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injusticebusters
1998 page on Martensville | 2004: Legal Aid head, Jane Lancaster,
colluded with Crown to prosecute innocent people
Martensville
still in the news in 2006 as prosecutors continue to defend their
malicious acts
Martensville
scandal
Sterling Trial
from StarPhoenix
Feb. 3, 1994, the day of the verdict, Front page
Although
they are two distinctly different cases, many people who saw
the Fifth Estate's story on the Foster Parent Trials, Scandal
of the Century continue to confuse the case with Martensville.
The players
are quite distinct: different prosecutors, different witnesses,
different cops and different accused. The two stories share the
predominent feature of having fed Saskatchewan's lurid appetite
for the bizarre and ifor putting us on the map for malicious
treatment of our citizens. From David Milgaard to Foster Parents
and Martensville, and continuing with the criminal tolerance
we have shown to police departments who approve and cover-up
murders of Natives, we have earned our position as a place Amnesty
International is keeping an eye on. (our original coverage) Part 2 of this coverage
Popowich | Holgate
| Miazga | Mitchell
| Terry Hinz | The
$10M+ Lawsuit | Klassens await
day in court | The Gerald
Morris case traces some of the branches of corruption in
the Saskatchewan legal system
'Our life can never be normal'
By Doug McConachie of the
StarPhoenix
Caption:Emotions
run high as Ron and Linda Sterling leave courthouse after being
cleared of all charges
"We're going to be tainted
as the most vile child molesters for the rest of our lives,"
Ron Sterling knows.
"No matter that I've been
found not guilty, there are going to be people out there forever
who believe I am guilty.
"I used to have great
faith in the justice system but I've learned a lot in the past
two years," he said.
"Our life can never be
normal. We've lost two years of our lives."
Ron and Linda Sterling, key
figures in the most infamous sexual abuse trial ever held in
Saskatchewan, Wednesday were found not guilty of 32 crimes against
11 children.
Their son, Travis, 25, was
convicted on eigt charges against six children -- four boys and
two girls. He was immediately taken into custody by RCMP and
will be sentenced at 10 a.m. Friday by Justice Ross Wimmer.
Travis, an artist, was convicted
of five counts of sexual assault against three boys and two girls.
He was found guilty of sexual assault, assault and attempting
to engage in anal intercourse involving a fourth boy.
Five of the children testifying
against Ron Sterling alleged he also abused two others who didn't
testify. In total, he was charged with abuse of five boys and
two girls/
Six of the children testified
against Linda Sterling and alleged she abused three others who
ddn't testify, so five boys and four girls were involved in the
charges.
After deliberating for eight
days, the 11 member jury acquitted the two 46 year old Sterlins
on charges arising from an investigation of their unlicenced
day-care home in Martensville between 1988 and 1991.
Future trials
up in the air
The jury erdict casts doubt
pm whether the Crown will proceed against four others charged
in the case.
"We can't give you an
answer on that," Crown prosecutor Leslie Sullivan said when
asked if the next trial, involving former Martensville police
officer James Elstad, would go ahead.
"That;s not our call,"
she said.
Hugh Harradance, Linda Sterling's
lawyer, was scathing in his criticism of the police investigation
of the allegations.
"Linda didn't get off
on any technicality," he said. "What happened to her
is an injustice."
Harradence said the family
is considering filing a civil suit against the police and prosecutors.
Lawyer Don Mullord, who represented
Ron Sterling, said he believes the Crown will have to drop any
further action. Mark Brayford, who represents Elstadt, said he
wants a decision immediately.
Parents
shocked
The parents who filed the 1991
complaint that sparked the entire Martensville investigation
were not in the courtroom when the jury filed in. They were there
15 minutes later when the jurors were asked if they were unanimous
in their verdict and, when they then heard them say yes, they
appeared dazed and unbelieving.
An aunt of a 10-year-old boy,
standing outside the court later, wept in disbelief, saying "They
don't believe the children. I can't believe it."
She and her husband had listened
to much of the children's testimony and he shook his head and
said: "It's difficult to believe all these kids are liars."
In an exclusive interview,
Ron Sterling was critical of the way his family's case was handled.
"There are a few people
in this system whose brains have been on scramble and they don't
know how to stop," he said.
"If we had our preliminary
hearing back in 1992, this case would never have come to trial,"
he said, estimating he's now $80,000 in debt in addition to losing
his Martensville home, his vehicles and his job.
"I was told way back when
that, even if I was not convicted, I couldn't have my job back
(as deputy director of the Saskatoon Correctional Centre)."
Tough on
family
Life has, in some ways, been
very difficult since he was charged.
"We were treated like
animals in our own home," he said. "My daughter (Tracy)
has taken this the hardest. My other son, Troy . . . we had to
tell him to stay away while all of this was going on.
"I know in my heart my
son Travis is not guilty of anything. This is a very hysterical
type of crime and that's what happened. They (police and prosecutors)
got hysterical and ran with it.
"We told people two years
ago we weren't guilty. Neither is our son. We're going to fight
this right to the bitter end."
"These kids have gone
through hell, but so have we."
Appeal planned
Sterling said the family's
first priority now is to appeal Travis's conviction.
Ron's father, Burt, died on
the opening day of the trial. "This killed him," Sterling
said at the time.
Today, he says, I'd like to
be able to walk down the street with him again but I'll never
be able to do that."
He also says there have been
some blessings in all of this.
"Our friends have really
stood behind us and we'e got some new friends. I've only lost
one friend through all of this."
When they were released on
bail, they were ordered to live with Ron's parents on an acreage
north of Prince Albert. They began attending St. Alban's Anglican
Church on a regular basis, and the "people have been tremendously
supportive."
Now Sterling says, "There
are things I'd like to do for the people who helped us, but I
don't know how. Saying thanks just doesn't seem to be enough.
"I'm bitter," he
says of the case, but "I'm not bitter with the kids"(who
made the accusations.)
"I fee sorry for these
kids, but the hell they put us through, what it caused us . .
. somebody has to know.
"These kids have been
abused, but it's been the system that's abused them. What's going
to happen when they come to their senses and realize nothing
happened?"
Sterling was on Workman's Compsnsation
for the first year of his ordeal because of a neck injury he
suffered while working as an ambulance attendant with Rosthern
Ambulance. Then he collected unemployment insurance and lately,
welfare.
He said he's owed a lot for
what has happened to him and his family.
"I want more than just
my back salary," he said, but wouldn't disclose whether
he plans legal action.
"I invested 24 years of
my life in that job. I lost my pension, my disabiity rights.
Linda will never be able to operate a day care again.
"I know our names will
always be in police files, on police computers, in Social Services'
records. I'm going to fight that, but I knnow what that's like.
"All I can tell you is
that I'm going to fight this to the bitter end.
"There's a lot of things
that went on that people owe us apologies for. Some we'll get.
Some we'll never get."
Page 2,
StarPhoenix, Feb. 3, 1994
Investigation into sex abuse
case needs investigating
Column by
Les MacPherson
NOT GUILTY VERDICTS in the Sterling trial raise disturbing
questions about the investigation and prosecution of sexual abuse
in this jurisdiction.
Clearly the jury had doubts
about much of the most bloodcurdling testimony from seven different
children.This was not at all surprising. There was a near total
absence of corroborating evidence and the presiding judge all
but invited jurors to dismiss some of the more grotesque charges
against the Sterlings.
Normally, in a criminal conspiracy
involving no fewer than nine individuals, one of the accused
will cut his losses and testify against the others. That none
of the Martensville defendants have done so further undermines
the case against them.
To see two of the Sterlings
acquitted is to confront the possibility that someone put some
very strange ideas into the heads of the children who testified
against them. We are left to wonder if someone has done likewise
in similar cases, perhaps resulting in wrongful convictions.
That such a thing is possible
is supported by expert testimony condemning the interviewing
techniques of police and social workers who conducted the investigation.
Videotaped interviews of the child witnesses were variously characterized
as suggestive, leading and coervice, raising serious doubts about
the accusations that emerged.
Significantly, the Crown prosecutors
hardly took issue with this expert analysis. They were unale
or unwilling to call independent evidence to the contrary and
declined even to cross-examine the one expert who might have
done the most damage to their case. It was as if the prosecution
conceded the investigation was seriously flawed and the children's
evidence therefore suspect.
I attended the trial on a couple
of afternoons and came away with the impression the Crown was
unconvinced that at least one of the accused was guilty of anything.
I'd expected to see Linda Sterling
subjected to a tough cross-examination by veteran prosecutor
Leslie sullivan. Instead, it was more like a polite formality,
with Sullivan lobbing softball questions and repeatedly llooking
up at the clock as if she had better things to do.
Sterling was asked about her
housekeeping standards (they're quite high). She was asked whether
the children she babysat ever played outside (sometimes, on nice
days). She was asked where she kept toys for them to play with
(in the closet) and how often she took them to the grocery store
(once).
She was not asked why children
she'd earlier described as "great kids" would accuse
her of such vile crimes. Nothing of the kind.
Here was the one and only chance
for the prosecution to question the accused under oath and it
was more like a pleasant chat than a cross-examination.
Granted, it could have been
part of some grand prosecution strategy that was not apparent
to me. Or it could have been that the Crown simply never had
a credible case against this woman.
Which brings us back to the
investigation. The same investigation, incidentally, that also
resulted in charges against Saskatoon City Police officer John
Popowich. These charges were stayed when his alleged child victims
could not identify him. The presiding judge went further, declaring
Popowich to be "totally innocent."
Was he the only one scooped
up in a net too wide?
Perhaps not. Four other men
charged in connection with the same investigation are to go on
trial individually, starting Feb. 14. It remains to be seen how
or even if those trials will proceed.
Guilt or innocence aside, the
Sterling and Popowich trials at least served to reveal unfortunate
flaws in the Martensville investigation. An independent review
of the investigative procedures employed in this tragic case
would seem appropriate, if only to reassure the public that police
and social workers are not overzealous in their pursuit of monsters,
real or imagined.
Future of remaining cases now
placed in doubt
by Doug McConachie of The
StarPhoenix
The Crown's future action in
the Martensville sexual abuse matter could be revealed at 2 p.m.
today (injusticebusters' note -- they did decide not to pr oceed).
The Crown Wednesday asked for
a 24-hour postponement in pretrial discussions about how it would
proceed against former Martensville police officer James Elstad
and Queen's Bench Justice Marion Wedge rescheduled the hearing
for this afternoon.
"Given what happened this
morning (Wednesday), we're asking for an adjournment," said
prosecutor Judy Halyk, referring to the acquittal of Ron and
Linda Sterling and the conviction of their son on eight secual
abuse charges.
During the Elstad pre-trial
conference, which began Monday, there has been discussion on
how the two-month trial would proceed. None of what has been
discussed can be reported.
The conference was scheduled
to continue Wedsnesday afternoon, but the Sterling jury's decision
forced the Crown to reconsider its future actions.
Halyk's comments fueled speculation
that the Crown's case has gone down the drain with Wednesday's
verdicts.
Three relativers of the children,
including one of the mothers, say the youngsters are devastated
by the whole process.
The jury decision makes it
obvious that jurors didn't believe anything happened at a quonset
10 mintes northwest of Martensville.
Of the eight charges Travis
was convicted of, six had to have occurred at his  home. The other
four could have occurred either at his home or at the Storey-Bishoff
quonset, but it appears obvious any charge specifically referring
to "The Place," "The Fort" or "The Devil's
Church" -- as one child called it -- was rejected.
Three of the children who testified
in the Sterling trial also testified in the trial of Saskatoon
Police Cpl. John Popowich last year. After they failed to identify
Popowich as one of the abusers in a lineup, Justice Ted Noble
said the 20 year veteran as clearly a victim of mistaken identity,
and was innocent.
Two of the children testified
against a 20 year old female who was charged under the Young
Offenders Act early last year and convicted of seven of 10 sex-related
charges and sentenced to two years. She has since appealed that
verdict and it's before the Court of Appeal. (injusticebusters
note: all her convictions were overturned).
 After
the jury verdict, there was immediate speculation the Crown would
have no alternative but to call a halt to proceedings against
all the remaining defendants -- Elstad, Ed Reverz, Darrel Ford
and Darren Sabourin.
Elstad's trial is scheduled
to begin Feb. 14 and involves 13 charge, with five of the children
who testified in the Sterling case also scheduled to testify
against him.
Suspended Warman RCMP Const.
Darren Sabourin faces eight charges involving three children
and two of the Sterling child witnesses are scheduled to testify
against him. His trial is scheduled to begin April 11.
Former Martensville Police
chief Darryl Ford faces 10 charges involving five children, four
of whom testified in the Sterling trial. His case goers June
13.
Another former chief, Ed Revesz,
faces eight charges involving four children and, again, four
children from the Sterling trial are scheduled to testify. His
trial begins September 7.
Prosecutors Leslie Sullivan
and Bruce Bauer would not comment on what may happen now, other
than to indicate Saskatchewan Justice officials would have to
make any decisions.
 Senior
Crown Prosecutor Wilf Tucker, asked if the Sterling trial should
have gone ahead based on the evidence that came out during the
trial, replied it's not the Crown's aim simply to get guilty
verdicts, but to present all the information and let the jury
decide.
While the Crown wasn't giving
any hint of its intentions, some observers in the courthouse
figured the Crown had no alternative but to close the book.
Lawyer Don Mullord, who represented
Ron Sterling, believes the Crown would have to drop any further
action. Mark Brayford, who represents Elstad, said he wants a
decision immediately.
Mullord said it's obvious the
jury didn't believe there was widespread sexual abuse as the
Crown contended, so "the policemen (still facing trial)
have been vindicated."
Ford and Revesz sat in the
back of the courtroom with Popowich when the jury reported. Sabourin
and Elstad weren't present.
Popowich said the decision
now begs for an inquiry. Three of the children who testified
against him also testified against the Sterlings.
Ford and Revesz wouldn't comment.
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
