be tolerated.
Neither should prosecutors
and judges tailor their interpretations of the law to satisfy
the public appetite for salacious details which have not been
subjected to cross-examination (in this case, dropping the bomb
that the girl's father's DNA matched material found on her panties).
Not that defence lawyer
Hugh Harradance set a shining example, either. He was in a position
to stop the proceedings in their tracks if he had made more vigorous
defence of his client's constitutional rights. But if he had
stopped the trial he would not get to go to a sentencing hearing
and then to appeal court -- appearances for which he will be
able to send a handsome bill to the accused's parents.
While the trial was going
on, I had placed some comments on this page which were not sufficiently
considered and I have taken them down. The race issue is certainly
a factor in this heartbreaking case. The roles of social worker
Susan Paseida and the foster family where the girl was placed,
despite her desire to stay with her family, also raise troubling
questions. When the justice system works properly, it is easier
to separate the faults of other malfunctioning institutions.
And when the justice system goes wrong, the whole thing goes
wrong.
Conditional sentence
for sex assault on 12-year-old
Canadian Press, Sep. 5,
2003
Melfort, Sask. - A Saskatchewan
judge drew accusations of racism Thursday when he said a 12-year-old
aboriginal girl may have been a willing participant or even the
aggressor in sexual activity with the 26-year-old man accused
of assaulting her.
Dean Edmondson will be confined
to his house for two years rather than a jail cell after receiving
what Justice Fred Kovach conceded was a rare conditional sentence
for sexual assault.
Mr. Edmondson will be electronically
monitored during the sentence but will likely be allowed to go
to work or leave the house for other reasons if given prior permission
by his supervisor.
He will have to perform 200
hours of community service, take alcohol and sex offender counselling,
and pay a $500 victim surcharge.
As Mr. Kovach read the sentence,
supporters and family members of the now 14-year-old aboriginal
girl stormed out of the courtroom shouting and accusing the court
of racism.
The girl's enraged father walked
out of the courthouse and punched in the headlights of his own
van before being led away by supporters.
"The young white man was
sitting there with the judge protecting him," a family spokesman
told reporters outside court.
"Who has justice served
here? It sure wasn't our aboriginal child.
"There's racist lawyers
and racist judges in the justice system here in Canada. Those
guys don't belong here. They ought to be kicked out," he
said.
Mr. Edmondson waited more than
an hour before leaving the courthouse with his parents by a back
door.
The case has attracted national
attention for the last two years.
In September 2001, Mr. Edmondson
and two friends were drinking heavily and driving on country
roads near Tisdale, Sask., when they met the girl on the steps
of a small town bar.
The 89-pound girl accepted
a ride and the men, all in their 20s, gave her several beers
to drink.
Shortly after, she ended up
in Mr. Edmondson's lap in the driver's seat and the two kissed.
Outside the truck, Mr. Edmondson
attempted to have sex with her but could not get an erection.
His companions also tried unsuccessfully
to have intercourse with her.
Mr. Edmondson was convicted
in May of being a party to the sexual assault, which carries
a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The other two men were acquitted
in a separate trial, which also led to outrage in the aboriginal
community.
On Thursday, Mr. Kovach noted
that this sexual assault was on the more severe end of the spectrum,
and these types of crimes almost always result in lengthy penitentiary
sentences.
"I think it's clear from
the authorities that a conditional sentence would be rare indeed,"
Mr. Kovach said.
But he then cited earlier testimony
suggesting the girl was frequently abused by her father.
He quoted the testimony of
a pediatrician who said an abused child may show "unpredictable
sexual behaviour."
This suggests the girl may
have been a "willing participant" or "the aggressor"
in the incident, he said.
"That in no way condones
Mr. Edmondson's conduct, (but) in my opinion is a factor in sentencing."
The girl also got into the
men's truck willingly, drank beer, and lied about her age.
These factors all must be taken
into account in sentencing, he said.
It would have been much more
serious, for example, if a girl had been snatched off the street
on her way home from school and forced into sexual activity.
"No one has any business
involving themselves sexually with anyone that age," Mr.
Kovach said. "That being said, there are clearly degrees.
There is a difference from a sentencing perspective."
Mr. Edmondson's 53 letters
of support from friends and family filed in court shows he has
substantial community support, Mr. Kovach said.
He noted Mr. Edmondson had
been deemed a low risk to reoffend by a psychologist, and said
he would not pose a danger to the community.
The very unusual facts suggest
a jail term is "not necessarily required," he said.
In a brief statement to reporters,
Crown prosecutor Gary Parker said he'll pass the file to justice
officials in Regina to consider an appeal.
Defence lawyer Hugh Harradence
said he feels the sentence was just and Mr. Edmondson was relieved.
Advocacy groups on hand denounced
it.
"This is a (decision)
against all children in Canada," said Kripa Shekar of the
Saskatchewan Action Committee for the Status of Women.
"We should all be very,
very concerned. Blame the victim is the message we got from the
court."
Bob Hughes of the Saskatchewan
Coalition Against Racism predicted the sentence would worsen
racial tensions.
He said Mr. Edmondson should
have been forced to spend time in the aboriginal community and
to speak to young children about responsible attitudes and behaviour.
"The process has blamed
the child and her family. We are treading on very serious ground,"
Mr. Hughes said.
© 2003 Bell Globemedia
Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Jury told to focus on
girl's age
Jason Warick, Saskatchewan
News Network; CanWest News Service, May 29, 2003
MELFORT -- The fate of a man
accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old aboriginal girl
with his two friends is now in the hands of the jury.
Jurors spent much of night
Wednesday deliberating before retiring at about 11 p.m. They
were expected to resume this morning.
Dean Edmondson, 26, and two
other men are accused of picking up the girl in September 2001,
getting her drunk in the back of their truck, and then attempting
to have sex with her on a secluded country road near Tisdale.
"It is rather obvious
all three committed the sexual assault. When the sexual activity
occurs, (the girl) cannot stand, talk, or walk without assistance,"
regional Crown prosecutor Gary Parker told the jury in his closing
remarks Wednesday.
Parker said that a 12 year
old girl cannot legally consent to sex. And even if she was older
-- or they reasonably thought she was older -- she was drunk
and incapable of consent. He noted the girl also testified one
of the men tried to pull her pants down and she tried to pull
them back up.
He said the other signs --
various bruises and cuts to her knees, back, buttocks, and inner
thighs -- are consistent with sexual assault. She was also screaming
and holding her crotch when taken to hospital later that night,
he said.
Parker said the girl may not
have said 'no' because it would have been futile. She was less
than five-feet tall and weighed 89 pounds, while the three men
weighed more than 500 pounds collectively.
Parker said Edmondson "didn't
care about her age" and did not take reasonable steps to
obtain it.
He noted Edmondson gave a statement
to police saying he held the girl while the other two attempted
sex with her. "Is that consensual sexual activity?"
Parker asked.
Edmondson's lawyer Hugh Harradence
addressed the jury next. He reminded jurors they must judge his
client based on the law, not their own moral standard. He also
said it's not enough to think Edmondson is "probably"
guilty, because it must be beyond a reasonable doubt.
One central point is that Edmondson
had good reason to honestly believe the girl was older, which
is important under certain sections of the Criminal Code. The
girl testified she told the men she was nearly 15 years old,
gave them a false name, and said she was from Saskatoon. The
age of consent is 14.
A pediatrician also testified
the girl was physically mature, and a bar owner said the girl
looked over 14.
Harradence questioned the credibility
of the girl, saying these and other examples demonstrate "her
ability to be less than truthful."
He also said the girl "initiated
sexual contact" by climbing into the front seat of the vehicle
and into the lap of Edmondson.
Harradence again raised the
alleged sexual abuse the girl has suffered at the hands of her
father, saying abused children can act in sexually unpredictable
ways.
"This man is entitled
to a verdict of not guilty," Harradence said.
Justice Fred Kovach told the
jury in his final remarks that they cannot speculate or make
up theories. They must decide the case on the facts alone.
The jury returned to the courtroom
three times to ask questions or for the judge to clarify earlier
remarks.
Although none of the testimony
mentioned the race of those involved, many of the girl's supporters
have made it an issue outside court.
Some claimed it would be impossible
for an aboriginal girl to get justice when her alleged attackers
are three white men.
They questioned the makeup
of the jury -- apparently all Caucasian and nine of 12 are male.
And just as Harradence was
in the middle of his closing remarks, a group of aboriginal drummers
and singers began to play loudly outside the courtroom. The court
clerk hurried to close the doors and windows of the second-floor
courtroom, but the pounding drum beat was still clear for the
remainder of Harradence's remarks.
Lance Crowe, one of the drummers,
said they showed up to support the girl, but also to remind the
jury that they should give the matter fair treatment.
The case has also drawn observers
from the Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism, the Saskatchewan
Action Committee for the Status of Women, Indian Child and Family
Services, various Indian chiefs, prominent local lawyers not
involved in the case, and many others.
Edmondson and his parents had
to walk past the performing drummers, television microphones
and cameras, and about 20 of the girl's supporters on their way
out of court for lunch Wednesday.
Harradence was asked about
the drumming when speaking to reporters outside court. "People
are entitled to do whatever they want outside the courtroom.
We have a job to do inside the courtroom," Harradence said.
Harradence, who is also a member
of the commission studying aboriginal justice, said he'd like
to believe that the demonstration "was completely unrelated
to this case."
The trial of the other two
men accused -- Jeffrey Brown and Jeffrey Kindrat -- is scheduled
for next month.
© Copyright 2003 The Leader-Post (Regina)
Edmondson convicted of
assaulting young girl
Jason Warick, The
StarPhoenix, May 31, 2003
MELFORT -- A 26-year-old man
has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a then-12-year-old
girl on a gravel road outside Tisdale in the fall of 2001.
"Guilty" was the
only word spoken by the foreman, one of the three women on the
12-person jury. The verdict, which was unanimous, was delivered
about 10 a.m. Friday on the third day of deliberations.
Dean Edmondson, wearing black
dress pants, a white shirt and a tie as he has throughout the
two-week trial, showed no emotion as the verdict was read in
the Court of Queen's Bench.
His parents, who attended every
moment of the proceedings, sat expressionless with hands folded
on their laps.
Before he was led out of court,
Edmondson stared briefly out of the courthouse window.
He was not taken into custody,
and is free until sentencing. That will occur June 27 following
the trial of the two other Tisdale men accused in the incident,
Jeffrey Brown and Jeffrey Kindrat.
Edmondson and his parents left
court, and said only "no comment" as they walked past
reporters.
"My client and I are disappointed,"
said Edmondson's lawyer Hugh Harradence.
"Dean's concerned and
so are his mom and dad."
Harradence said he'll recommend
Edmondson appeal the finding.
Justice Fred Kovach allowed
Edmondson's 2001 video statement to police to become evidence
at the trial, even though Kovach said Friday the RCMP officer's
conduct was "close to the line of what should be tolerated."
The officer came close to making
promises to Edmondson in exchange for disclosure, and Edmondson
also asked about his lawyer more than once during the interview.
"The (police) practice
should not be encouraged," Kovach stated, but said the statement
was still admissible.
Harradence thinks the police
officer's conduct went "over the line" and the statement
should not have been admitted.
The aboriginal girl's parents,
who attended much of the proceedings, also left the courthouse
without commenting.
Robert Whitehead, chief of
the Yellowquill First Nation, said the verdict was "encouraging"
but said he had mixed feelings about the process.
Some critics were concerned
there were apparently no aboriginal people on the jury for an
assault allegedly committed by three white men on an aboriginal
girl.
"As aboriginal people,
we do have some compassion for those who are wronged, but also
(for) those who do wrong," Whitehead said.
The jury had told the judge
Thursday afternoon they were "not making any progress"
in their deliberations, but came up with a verdict an hour after
getting together Friday morning.
"I'm surprised and disappointed
that they would come back so quickly this morning," Harradence
said.
Harradence noted Edmondson
has no previous criminal record and has a good job, but wouldn't
say what type of sentence he'll be arguing for.
Regional Crown prosecutor Gary
Parker said he couldn't talk about the verdict or specifics of
the case, as he didn't want to affect the Brown and Kindrat trial.
He said only that it was apparent
the jury took the necessary time and care to reach its verdict.
"It is a significant decision
(and) it speaks well of the jury process," Parker said.
The case has drawn many observers,
and included a loud aboriginal drumming and singing performance
outside the courthouse. It could be clearly heard in the courtroom,
and continued throughout most of Harradence's closing remarks
Wednesday.
Other groups, such as the Saskatchewan
Coalition Against Racism, were highly critical of the process,
claiming an aboriginal girl cannot get justice in a place like
Melfort or from an all-Caucasian jury.
The girl's father also became
the subject of discussion during the trial. His DNA sample showed
he was a probable match to the semen found on the girl's panties.
The girl also confided to her foster mother that her birth father
had sexually abused her since she was two years old, court heard.
But the girl denied this in
her testimony, although she admitted he beat her and her mother
repeatedly.
The father attended much of
the Edmondson trial, and denied in an interview he ever abused
his daughter.
© Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
Father may be source
of girl's trauma, pediatrician testifies
Jason
Warick, Saskatchewan News Network; CanWest News Service, May
24, 2003
MELFORT -- A pediatrician testifying
in a high profile sexual assault case Friday exposed several
flaws in the investigation, and said some of the young girl's
physical and emotional trauma could have been caused by her father
rather than the man accused.
And girls who have been sexually
abused "usually" act sexually unpredictable or aggressive,
said Dr. Anne McKenna.
Dean Edmondson is on trial
for sexually assaulting a then-12-year-old girl on a dirt road
in September of 2001 with his friends Jeffry Kindrat and Jeffrey
Brown.
Their trials are scheduled
for next month.
McKenna, a Saskatoon pediatrician
who specializes in child sexual abuse, was surprised that none
of the girl's statements were videotaped.
"If facilities are available
(as they were to Tisdale RCMP), they should be interviewed on
tape. Children want to please the interviewer.
"It's easy for the interviewer
to ask leading questions" to get a desired answer, and a
video record would show how credible the interview actually was,
she said.
When the girl was brought to
see McKenna in her Saskatoon office a couple of days after the
alleged assault, McKenna assumed she was only providing a second
opinion.
She thought the Tisdale doctor
who first saw the girl had taken photos, done a full pelvic exam,
and measured the length of the minor but numerous cuts and bruises
on the girl's knees, back and other areas. None of these things
were done.
McKenna also acknowledged under
cross examination by Edmondson's lawyer, Hugh Harradence, that
the Tisdale doctor "could have caused" the tear to
a part of the girl's vagina during her initial inspection.
McKenna noted the girl appeared
"very dazed" and was likely in "emotional shock"
when the girl was in her office. She was so concerned she brought
in volunteers from the local sexual assault centre to talk to
the girl -- a request McKenna has made only four other times
out of the thousands she has seen.
McKenna detailed the numerous
minor scrapes and bruises on the girl's body, and said they were
quite recent. The marks on her knees suggests she fell or was
forced down, she said. She said there were "far too many
to be sustained in normal play" but admitted to Harradence
that they could all have an innocent explanation.
Harradence asked McKenna if
she was aware that a test had found the father's DNA in a semen
stain on his daughter's underpants.
McKenna said she'd read that
information in the newspaper and also received a fax from the
Crown. She said it "doesn't surprise me" because of
the other less recent damage to the girl's hymen.
Harradence noted the father
was the one who took the girl to see McKenna. McKenna admitted
the girl may have been in her altered emotional state because
of her potentially abusive father's presence rather than from
the alleged assault by Edmondson.
Harradence also noted that
McKenna had estimated the girl's age at 14 or 15 years when she
testified at the preliminary hearing last year, that she had
already begun her period at age 12, and that it was unusual that
the girl wore lipstick to her appointment.
© Copyright 2003 The Leader-Post (Regina)
Teen cries while describing
assault
Jason Warick, Saskatchewan
News Network, May 23, 2003
MELFORT -- A 14-year-old aboriginal
girl broke down, crying repeatedly as she testified Thursday
about the three men who she says got her drunk and sexually assaulted
her.
"I remember waking up
. . . I remember waking up to . . . one of the guys kissing me
and touching me," the girl said, pausing frequently and
covering her face with her hands. "One of the other guys
was trying to pull down my pants and I was pulling them back
up."
The girl, who was 12 years
old at the time of the alleged incident in September 2001, was
on the witness stand the entire day. It was the third day of
testimony in the trial of Dean Edmondson, 26.
Two other men, Jeffrey Brown
and Jeffrey Kindrat, are scheduled to go to trial next month
in the alleged incident.
Crown prosecutor Gary Parker
asked the girl, who cannot be identified, to recount her version
of the event.
Wearing a green nylon hooded
shirt and black pants, the girl looked down at the floor for
most of her testimony. Only once did she appear to look at Edmondson,
and only for a brief moment.
She was soft-spoken, and had
to be asked to speak up numerous times.
The girl said she ran away
from her home that day because of a fight with her mother, and
walked roughly 10 kilometres to the steps of a nearby town's
bar.
When three men exited the bar,
one said to her, "I thought Pocahontas was a movie,"
she testified.
Another asked her if she needed
a ride and she got in the vehicle.
The girl broke down when she
recalled one of the men saying, "Don't worry -- you can
trust us."
The man in the back seat with
her "kept asking if I wanted a beer and I kept saying no,"
she said.
Eventually, she said she accepted
an open beer and drank it.
She admits telling the men
she was not 12 but 14 years old, that her name was Rochelle,
and that she was from Saskatoon because "I just wanted to
be older."
After drinking more and stopping
in another small town bar to buy more beer and snacks, they began
to drive again. The girl says she fell asleep in the vehicle,
and woke up to find one man kissing her and another trying to
take off her jeans.
She said she fell asleep again.
When Parker asked her what
happened next, she said she woke up with "those guys doing
stuff to me."
Parker repeatedly asked her
what that stuff was but she wouldn't elaborate.
Parker stood in the sight line
between the girl and Edmondson, and even sat on the table directly
in front of her.
She then added that the men
were "sexually touching" her lower "private part,"
but again wouldn't elaborate.
Finally, Parker asked her to
write the rest on a piece of paper. The girl wrote "they
were using their penus (sic)" to touch her.
Under cross-examination by
Edmondson's lawyer, Hugh Harradence, the girl admitted she has
seen frequent news reports on the case and has talked to a large
number of people about the alleged incident. She's also had dreams
about it, she said.
She also admits her memory
of the incident is incomplete.
Harradence noted her various
statements to police contained inconsistencies, where she mentions
certain aspects in one statement but not in others.
The girl admitted she freely
accepted the ride before consuming any alcohol and that none
of the men forced her to drink.
When all four of them were
in the second bar, the girl could have asked staff for help but
didn't, Harradence noted.
He also suggested the girl
was being coached in her testimony because she described one
distance in miles, even though she couldn't say how far a mile
was.
"You lied to these boys
about your name. You lied to these individuals about your age.
You lied to them about where you lived," Harradence said.
"You decided you were
going to have a beer. No one forced you to have another beer."
The girl said she couldn't
remember how her pants came undone, how she ended up outside
the truck, or whether her pants were off when she left the truck.
She also can't remember if she saw any of the men's penises.
Harradence then moved on to
the alleged sexual abuse the girl has suffered at the hands of
her father.
Court heard earlier that the
girl's underwear was sent for testing. The semen stain found
was not that of the three men but of the girl's father.
The girl admitted her father
beat her and her mother, but denied Harradence's assertion that
he sexually abused her. This information was allegedly disclosed
by the girl's foster mother.
The father was removed from
the courtroom at the beginning of Thursday's proceedings, he
said in an interview Thursday afternoon. The father denies molesting
his daughter, and doesn't believe that his semen was found on
her underpants.
He said the defence is simply
trying to distract the jury from Edmondson's assault on the girl.
"I can't believe all the
things they're saying about me in there," the father said.
"The whole world is going
to jump on me for something I didn't do. The truth is going to
come out."
The girl is presently in foster
care, but said she wants to go home because she misses her family.
She phoned her birth parents the night before she testified,
although her father says he didn't discuss the case with her.
During the lunch break, the
girl came out of the courthouse doors and saw her father across
the lawn. She ran to him and they talked for several minutes
before a social worker led him away as she cried.
And after Thursday's proceedings
were over, the girl and her father talked again among several
supporters.
Harradence would not comment
on any of the specifics of the case, but said he is raising issues
which he feels are relevant.
"I really don't want to
argue my case on the front steps of the courthouse," Harradence
said in an interview.
"All I can tell you is
that I'm asking questions of every witness that I believe are
relevant, and I'll continue to do that."
The trial is expected to last
another week.
Brown and Kindrat, as well
as several other witnesses, are expected to testify in the next
couple of days.
© Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
'Something awful' happened
to girl: MD
Jason Warick, Saskatchewan
News Network, May 22, 2003
MELFORT -- A 12-year-old girl
at the centre of a sexual assault trial had minor cuts and bruises
on her back, buttocks and inner thighs, smelled of alcohol and
was thrashing about hysterically when a Tisdale doctor examined
her, court heard Wednesday.
"I was afraid she must
have had something awful happen to her," Dr. Linda Somer
testified at the sexual assault trial of Dean Trevor Edmondson,
26. Edmondson is one of three men in their mid-20s charged with
sexually assaulting the girl in 2001.
"I thought (the cuts and
bruises) were relatively new -- from the last 24 hours anyway."
The girl, now 14, was taken
to hospital in September of 2001 and examined by Somer.
The next day, Somer met again
with the girl, who cannot be identified.
"She was sobered up and
was very co-operative," Somer said. However, Somer said
under cross-examination there were no marks on the girl's wrists
or neck, and no other signs of struggle.
Edmondson's lawyer Hugh Harradence
asked if the minor cuts or bruises could have been caused by
hospital staff trying to restrain the hysterical and unco-operative
girl.
"I don't think anyone
was bruising her or scratching her in the process," Somer
said.
It's alleged that Edmondson
and friends Jeffrey Brown and Jeffrey Kindrat picked up the girl,
bought her beer and sexually assaulted her on a gravel road outside
Tisdale.
Kindrat and Brown are expected
to testify later in Edmondson's trial, as is the girl.
People working at the bars
in the villages of Chelan and Mistatim testified that Edmondson
and two men bought alcohol on the day the assault is alleged
to have occurred but showed no signs of being drunk themselves.
At Mistatim, the girl was with
them in the bar, but she, too, showed no signs of intoxication,
testified owner Darlene Hill. Hill added that the girl "looked
15 or 16 years old."
Earlier in the day, several
RCMP officers testified.
Harradance noted that police
were inconsistent by videotaping some statements and not others.
Videotaping statements of minors
is "certainly suggested and recommended," said Cpl.
Dean Bohlken, although this was not done during most of the girl's
statements to police.
Kripa Sekhar, executive co-ordinator
of the Saskatchewan Action Committee for the Status of Women,
also attended Wednesday's proceedings.
She was critical of the fact
nine of 12 jurors are male.
"My concerns are around
the jury. It's a very male jury," she said.
Sekhar is not advocating quotas,
but wants more questions asked of potential jurors to gauge whether
they are gender biased.
© Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
Accused admits trying
to have sex with 12-year-old
Jason Warick, Saskatchewan
News Network, , May 21, 2003
MELFORT -- A Tisdale man admits
he and two of his friends bought alcohol for a 12-year-old aboriginal
girl, drove her to a secluded gravel road and tried to have sex
with her, court heard Tuesday.
The videotaped police interview
of Dean Trevor Edmondson -- one of three men in their mid-20s
charged with sexually assaulting the girl in 2001 -- was played
for the jury during the opening day of Edmondson's trial.
"I did try (to have intercourse
with the girl), but I was too drunk," Edmondson said on
the tape during the 90-minute session with then-Tisdale RCMP
Const. Andrew Shepherd.
"She was saying she loved
me and wanted to have sex."
Edmondson is heard several
times on the tape asking about his lawyer, but the interview
was conducted between Edmondson and Shepherd alone.
After signing the statement,
Edmondson leans his head against the wall, then slowly lowers
his head onto the table.
Shepherd is scheduled to return
to the stand today to be cross-examined by Edmondson's lawyer,
Hugh Harradence.
Crown prosecutor Gary Parker
gave the jury an outline of the evidence he expects to present
during the next couple of weeks.
"The evidence will establish
beyond a reasonable doubt the guilt of Dean Trevor Edmondson,"
Parker said.
The girl who cannot be identified
had a fight with her mother on Sept. 30, 2001, and walked several
miles to the steps of a bar in Chelan, near Tisdale, court heard.
Edmondson said in the videotape
he and his friends were playing VLTs and drinking heavily before
they saw the girl. They drove her to another bar in nearby Mistatim,
where the group drank several more beer each after picking up
18 Labatt's Lite at offsale.
Edmondson said they next drove
the car to the approach of a dirt road and that's when the alleged
incident occurred.
Edmondson told Shepherd he
tried to have sex with the girl, but could not get an erection.
While she lay on top of him
on the front of the car's hood, the other two men attempted sex
with the girl, Edmondson said on the videotape. He couldn't tell
if the others actually had intercourse, because he said he was
still kissing her at the time.
They then took the girl to
her friend's house and dropped her off.
Parker told the jury her friends
took her screaming and holding her genital area to the hospital.
Staff found numerous cuts and
bruises on her forehead, back and legs. She remained in hospital
for a few more days.
Parker said the girl denies
wanting to have sex with the men, and she told them not to have
sex with her.
The girl has been placed in
foster care.
Two co-accused -- Jeffrey Chad
Kindrat and Jeffrey Lorne Brown -- are expected to testify at
Edmondson's trial.
Their trial is scheduled for
next month.
The alleged incident -- three
white men accused of victimizing a young Native girl -- has exposed
racial tensions in the area. Questions were raised about the
composition of the jury, which appears to be all Caucasian. Nine
of 12 are male.
"It is a concern for us,"
said Bob Hughes, president of the Saskatchewan Coalition Against
Racism.
At the preliminary hearing
last year Hughes said the aboriginal girl cannot get justice
in Melfort because of the racist attitudes in small-town Saskatchewan.
He had predicted the jury would be made almost exclusively of
Caucasians.
A surprise revelation came
from Parker when discussing semen stains on the girl's underwear.
The DNA in the semen was not from any of the three accused, but
from the girl's own father.
The father has not been charged,
as semen alone is not grounds for prosecution, Parker said.
Also, the Crown is not alleging
the three accused ejaculated, so this information does not change
the case, he said.
© Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
People rally against
Sask. acquittals
By JULIAN BRANCH, July 16,
2003
MELFORT, Sask. (CP) - Anger
and disappointment simmered Wednesday as about 100 people gathered
in protest over a not-guilty verdict handed to two white men
charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old aboriginal girl.
Jeffrey Kindrat and Jeffrey
Brown, both of nearby Tisdale, walked free from the Melfort court
house last month after they were acquitted of sexually assaulting
the girl Sept. 30, 2001. The men admitted they picked the girl
up, gave her beer and then engaged in sexual activity with her.
"People ask me why we are holding a vigil," said Kripa
Shekar, with the Saskatchewan Action Committee on the Status
of Women.
"Because that's the day
justice died for us. The day that two men got away. That's the
day justice died in this court house," she said to the crowd.
A third man, Dean Edmondson,
was found guilty in a separate trial in May. He is appealing.
The men were accused of getting
the girl drunk in their truck, then attempting to have sex with
her on a secluded country road near Tisdale in central Saskatchewan.
The girl had testified she
ran away from home after a fight with her mother and went to
a bar in Tisdale where she met the men outside. She later accepted
their offer of a ride in their vehicle.
It is the fourth such rally
in Saskatchewan. Organizers are also upset there were no aboriginal
people on either jury. They are calling for an appeal of Kindrat
and Brown's acquittal and changes to sexual assault laws. The
Crown has not decided whether to appeal.
The girl testified she told
the men she was almost 15. The age of consent is 14.
Lawyers on both sides agreed
that the girl's reluctance to testify fully against Kindrat and
Brown was the turning point in the case. In Edmondson's trial,
the girl gave much more detail about the sexual activity that
occurred.
The crowd at the rally, made
up of young and old, aboriginal and non-aboriginal and including
the girl and her family, joined hands in a circle on the lawn
in front of the court house as a drum group played.
Protest signs sprinkled throughout
the crowd read "Other way around and justice would have
been swift" and "A slap on a wrist for non-First Nations."
More than a dozen speakers
expressed outrage with the verdict handed to Kindrat and Brown.
A spokesman for the girl's
family said he had urged those who wanted to take matters into
their own hands to wait and see if justice would be done.
"Do we turn those young
men loose on those guys? Would that be justice?," he said.
"I said let us try the system first and see what happens.
Because I'll tell you we're mad, we're angry and we're not going
to put up with this," he said.
And it isn't just the aboriginal
community that is upset with the verdict. Non-aboriginal people
rallied in Melfort as well.
Similar rallies have been held
in Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Regina. Organizers say there
will be at least one more.
Saskatchewan's Justice Department
is currently reviewing the jury selection process to see if anything
can be done to make juries more racially balanced.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
