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Archived story which had no just resolution

Richard Coomber

Victim of prosecutorial misconduct speaks back

Media collaborates to destroy his reputation

August 21, 2001: Five neighbourhood children, from two separate families living together, who were basically left alone most of each day, were attending my home. My wife was always with me. In September of 1994, I called the school where these kids were attending and asked them to call the RCCAS into the school to question the children about some of the things the kids had been telling us about their family. The major item was that the oldest boy and girl told us of watching their parents have sex. They included their current mom and the man's legal wife who he had just sponsored into Canada after deserting her twelve years earlier in Vietnam. The kids told us of seeing dad have sex with both women, but not at the same time. Apparently the kids did not tell the same story to the RCCAS as the principle of the school told me they had found nothing to be concerned about. Incident number one.

In October 1994, the four oldest children had been telling my wife and me about the fights that were going on in the house between the two mothers. The eleven year old girl who had recently arrived from Vietnam had also told us that she had attacked the common law mother because of the fights between the women. The daughter was trying to defend her own mom. I will add here, that my wife and I taught this eleven year old to speak accent free English in only a few months. We had started teaching her in June of 1994, only one month after she had arrived in Canada with no knowledge of the English language. This girl also had active TB and was identified as a Hepatitis B carrier. She did not want to take her TB medication so I often had to go to their home, five houses away, and make her take her pills. On one occasion I had been called to the home by the oldest sister because the immigrant girls older sister had been banging the younger sisters head against a brick wall, because the younger one, in applying hair rollers to the elder's hair, had tangled a curler in her hair and it had to be cut out. The father had also been keeping the recent immigrant family in the basement of the home and they had only a little six by ten foot room to sleep in. The rest of the basement was finished for living. With all that had been going on we decided to call in a Vietnamese social worker to talk to the mother and explain what her rights were in Canada. The mother spoke no English. The mother then decided to ask us to help her leave the home, so we arranged to take her and the two girls out to the Hiatus house where they would be safe. After about three weeks I was able to find them an apartment to live in. There was a tight housing situation at that time. A note here. The RCCAS was involved with this family again. Incident number two.

We had a Vietnamese neighbour who lived across the street. She was very old and we called her "Grandma." She had befriended the immigrant mother. In late October the immigrant mother called Grandma from the Hiatus house and said that her husband had a gun and she was fearing for her life. Grandma called me and told me about this. I called the police and asked to have an officer come to my home to talk about this. The became paranoid and without my knowledge, called an alert. They had Hiatus house on special lockdown and alert. They had the children, who were at school, locked into the principle's office and put out an APB for the father. It turned out there was no gun. The RCCAS was involved in this again. Incident number three.

Life proceeded along for the next year with the two families separated. The original family moved about three kilometers away, but we maintained almost daily contact with the kids. I picked them up and brought them to my home often and the parents would also drop them off at our house, sometimes leaving them for a whole weekend. I discovered, some time in early 1995, that the eleven year old immigrant girl was a prostitute. I tried in vain to get her to stop. I was very emotionally involved with all of these kids and I felt very bad that this one was living as she was. I had called in the Special Viet police squad about this and also told a Viet social worker, Diep Huynh, about this. The police checked it out, but said what they can't see, they can't do anything about, since the girl was using her home to do it. The social worker denied that any Viet child would prostitute herself. I will add now that Diep Huynh was not connected with CAS. She worked with an organization called "Immigrant Women Working With Immigrant Women." Apparently the mother had introduced the young girl to prostitution when she was eight. They lived in Da Nang, the site of a Russian military base. They had no other way to make a decent living. I became more distraught as time went on and eventually it overcame me. This is explained in my account of my first conviction for sexual assault which consisted of a touch on the knee and nude photos. My mind had gone "round the bend." I know it is a lot of reading, but it must be read to be understood. I am not excusing my behaviour, only explaining it. I have had serious counselling since then. After this incident both the police and RCCAS questioned all the girls about my involvement with them and asked over and over again if I had ever touched them inappropriately. They said "NO" over and over again. This questioning included the youngest one who eventually was made to say that I did touch her in a bad way. Incident number four.

I was on bail until my trial on July 18, 1996. I had basically only phone contact with the kids, but my wife was still doing what she could to assist the children in their lives. In early April the oldest girl of the common law mother had an asthma attack and was almost dead when the parents took her into the hospital. This is one area where my wife had been working with the mother trying to get her to understand the seriousness of asthma. The mother never showed any great concern about this. After the girl was admitted to the hospital the RCCAS was called in again. The doctor made the call. RCCAS started to put pressure on the mother about the children possibly being taken away to foster homes. Incident number five.

On April 30, 1996, I committed a breach of my bail conditon by driving the two girls of the common law mother to a bank to try to open bank accounts for them. The mother and older brother were supposed to go with me, but cancelled out just before we left. The mother knew my bail conditions. I should have cancelled also, but being stubborn and also expecting that the next day I would be in court to have my condition changed to allow this anyway was my downfall. RCCAS personnel were just arriving at the house,unknown to me, as I was leaving with the girls, to tell the mother about my charges and conditions. This was nine months after the charges had been laid and I had already told the mother and father about what happened. During this incident the two girls were questioned separately and so intensively by the police and the RCCAS, that they both broke down and cried on both occasions. They kept insisting that I had never done anything bad to them. This included the youngest who later had to lie about me. Incident number six.

I entered a plea bargain on July 18, 1996, since I was guilty of something and I also did not want to subject the young immigrant girl to having to testify on the stand about the event. Her health was not good. The next day at the request of the common law mother's kids , I brought the three children and two of their cousins to my home. The RCCAS called the police. It was fully legal for the kids to be there, but once again RCCAS jumped in and questioned the kids intensively. The mother was warned agin about possibly losing her children. This information only came to me later. Incident number seven.

I think that by this time the mother was paying attention to the fact that she might lose her kids and the welfare money that went with them.

Our relations with the family broke off in late September of 1996. The kids later told me that mom was afraid of losing them. I spoke to the children several times by phone in October and early November of 1996 and was concerned about their welfare. I could hear distress in their voices. I knew them well. In mid-Novemer I called in the RCCAS again because the oldest girl had complained that the bathroom door lock was broken and her parents wouldn't get it fixed. Her older brother kept going in when she was taking a bath and as she was eleven at the time was very self concious. I outlined my concerns to RCCAS and they took care to get the lock fixed and check on the kids. Incident number eight.

I was still in occasional contact with the kids by phone and had also made contact with kids who lived near them The neighbour kids told my wife and I some things that made us very worried. One incident was that the father was drunk and beating the oldest boy. Another was that the boys were urinating into squirt guns and squirting the girls with it. Another was the partying and all the strange new men that had started going to the house. I spoke to the mother of one of the girls and asked if she would allow her daughter to sign a police statemtent to the effect of what she had seen. The mother said no. We arranged to have this girl and her friend visit our home and it was my intention of having the video camera on the girls while they repeated their stories to my wife and me. My intention was to turn this over to the police, basically doing an end run around the mother. It went wrong. The police had been at the school where the kids were and were investigating something,(I know not what) when they found out the two girls would be coming to my home. This turned into incident number nine.

On or about December 15, 1996 one police officer, Det.Laurel Boots and RCCAS worker Lyle Ward of the RCCAS attended my home. I allowed them to enter and after the officer identified herself she started yelling at me. She was not bing professional and the children's aid worker just sttod there and let her do it. After several insults by the police officer, I told them both to leave. I was told by the officer that I would be in jail by Christmas even if she had to park out in front of my house. It took her until January 9, 1997. Sometime between December 16 and January 8 both girls were questioned again. The questioning was not done in a proper manner. The older girl was kept in the room with her younger sister while she was questioned about me. The police officer said this was done to make the younger girl feel more comfortable. This is when the younger girls said that I had done some strange things to her, and when it finally came out in court, her testimony was very defferent from what she actually said in her statement. I believe that the mother had finally had enough and made the little girl lie to get rid of me. She was in fear of losing her kids and thought I was going to hang around forever. The mother also, in a sworn statemtent, said that she wanted nothing to do with these events and didn't want to know what had supposedly happened.

Laurel Boots, the detective, collected many statements from different kids, including one bizarre one wherein an older cousin said she lied to her little sister to get her to say the same thing about me, that I had touched her privates. This little girl was later interrogated by police , with video tape, and she denied even knowing me. I have the statements and the video tape. Any fair minded person reading all these statement and events would not have even brought this thing to trial. Too many contradictions and evident lies. Unfortunately the Crown apparently has no choice. It had to fly. And I paid dearly for it.

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There is more, but I am currently trying to prepare a late appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada and should not say too much. I expect they will turn me down because I am late appealing and am only a little guy with very little money and no lawyer. My next step will be to appeal to the Government, which has different criteria for obtaining a new trial. It is, "If defence evidence was available at trial, but not set before the Judge, this is grounds for a new trial." The Courts do not see it this way and as a result I lost my appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal. I had also appealed on the Constitutional grounds that the "similar fact evidence" took away my right to a fair trial, but this was a waste of time. Serial rapists have had similar fact evidence barred from their trials. I don't understand why my lawyer couldn't do the same. Maybe it was because he only charged me $2500.00 per day at trial.

I have maintained my innocence in the face of adversity. In my opinion most Judicial and penal authorities are very arrogant. I was denied parole, because I would not admit guilt and at the same time I was told by the interviewer that a Windsor Police officer had spoken to them and told them she did not want me back in Windsor anymore. That sounds like vigilante talk to me. I have now reached a point where I will not even talk to my probation officer, except to say that I have not breached the terms of my probation, I have had no contact with the police and I still live at the same address. All attempts to get me to talk have failed. I feel nothing but anger against this system. I have also found that no entity offers print space (except for injusticebusters) for a person to complain of a wrongful conviction. The Windsor Star letters editor, John Coleman, told me that he was afraid they would be sued. That is pathetic, because they do not fear lawsuits over any other subjects.

Another adverse effect of this wrongful conviction is that the police will, from time to time follow me. If they see me go into a house, they will visit later to determine if children live there. If so, then the police tell these people all about me and state that I should not be allowed into their homes, because I am dangerous to their children. Most of my neighbours scorn me, even though I have known most of them for up to thirteen years. I have not had any of them come to me to ask what happened. One woman neighbour, with whom I had a dispute concerning the same child's family, has taken it upon herself to greet new arrivals to the neighbourhood with the news that I am someone to stay away from. These people, unfortunately, believe every word printed in the newspaper and don't believe the Justice system can go wrong.

I am very fortunate to have a loving and loyal wife by my side. She knows I did nothing wrong. We have been married thirty eight years now and will go on somehow. Her health has been severely affected by these incidents. I will keep you posted as my appeals take place.

Before posting this page, injusticebusters asked to see the photos the police seized from Richard Coomber. He replied as follows:

. . . [I have] determined that the alleged child porn photos are still in the property room [of the Windsor Police]. I was told that I had to speak to the officer in charge of the case, who has been off work for a year with a bad back. Further inquiry determined that the detective might be back to work within a month. I am going to speak to my lawyer and get his advice, even allowing that I can go to the detectives' boss to obtain the leftover evidence, or go into court to recover the photos. I will keep you updated on the progress of this issue.

I have also just printed out the Supreme Court of Canada"s judgement on the child pornography law. I have read it and determined for sure, that no photos I had could be remotely construed as child pornography. It is apparently the habit of police to lay as many charges as possible and hope some will stick. I think it is an abuse of process. I am going to have a vinyl sign made up with your web address on it and place it on the back window of my minivan. I will help however I can.

Sincerely yours,

Richard A. Coomber

February 14, 2001: A Valentine's Day Special. Today injusticebusters has published this page along another featuring Karl Starratt of Nova Scotia and we are preparing two more that deal with people who have had stakes driven into their hearts by police, prosecutors, the media, and people they only sought to help.

Keep an eye on the case of Neil Foord, the New Zealand author who is also fighting to have prosecutorial misconduct made public and those who have smeared him brought to justice.

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

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Publisher : Sheila Steele

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

injusticebusters court advice :

How to walk yourself through the justice system

 

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

 

Sermonette: 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!

 

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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.

 

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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

 

 

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

 

Blogging

Blogging has been in the news. It is the new, trendy thing with 40,000 new blogs being created each day. I established a blog for this website last September and it is now "taking off." These are a few of the pages with ongoing discussions.

Tasering Mary Lutz

Saskatchewan Centenary

Quint Blog discussion

Rotten apples in the Saskatoon Police

Blogging for choice

Michael Cardamone witch hunt

Implement recommendations of public inquiries

Stealing from the poor

Vancouver's killer cops

Tisdale rapists appeal

Winnipeg police misdeeds

Milgaard Inquiry

Chief Sabo: can he be trusted?

The Old Boys' Club Must Go!

Vancouver activists

John Hudak: Falsely accused mountie

City of intolerance

Constable Larry Lockwood: Exciteable!

Eric Cline

This is a great way for like-minded people to communicate and share our views. It is easier than making a website and marginally more difficult than a forum.

People who want to contribute simply have to punch the "comment" link and they will be taken to a page with a box which allows them to write their comment, preview and post it. It takes a while for the comment to show up and some people get impatient and repost. That's fine, I trash the duplicate posts and no harm done.

Please, please give it a try. The internet is distinguished from other media in that it is really and truly interactive. Blogging makes it possible to express your viewpoint even if you don't have a computer. You can go to the library or a friend's place or an internet cafe. Once you've mastered the basics (and believe me, if I can do it, you can do it) you will be participating in one of the most democratic -- and potentially powerful -- media the world as we know it has ever seen.

Come on. Don't be shy. Join the Weblog World! -- Sheila Steele, March 20, 2005

Toronto Police paid out $30M in secretly resolved claims over last five years