|
more on Larry
Fisher > > > | Also: Joyce
Milgaard renews call for public inquiry | January 2005: The inquiry | New: Blogging RCMP Informants
David Milgaard
malicious prosecution
Were they protecting
RCMP snitch, Larry Fisher, giving him licence to kill in exchange
for info on politicos and potheads?
Fisher
testifies at Milgaard Inquiry, September 2005
Larry Fisher
has long been suspected of being an RCMP informant. Two women
who were raped in North Battleford were told their rapist had
been caught -- and that it was David Milgaard. Fisher was the
real culprit and he was in custody in Regina. The practice of
giving snitches licence to lie is standard practice for the RCMP
who enlist the cooperation of local police. This licence includes
rape and murder. We are counting on the Milgaard Inquiry to shed
more light on this.
Larry Fisher loses murder
conviction appeal in Saskatoon nursing aide's death
JULIAN BRANCH, Canadian
Press, , September 29, 2003
REGINA (CP) - The man
who was eventually found guilty of a murder that kept David Milgaard
wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years lost an appeal Monday to have
his conviction overturned.
Larry Fisher was convicted
in 1999 of the first-degree murder of Gail Miller, a 20-year-old
Saskatoon nursing assistant who had been raped and repeatedly
stabbed 30 years earlier. Milgaard, a 16-year-old hippie who
was passing through Saskatoon at the time, was convicted of Miller's
death and spent his young adulthood behind bars before finally
being exonerated by DNA evidence in 1997.
Fisher was given a mandatory
life sentence, but will be eligible for parole in 10 years instead
of the usual 25 years according to the law that was in place
when Miller was killed.
The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal
ruled unanimously that his conviction should stand.
Milgaard's mother, Joyce, who
worked tirelessly to prove her son's innocence, welcomed the
news. She said David was also relieved.
"He's just wanting to
get on and live his life," Milgaard said. "We talked
about it last night and he said he couldn't see that it could
be anything else."
Fisher's lawyer, Brian Beresh,
had argued that his client's trial was flawed by inadmissible
evidence and the presiding judge's poor submission to the jury.
He also contended that statements
the trial judge made about Milgaard led the jury to disregard
the idea that he could still be guilty.
But the appeal court said the
judge did not err when he decided to admit fact and DNA evidence,
as well as evidence from certain witnesses.
"Further, the judge did
not err in any of his instructions to the jury," the appeal
court wrote.
Miller's bloody and partially
clad body was found in a Saskatoon alley on Jan. 31, 1969. Her
throat was slashed, she had been stabbed 27 times and she had
been raped.
DNA evidence was at the heart
of the Crown's case against Fisher. Semen stains were left on
Miller's dress and underwear and blood consistent with Fisher's
DNA was also found on Miller's glove.
Court heard the odds were 950
trillion to one that the semen did not belong to Fisher.
But in front of the appeal
court, Beresh argued the expert who gave that number was not
qualified to do so and the judge should have pointed that out
to the jury.
He said the expert arrived
at the number by plugging figures into a database and was not
able to answer questions about how the computer program worked.
The Saskatchewan government
awarded Milgaard $10 million for his wrongful conviction - the
biggest criminal compensation package in Canadian history.
The government also plans a
public inquiry into Milgaard's case, but the proceedings were
being held up by Fisher's appeal. Saskatchewan Justice Minister
Eric Cline was not immediately available to comment on when the
inquiry might go ahead.
But Joyce Milgaard said the
family is anxious for it to proceed.
"We certainly would like
to get that underway as soon as possible," she said. "Hopefully,
they won't be dragging their feet on it."
The legal bills for Fisher's
defence have climbed into the hundreds of thousand of dollars.
The case has prompted what
criminal defence lawyers call Fisher applications - motions seeking
fair compensation for lawyers involved in high-profile sexual
assault, murder and attempted murder cases.
A sketch of Larry Fisher, who
has lost an appeal of his first-degree conviction in the 1969
death of Saskatoon nursing aide Gail Miller:
Born: Aug. 21, 1949.
Convictions: Served 23 years
in prison for a series of brutal rapes in Winnipeg, Saskatoon
and North Battleford.
Arrested: July 25, 1997, in
Calgary and charged with 1969 rape and murder of Gail Miller.
Background: In 1969, Fisher
was married and employed as a construction worker. Before his
arrest, he made money collecting bottles and cans from dumpsters
around Saskatoon.
Defence: Fisher's lawyer disputed
DNA evidence, arguing it was accidentally or deliberately planted
on Miller's clothing after she was killed.
Appeal: The defence argued
10 grounds, including that the trial judge erred in instructing
the jury not to consider the conviction of David Milgaard.
© Copyright 2003 The Canadian Press
Dumping one way to avoid
paperwork, retired cop says
Jason
Warick, Saskatchewan News Network, June 14, 2003
Saskatoon Police Const. Rusty
Chartier and his partner were patrolling when they stopped a
man walking in Victoria Park near Riversdale Pool.
It was early, about 5 a.m.
that day in the summer of 1960. Chartier's partner, a senior
officer, began to question the man.
The man, apparently, wouldn't
answer questions properly, so the partner "just started
whaling on him," punching and hitting him in the head repeatedly,
Chartier said.
Chartier, a rookie officer
at the time, was shocked. "I was a new constable. I wondered
'Is this how we're supposed to do our job?' "
Chartier didn't complain to
his superiors because he soon realized "it was systemic.
It was not an uncommon deal."
This needless beating has remained
clear in Chartier's memory for all these years.
Stories such as these were
common among the officers in the 1960s and '70s, he said.
On more than one occasion,
Saskatoon police threw bricks through the windows of suspected
bootleggers, he said.
This week's revelation that
an officer dumped an aboriginal woman on the outskirts of town
in the summer of 1976 was "laughed about" by other
officers at the time, Chartier said.
"(Dumping) was seen as
a way to save paperwork and to let them sober up," he said.
The officer involved was disciplined
at the time and still works as a Saskatoon Police Service constable.
He was out of town this week and could not be reached for comment.
Chartier, who retired after
28 years on the force, is still disgusted by these extreme examples
of what he calls the "us against them" mentality.
He has become one of the most
vocal advocates of the "community-based policing" philosophy.
In its simplest form, it emphasizes
preventing crime rather than simply reacting to it. Police are
viewed as members of the community rather than as some outside
body waiting for crimes to occur.
Chartier believes many of the
current problems could have been avoided if this model was adopted
when he began pushing for it in the 1980s.
"To me, there is so much
evidence we (police) are still doing things wrong. There's such
a resistance to change," Chartier said in an interview from
his Avenue O home this week.
"We got caught up in the
technology -- bigger cars, bigger guns. We've lost touch."
---
Community policing appears
to be at the heart of the current conflict which has pitted ordinary
officers against Chief Russell Sabo and the police commission.
Evidence of this dissension
was revealed last week, when the vast majority of officers voted
"no" to whether they had confidence in Sabo and the
commission.
Sabo and the board have repeatedly
stated a desire to restructure the force around the community
policing model. Several changes have been made, but others have
met with resistance.
The association representing
Saskatoon's 380 police officers thinks Sabo and the commission
are going way too far, and public safety could be jeopardized
in the name of community policing.
"We are still faced with
political masters who have forgotten . . . the core functions
of a police service," Saskatoon Police Association (SPA)
president Stan Goertzen wrote in his most recent newsletter.
"They appear to be focused
only on community policing."
SPA vice-president Dave Haye
agrees. He said Saskatoon has always had community policing "but
we believe the balance has gone too far one way. It should not
be at the expense of officer or public safety."
Some, like Chartier, advocate
more foot patrols and more dialogue with the public.
But there isn't enough staff
to do this on top of their other duties and investigations, Haye
said.
Morale among officers is the
worst Haye has seen in his 18 years on the force.
"We're as low as we want
to go. There has never been this much concern over what's happening,"
Haye said.
"We have concerns about
the leadership. Whether the chief steps down or not is his choice."
He said Sabo should see the
non-confidence vote "as a starting point to build things
instead of tearing them down."
Officers are also faced with
a monthly reminder of something most would like to forget.
A $30 monthly levy on top of
their union dues will remain for another couple of years to cover
more than $150,000 in legal bills for disgraced former officers
Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson.
The pair abandoned Darrell
Night on the outskirts of town in the winter of 2000 and were
subsequently convicted for the crime. The association has declined
the pair's request to cover the legal bills for any further action.
Saskatoon's policing problems
have made national headlines several times in the past few years.
Simon Fraser University criminology
Prof. David MacAlister said Saskatoon's problems have become
well-known in other parts of the country.
The Saskatoon vote of non-confidence
is an extraordinary show of dissent, he said.
However, forces across North
America have typically resisted new police chiefs who try to
make major changes.
A chief may find it extremely
difficult to move toward community policing, particularly someone
brought in from outside like Sabo.
The chief usually "toughs
it out for awhile" but leaves after a few years because
no one supports him, MacAlister said.
The exceptions are places such
as Edmonton and Calgary, where everyone is working together,
he said.
Some think the current division
and dissent should be solved another way.
Those in power, such as the
chief, should simply use their power and order everyone to fall
into line, they say.
"It seems to be a free-for-all.
It looks to me like there's not the discipline there used to
be. There's nobody in charge," said Ed Karst, a Saskatoon
police staff sergeant from 1954 to 1989.
"They have to take charge.
They should handle it like they used to."
---
Haye said there could be a
meeting between the association, the police commission, and Sabo
as early as next week to discuss the force's future.
"I'm not going to watch
all this happen for another 10 years. The officers are out there
every day risking their lives," Haye said.
"We have to move on and
try to rebuild the service. We have no choice."
© Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
An example of how Saskatoon
Police have dug in their heels to cover their asses
Personal Viewpoint of
Rusty Chartier
(from the StarPhoenix, Publication
date unknown)
Following is the personal viewpoint
of the writer, a Saskatoon resident
Some months ago, Bill Peterson
asked StarPhoenix readers to keep track of stories they felt
were negative. This is the wrong question.
A story may be positive or
negative depending on which side of the issue you stand. Instead,
the balance and fairness of stories should be judged.
In this area, the SP failed
miserably, especially on the David Milgaard issue.
As a former Saskatoon police
officer of 28 years, I am well versed on the Milgaard topic.
There is no way the Milgaard
forces will ever be satisfied. When the Milgaards went to the
Supreme Court, they did not get the answer they wanted. So they
will go elsewhere.
And they will be accepted because
they have managed to get the powerful media with their "scandal
sells papers" bias on their side.
What a sad day for justice.
I will be thoroughly disappointed if our government caves to
this insanity.
Because I was somewhat involved
in the Milgaard investigation, reporters have interviewed me
about it. They always seemed to be suggesting Joe Penkala or
Gerry McCorrison had something to cover up an were trying to
do so. The reporters had come to this uneducated conclusion and
were going to get the answers they thought were correct, no matter
what.
They have never succeeded,
nor will they, because there was no cover-up.
I was the first police officer
to be told Milgaard should be considered a suspect. Shorty Cadrain,
whom I knew personally as well as his mother and brother, came
to the detective office one evening. He told me Milgaard and
some of his friends had come to his door on the morning of Gail
Miller's death. He said Milgaard had blood on his pants and Cadrain's
mother had washed it out for him. Later the same day, he said,
they all left for Calgary.
Cadrain told me he had talked
to his mother about his suspicions and she had advised him to
speak with the police. I explained that it was not my file but
I would pass this information to the investigating officer.
The next day, officer Ray Mackie
and I went to Cadrain's home, picked him up and brought him to
the police station. I had nothing further to do with Cadrain.
That was the first piece of
concrete information the police had.
Many other sex offenders had
been looked at prior to this but they could not be connected
to the crime.
Police are seldom at the scene
of any crime. When they get information, they develop it without
any prejudices. That happened in this case. Every bit of information
thereafter led back to Milgaard. A jury agreed.
For months, the media has given
the public misinformation about this case. Some Saskatoon media
have referred to Penkala as the investigator of the Milgaard
case and implied that after he became police chief he tried to
cover things up about this file. Penkala was no more than the
identification officer at the scene. All he would have done is
develop physical evidence for court.
While Penkala and I disagree
on methods of policing, his honesty and integrity as an identificatin
officer was beyond reproach. Thi investigating officer on the
Milgaard case was Mackie. I got to know him even before I became
a policeman. He was a people-oriented person who often stopped
to talk to young people as he drove around on his police motorcycle.
Later I worked with him and often sought his advice. He was always
professional in his work.
Wednesday, October 13, 1999
(below) | October 14 | October
15 | October 16, | October
19 | October 20 | October
21 | October
22 1999
Notorious case prompts
unprecedented scrutiny of jury
Adam Killick, National Post
YORKTON, Sask. -When the seven
men and five women selected to try Larry Fisher begin hearing
evidence, the accused murderer and rapist will have the most
scrutinized jury in Canadian legal history, according to Brian
Beresh, his lawyer.
Potential jurors were yesterday
grilled to an "unprecedented" degree about their suitability
to judge based on the facts presented in the trial rather than
through the massive publicity the 30-year-old case has engendered.
Mr. Fisher, 50, is on trial
for raping and killing Saskatoon nursing aide Gail Miller in
January, 1969, the crimes for which David Milgaard wrongfully
served 23 years in prison before being exonerated by DNA evidence.
Mr. Milgaard's high-profile
fight to prove his innocence has made headlines for more than
a decade, and Mr. Fisher's arrest in 1997 similarly captured
media attention. In April, to increase the chances of finding
impartial jurors, the trial was relocated from Saskatoon to Yorkton,
a farming community of 15,000 people near the Yellowhead Highway
200 kilometres east of Regina.
Yesterday, each potential juror
was asked seven questions by Mr. Beresh, the most detailed examination
that has ever occurred in a Canadian courtroom. "It's the
first time in Canada that seven questions have been allowed,"
he said.
Jurors were asked whether they
had heard of the case, whether they had formed an opinion about
Mr. Fisher's guilt or innocence, and whether, based on all the
publicity, if they could judge the case solely on the evidence
presented during the trial.
Several jurors conceded they
could not judge Mr. Fisher impartially, and numerous others revealed
they were familiar with the case because of Mr. Milgaard and
other media scrutiny.
The questions were part of
a rarely used process called "challenge of cause,"
where the first two jurors selected determine whether new potential
jurors are acceptable, and, as each new juror is selected, he
or she takes a turn selecting other jurors. Crown and defence
lawyers can then veto the decision of the jurors up to 20 times.
Jurors were selected from a pool of 85 candidates, of which 36
were questioned.
Challenge of cause procedures
are most commonly used in cases where racial bias may be an issue,
Mr. Beresh said, adding that in "99% of cases, jurors aren't
asked a single question."
Before entering the courtroom
to apply for the challenge for cause, Mr. Beresh said all jurors
must be able to disregard all they've seen, read or heard on
the case. "If they can't, then maybe they shouldn't sit
as jurors. That's not a reflection on the individual; we all
form opinions and we all have biases. The last thing that any
juror wants to do is to sit on a case where they have preconceived
notions. The last thing we want is for that to happen. There
has been a lot of publicity about this case, we all know that,
and what everyone wants is a fair case."
Mr. Fisher sat quietly throughout
the session. He appeared relaxed, joking occasionally with the
body-armoured RCMP officers who brought him, handcuffed, into
the courtroom.
Speaking softly, he pleaded
not guilty to the charges when asked by Court of Queen's Bench
Judge Gerry Allbright.
The jurors selected will have
to hear evidence recalled over the span of a generation, with
witnesses travelling from the United States and England. Among
39 witnesses scheduled to testify for the Crown are Mr. Fisher's
ex-wife, the pathologist who first examined Ms. Miller's body,
the original investigating officers and the bus driver who once
drove Ms. Miller to her job in the paediatric ward at Saskatoon
City Hospital.
DNA
proves Fisher guilty, Crown tells murder trial
Thu Oct 14, 1999 from CBC Newsworld
YORKTON, SASK. - The Crown
says it has overwhelming evidence to prove Larry Fisher murdered
a nursing aide in Saskatoon 30 years ago: semen samples on Gail
Miller's clothing with DNA that closely matches that of Fisher.
They also said evidence will
show that Fisher lived two blocks from Miller at the time and
that her wallet was found near his home three months after the
murder.
On Tuesday, Fisher pleaded
not guilty to the sexual assault and murder of Miller, a nursing
assistant who was stabbed to death in Saskatoon in 1969.
It took a day to pick a jury
of seven men and five women. On Wednesday, lawyers wrangled over
legal issues that cannot be reported.
In his opening arguments Thursday,
the Crown prosecutor told jurors that the DNA evidence will be
a key part of its case against the accused.
Fisher, 50, was charged in
1997 after DNA tests cleared Milgaard, who spent 23 years behind
bars for the crime.
Milgaard, now 47, was released
in 1992 after years of lobbying by his mother prompted a review
of the case by the Supreme Court of Canada. He now lives with
his wife in Vancouver, and is not expected to attend Fisher's
trial.
The Crown is planning to call
as many as 39 witnesses.
Earlier this year, the government
of Saskatchewan awarded Milgaard $10 million in compensation--
the biggest settlement of its kind in Canadian history.
The province has also ordered
a public inquiry into the case, but it can't begin until Fisher's
trial is over.
- Fisher's defence
on attack,
- Beresh contends David
Milgaard should still be considered a suspect
By Leslie Perreaux of the
StarPhoenix Oct. 15,
1999
YORKTON - Larry Fisher's defence
lawyer took direct aim Thursday at David Milgaard, the man first
convicted of raping and murdering Gail Miller, crimes for which
Fisher now stands accused.
In opening statements at Fisher's
murder trial, defence lawyer Brian Beresh named Milgaard about
a dozen times.
Beresh pointed out that Milgaard
was convicted of raping and murdering Miller in 1970 by a jury
in Saskatoon. Two appeals to higher courts were rejected, and
he served 22 years.
"After a long trial before
a jury selected as you were which deliberated for only 45 minutes,
he was convicted of her murder," Beresh said.
Beresh said Milgaard's guilt
went unquestioned until 1980, when his mother began her campaign
to free him.
"Mrs. Joyce Milgaard offered
people money for evidence or information, she harassed people,
people changed phone numbers and residences to avoid her harassment,"
Beresh said.
"She attempted to get
people to do things for her, to get (Fisher's former wife) Linda
Fisher to wear a wire, a secret microphone while Linda talked
to Larry. She tried to get Linda to get a saliva sample from
Larry, secretly."
Tainted and lost evidence and
shaky science were also attacked by Beresh.
He pointed to a string of scientists
in Canada who found nothing to link Fisher or exonerate Milgaard
in 1969, 1987 and 1992.
It was only when Miller's clothing
was sent to England in 1997 after sitting in the Saskatoon courthouse
for 26 years that Fisher's DNA was allegedly found and Milgaard
supposedly exonerated, he pointed out.
Many exhibits have been lost
or destroyed, along with the notes and samples kept by a battery
of scientists over the years.
The exhibits that survived
sat for years unattended and unsealed in the basement of the
Court of Queen's Bench in Saskatoon, Beresh said. The courthouse
was broken into on several occasions, including a string of thefts
in 1992, the year Milgaard was released from prison, when someone
could have tampered with the evidence, he said.
"Some witnesses have died
or disappeared, some evidence has been destroyed or altered.
The evidence we do have was kept in an unsterile, unprotected
manner. We don't have all the tools we'd like to have,"
Beresh said.
Doreen Dahlen, Miller's sister,
looked on impassively from the gallery where she sat with her
husband.
Just before Beresh outlined
his defence, Crown prosecutor Dean Sinclair outlined the case
against Fisher.
In a quiet, methodical manner,
Sinclair led the jury to the most potentially damaging piece
of evidence the Crown intends to call: the same DNA evidence
dismissed by Beresh.
Sinclair said Miller's underpants
and dress were sent to two English scientists in 1997 for tests
far more sophisticated than those available in Canada.
British scientist Michael Barber
extracted semen he found on the two articles of clothing. DNA
profiler Ann Elizabeth Charland matched it to DNA from a blood
sample obtained from Fisher, the Crown lawyer said.
"I expect her to tell
you the DNA on the exhibits matches the DNA obtained from Larry
Fisher," he said.
"I expect her to tell
you the probability of someone other than Larry Fisher depositing
that semen or being the donor of that semen is extremely remote."
Sinclair also walked the jury
through several pieces of circumstantial evidence the Crown says
link Fisher to the crime.
The handle of a paring knife,
the suspected murder weapon, and Miller's wallet were found a
few houses away from Fisher's residence.
In 1969, Fisher lived one block
away from Miller's home on Avenue O South, two blocks from where
her body was found, and he often took the same bus to work as
Miller, Sinclair said.
Beresh countered by pointing
out that a 17-year-old boy named David Milgaard was visiting
a friend in a suite in the basement of Fisher's home on the very
morning of the murder.
- The Crown's case will continue
this morning with testimony by police officers and the first
civilians to stumble across Miller's body.
-
Miller's body dumped?
- Fisher's lawyer raises
theory
By LESLIE PERREAUX, Saskatchewan
News Network
YORKTON -- Larry Fisher's lawyer
raised the theory Friday that Gail Miller's killer dumped her
body from a car into the Saskatoon alley where she was found.
Four witnesses who testified
Friday at Fisher's murder trial were the first adults on the
scene on Jan. 31, 1969 where Miller's stabbed and raped body
was found.
They found Miller face down
in deep snow on the edge of the lane behind the 200 block of
Avenue O South.
Under cross-examination by
Fisher's lawyer, Brian Beresh, those witnesses testified there
were only a few small drops of blood on the snow near Miller's
stabbed body, even though her white nursing assistant dress had
a large red bloodstain on it.
Retired Det. George Reid said
there was enough room beside the petite 20-year-old woman's body
for a car to drive by.
"So a car could have driven
by without touching the body. A car could drive by and toss out
the body. This is what you could see," Beresh put to Reid,
who agreed.
The witnesses also said they
saw no sign that Miller had been dragged into the alley.
Rae Murdock, owner of the Westwood
funeral home, lived in an apartment on the top floor of his business.
He came to the scene after an 11-year-old girl knocked on her
door. Murdock waited near Miller's body for the police to come
and shooed away curious school children from the scene.
Murdock and former employee
Terry Michayliuk lived in apartments in the same building as
the funeral home. Under questioning by Beresh, both men said
they heard no screaming or other signs of struggle from their
homes.
"I was in the basement,
so I wouldn't even hear traffic where I was," Michayliuk
said.
Murdock's second-floor window
was about 100 feet from where Miller's body was found but he
too heard nothing, he said.
Several witnesses said Miller
was wearing her coat properly, with the arms through the sleeves,
while her dress was pulled down around her waist. The back of
the coat had several stab marks while the dress did not.
Through his questioning Crown
prosecutor Dean Sinclair pointed out that Miller's hands were
clutching snow, indicating she was not dead when she ended up
laying in the snow. She also had snow in her tussled hair.
Retired Supt. Thor Kleiv and
other witnesses testified that the snow around Miller's body
was trampled.
Kleiv said he didn't see any
fresh footprints or tire tracks in the alley where Miller was
found.
He said the bitter cold that
morning, minus 42 on the old Fahrenheit scale, turned the snow
into finely crystallized sand.
"If you were to step in
it, it wouldn't leave any discernible marks, other than possibly
the outline of footmarks," Kleiv said.
Kleiv also found Miller's gloves
buried under some snow a short distance away from her body.
While most of the witnesses
had difficulty Friday remembering some details from the events
30 years ago, Kleiv's recall was remarkable.
Testifying without the benefit
of notes as most police officers usually do, Kleiv gave a detailed
account of his work taking pictures of the crime scene and seizing
exhibits.
The morning was so cold the
shutter on his camera froze after each shot. Taking a few photographs
required more than 30 minutes as he thawed out his camera in
the warm police van between each shot.
Using old but sharp black and
white photographs, Kleiv described the stab wounds on Miller's
back and torso, the slash wounds on her neck and the bruises
on her lips, cheeks and nose as jurors grimly followed along
with their own copies.
The trial resumes on Monday
morning.
Lawyer tries to implicate
Milgaard: Defence in murder case aims to rekindle doubt about
man who was cleared
DAVID ROBERTS, The
Globe and Mail. Friday, October 15, 1999
Yorkton, Sask. -- Defence lawyers
for Larry Fisher tried yesterday to raise doubt about David Milgaard's
innocence in the 1969 sex slaying of Gail Miller in Saskatoon,
while prosecutors said that scientific evidence points indisputably
to Mr. Fisher, the man now charged in the crime.
Mr. Fisher's lawyer, Brian
Beresh, told jurors in his opening statement that Mr. Milgaard
should not be ruled out as a suspect, and that his mother, Joyce
Milgaard, offered inducements to people in an effort to implicate
Mr. Fisher.
"You will hear from witnesses
who were approached by Joyce Milgaard, offered money, harassed,
and who changed their phone numbers and residences to avoid her
harassment," Mr. Beresh said.
"She attempted to get
people to do things for her. She tried to get Linda Fisher [Mr.
Fisher's ex-wife] to wear a wire, a hidden microphone, and to
get a saliva sample from Larry."
Mr. Fisher, 50, has pleaded
not guilty to charges of rape and first-degree murder. Ms. Miller,
a 20-year-old Saskatoon nursing aide, was stabbed to death on
the freezing cold morning of Jan. 31, 1969.
In their opening remarks, prosecutors
said that DNA tests show that semen on Ms. Miller's clothing
matches that of Mr. Fisher.
Both sides opened their cases
before a seven-man, five-woman jury chosen from in and around
this southeastern Saskatchewan city of 10,000. The trial was
moved to Yorkton because heavy pre-trial publicity in Saskatoon
might have made it more difficult to find an unbiased jury.
Mr. Milgaard was wrongly convicted
of the Miller slaying in 1970. He said he was framed and spent
23 years in prison denying any involvement in the crime.
"You'll hear the evidence
that comes out at this trial, and it could be very wide-reaching,"
Mr. Beresh said outside the grand 80-year-old, stone and brick
Yorkton courthouse.
Exhibits and evidence have
disappeared in the 30-year-old case, Mr. Beresh told the court.
Witnesses have died, and break-ins at the Saskatoon courthouse
over the years point to the possibility that someone -- even
lawyers -- could have obtained Mr. Fisher's semen and left it
on Ms. Miller's clothing, which was kept in open boxes in an
exhibit room, he said.
Microscopic semen deposits
found on panties and a dress are crucial to the Crown's case
against Mr. Fisher.
The Crown said it will show
that the results of DNA tests done in Canada by the RCMP demonstrate
that no one but Mr. Fisher could have left matching semen stains
on Ms. Miller's clothing. Mr. Beresh alleged in court that Mr.
Milgaard has not been scientifically excluded as a suspect.
The bloodied, partly clad body
of Ms. Miller was found face down in a back lane snowbank on
a -42 January morning in 1969. There were at least a dozen stab
wounds to her body and slash marks on her throat. She had been
stabbed through her coat, but not her dress, which was pulled
down below her waist. A broken knife blade, possibly from a paring
knife, lay under her body.
Mr. Milgaard, a 16-year-old
hippie who had visited Saskatoon for the day, was arrested several
months later. He was released from penitentiary in 1992 after
years of lobbying led to an unprecedented review by the Supreme
Court of Canada. The court overturned the conviction, saying
that had jurors known of Mr. Fisher in 1969 they might not have
convicted Mr. Milgaard. He was finally cleared in July of 1997,
when DNA tests conducted in Britain revealed that semen found
at the crime scene did not match Mr. Milgaard's DNA but matched
Mr. Fisher's.
Yesterday, the Crown said that
beyond the scientific evidence it will show that a trail of belongings
-- a knife handle, a boot, gloves and a wallet -- led straight
from the alley where Ms. Miller's body was found to the Saskatoon
home of Mr. Fisher -- the same house Mr. Milgard coincidentally
visited on the day of the slaying. Mr. Fisher told police he
was at work the day of the killing; his ex-wife is expected to
testify that he was at home.
DNA tests conducted since Mr.
Fisher's 1997 arrest show that "the possibility of anyone
other than Larry Fisher depositing that semen . . . is extremely
remote," prosecutor Dean Sinclair told jurors.
As to the continuity and safeguarding
of the clothing and other exhibits over the years, "the
semen found on the garments was not placed there at any time
other than at the scene of the crime," Mr. Sinclair said.
The Crown will call 39 witnesses
in the case, which is expected to last at least a month.
The defence also will call
numerous witnesses, Mr. Beresh said, describing the case as having
"historic and significant consequences."
He noted that in Mr. Milgaard's
1970 trial, 45 witnesses testified before jurors returned a guilty
verdict that was upheld by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.
- Saskatoon police bungled
Miller investigation: lawyer
- Fisher defence depicts
careless handling of evidence
By Leslie Perreaux of the
StarPhoenix, OCT. 20
YORKTON - A black and white
Saskatoon police photo appears to expose sloppy work by the department
during the 1969 investigation of Gail Miller's murder, her accused
killer's lawyer suggested in court here Monday.
Retired Supt. Thor Kleiv was
the identification officer who took photos of the autopsy and
seized Miller's clothing. He insisted Miller's clothing was collected
and packaged separately to avoid contamination in accordance
with proper police procedure.
"They were removed from
the body and they were placed in separate bags," he said.
Kleiv's insistence faded as
Brian Beresh, Larry Fisher's defence lawyer, produced consecutive
autopsy photos, each blown up larger than the previous print.
The enlarged photos show what
appears to be Miller's clothing piled in a heap on the floor
beneath her blood-soaked autopsy table.
"They were thrown on the
floor like a pile of garbage, sir. One on top of the other,"
Beresh said.
Kleiv replied: "That's
what it appears to be on the photograph."
Earlier, Kleiv gave testimony
on proper techniques used by identification officers. One of
those techniques is to keep wet clothes separate and to dry them
to preserve their integrity as evidence.
Beresh suggested Kleiv took
away all the exhibits in one garbage bag and waited for a few
days until they were dry to store them separately.
"You took them away like
Santa Claus at Christmastime," Beresh said. Kleiv said the
identification unit had special bags for evidence. He maintained
he would have sorted the clothing immediately.
The same exhibits and forensic
tests were used to falsely convict David Milgaard of the crime
in 1970. He spent 22 years in prison and was exonerated in 1997
when more sophisticated DNA tests ruled him out as a suspect.
Miller's thin black coat with
a fake-fur collar and a short-sleeved nurse's dress were seized
by Kleiv a few hours after Miller was killed Jan 31, 1969. Her
body was found, stabbed and beaten, in an alley on Saskatoon's
west side.
Along with Miller's undergarments,
the articles of clothing were tendered as exhibits at Fisher's
murder trial Monday morning.
Kleiv did not positively identify
the garments in the photographs as Miller's, but her autopsy
was the only one that took place at St. Paul's Hospital that
day. A white bra strap, girdle and fur collar identical to her
clothing are all clearly visible in the largest blown-up photo.
Fisher is now charged with
the rape and murder of Miller. He is being tried by a Queen's
Bench judge and jury.
During the trial, Beresh has
said he intends to show the exhibits have been stored carelessly,
and have passed through dozens of hands since 1969. They were
also exposed to burglars at the Saskatoon courthouse on several
occasions.
Kleiv was at Miller's autopsy,
held four hours after her body was found. He seized her clothing
and blood and hair samples, and took several photographs.
By the time Milgaard went on
trial for Miller's rape and murder in 1970, Kleiv had been in
charge of most of the exhibits used in the case. That included
a knife blade and knife handle which were turned in from near
the scene.
Kleiv also was in charge of
Miller's purse. The purse contained a well-stocked makeup kit,
a chequebook showing a balance of $106 and a package of Rothman's
cigarettes.
Outside court, Kleiv said he
didn't want to discuss suggestions of police bungling in the
case. He spoke about the difficulties involved in remembering
details from a 30-year-old case. But, he said, "sometimes
you remember what happened 30 years ago easier than what happened
last week."
Kleiv said the Miller murder
was one of the worst cases he handled in 30 years on the force.
"It was a very stark case,
a revelation. It's something that if you saw it, you would never
forget it. I feel so bad for people in that kind of situation,
where they end up in some back alley cut to pieces. It just doesn't
seem right that this should happen to human beings."
Most of Monday's testimony
took place without the jury. The Crown and the defence argued
over evidence in front of Justice Gerry Allbright.
Witnesses recount hours
surrounding Gail Miller's death
By Leslie Perreaux , Oct.
20
YORKTON - The friends who saw
Gail Miller last, the woman who, as a schoolgirl, found the body,
and the doctor who performed Miller's autopsy testified Tuesday
as the Crown continued to reconstruct the hours before and after
Miller's death.
After nearly a week of evidence,
the Crown's case has not yet pointed to Larry Fisher, the 50-year-old
man accused of Gail Miller's rape and murder.
Instead, the Crown has concentrated
on setting the scene surrounding Miller's death on Jan. 31, 1969.
The night before Miller was
stabbed in a Saskatoon alley, a Thursday evening, she went out
with friends to a party on Temperance Street. Miller, 20, drank
some beer along with her friends until 1:30 a.m. when she asked
for a ride home. She was scheduled to work a shift at City Hospital
at 7:30 the next morning.
Miller's date for the night,
Dennis Elliot, drove her home. They sat outside of the house
talking in Elliot's car for about 30 minutes. They made a date
for the next night and parted company between 2 a.m. and 2:30
a.m.
Adeline Hall was a 23-year-old
student living on the third-floor of the rooming house on 130
Ave. O south where Miller lived on the second floor.
At 6:35 that morning, Hall
padded down to the second-floor bathroom. Just before she scurried
back up the stairs, she saw Gail Miller in her white nurse's
uniform, staring out a hallway window. Hall continued up the
stairs and went back to her room.
An hour later, Vicky Fontaine,
then 20, was beginning her shift at the pediatrics ward at City
Hospital. She and Miller were hired at the same time in the summer
of 1968. They had both taken the same certified nursing assistant
course at Kelsey campus.
Fontaine usually went down
to her locker in the basement of City Hospital and put on her
uniform about 10 minutes before shifts began. On most days, Miller
was already at work when Fontaine arrived.
"She was always there
if she had to be there. She wasn't ill that often. We would have
noticed she wasn't there right when the shift began," Fontaine
testified.
Less than an hour later, Mary
Marcoux, an 11-year-old Grade 6 student at St. Mary's School,
was on her way to classes when she came across Miller's body
in an alley - less than two blocks away from the Avenue O boarding
house.
Gail Miller was stabbed 12
times and slashed 15 times, but two small punctures in her back
killed her, a pathologist testified Tuesday.
Dr. Harry Emson has been the
pre-eminent pathologist in Saskatoon for decades and he was the
doctor who performed the autopsy on Miller's body Jan. 31, 1969.
Emson testified Miller bled
to death from two stab wounds in her back that punctured her
right lung. He said the extreme cold that morning - -42 C - would
have hastened her demise.
Emson testified Miller probably
died within 10 to 20 minutes of receiving the two fatal wounds.
While the superficial wounds to Miller's neck were probably very
painful, outside court Emson said Miller may not have suffered
much if she was killed in the alley.
"I think the young lady
bled to death. If she was in the lane at the time, she was also
dying from cold. The accounts we have from people who have nearly
died from cold is that it is not a painful experience,"
he said.
By the time Emson first examined
Miller's body around 10:30 a.m., exposed parts of her skin were
firmly frozen.
Miller's stab wounds were about
1.5 centimetres long and four to five centimetres deep. Her slash
wounds were about 30 centimetres long from her left ear to her
right collarbone. Only two of the wounds broke the skin and "were
more spectacular than dangerous," Emson said.
Emson said the wounds were
likely caused by a small kitchen knife similar to a knife blade
recovered at the scene.
"It's probably the sort
of knife one would use for potato peeling," Emson said.
Under cross-examination, Emson acknowledged he couldn't be sure
what knife caused the wounds. He also said Miller's vagina lacked
many common indicators of sexual assault, such as bruising or
tearing.
However, the absence of those
indicators doesn't mean she wasn't raped, he said.
The Crown expects to call evidence
for at least two more weeks. Prosecutors expect to call DNA experts
who say tests implicate Fisher, while Fisher's former wife will
testify about Fisher's whereabouts the morning of Miller's death.
Investigator discovered
weapon used to kill Miller
By Leslie Perreaux,, StarPhoenix
Oct. 21
YORKTON - The former chief
of the Saskatoon police service found a bloodstained paring knife
blade concealed in the snow where Gail Miller's frozen body was
found.
Miller was stabbed and slashed
29 times on Jan. 31, 1969. Her body was found in an alley behind
the 200 block of Avenue O South.
Larry Fisher, 50, is charged
with Miller's rape and murder and he is now on trial before judge
and jury in Yorkton.
About two hours after Miller's
body was found by a girl on her way to school, the body was taken
to St. Paul's Hospital for an autopsy.
Lieut. Joe Penkala, then head
of the Saskatoon police identification unit, sifted through a
three-metre diameter area of packed snow. Miller's body had been
found in the middle of the area. Penkala testified Wednesday
that it looked like a struggle had taken place in the spot.
After a few minutes of digging
around, he said he found the knife blade.
"It was an inexpensive
paring knife, the handle was broken off, and this blade was a
serrated steel blade which was sharp on one side," he said.
A few weeks after Penkala found
the blade, a seven-year-old boy was playing in the snow in his
backyard, a few metres away from where Miller's body was found.
He discovered what appeared to be a knife handle.
"I can remember it was
a beet-reddish colour, three or four inches long. A little bit
of the blade remained," said Richard Hounjet, who is now
38 years old.
Another boy, Giles Beauchamp,
was walking down Avenue O South about two months later when he
kicked a clump of snow and Gail Miller's purse popped out.
He testified that he turned
the purse over to a friend's mother. She recognized Miller's
name and called the police.
Penkala also testified Wednesday
that he seized two yellowish clumps of snow from the scene about
five days after Miller's death. Penkala acknowledged the crime
scene was accessible to the public and dozens of onlookers went
through the area between Miller's death and his recovery of the
substances.
On Tuesday Dr. Harry Emson,
the Saskatoon pathologist who performed Miller's autopsy, confirmed
the yellow substance contained sperm.
"I have no proof that
it was human or anything else, but there was sperm in it,"
Emson said.
Penkala had brief contact with
a young suspect in the murder in the spring of 1969. David Edgar
Milgaard was charged with Miller's murder in May. Penkala took
Milgaard's fingerprints.
Penkala testified about "suspicious"
behaviour by Milgaard, who gave fingerprints but refused to sign
a form confirming the prints were his. Penkala also saw Milgaard
put his ear to a keyhole to eavesdrop on police officers.
"It was odd behaviour.
I regarded it with some suspicion," Penkala said.
He was convicted in 1970 and
served in prison until 1992. DNA tests reportedly exonerated
him in 1997.
Penkala, now retired, went
on to become chief of the Saskatoon police department from 1981
to 1991.
The first in a series of DNA
experts is expected to testify today.
Before we went online
August 1994: injusticebusters Sheila Steele and Rick Klassen were
part of a demonstration of a dozen people (including Marie
Klassen, shown l in wheelchair, now deceased) protesting
the whitewashing of Saskatchewan Justice's role in the Milgaard
case. We demonstrated two days in a row. The first day, we picketed
the Saskatchewan Provincial courthouse for an hour and the next
morning we went to Queen's Bench courthouse. It was only when
we moved the protest to the Saskatoon Police station that we
were arrested, along with Rob Klassen, and charged with criminal
defamation against Sgt. Brian Dueck and Carol Bunko-Ruys.
Steele and the Klassens were
carrying signs which made allegation that Dueck, a police corporal
and Bunko-Ruys, a contract social worker, had manufactured evidence
in another case which had some of the same earmarks as the Milgaard
frame-up. injusticebusters said then and we say now that the
Sasatoon Police Department has a history of using jailhouse snitches
and disturbed children to manufacture evidence, that is, to suborn
perjured testimony against innocent people. A full and honest
public inquiry into the Foster
Parent case would quickly reveal profound irregularities
in police procedure, starting with the fact that there were apparently
no official notes between Sgt. Dueck and Social Services.
Three years ago, Saskatchewan
Justice hoodwinked Saskatchewan citizens into believing they
had conducted a full public inquiry into child sexual abuse cases.
They neglected to point out that the Foster Parent case was not
part of the inquiry! Public Prosector Richard Quinney, the Saskatchewan
Court of Appeal and many other branches of Saskatchewan Justice
have worked together -- dare we say conspired? - to keep the
cover-up machine going.
As the Gail Miller murder trial
gets underway, Larry Fisher's lawyer is casting aspersions on
Joyce Milgaard's behavior. We should remind ourselves that 30
years ago, Joyce Milgaard was the mother of a falsely convicted
teen-ager and that her determined investigation succeeded in
lifting of the top blanket from the cozy bed of covers protecting
a corrupt police department. Whoever she talked to, whatever
her methods, no one can deny that her suspicions were well founded.
Continued
coverage of Larry Fisher Trial
See also injusticebusters' and John Lucas' most recent
picket of the Saskatoon Police station, April, 1999.
David
Milgaard page(1998) |
David Milgaard settlement fracus
| What is a fair settlement?
Busker beats banishment
over pot: Charter-challenge win angers Victoria leaders
Kim Lunman, Vancouver Sun,
July 5, 1999
Victoria -- A 21-year-old busker
busted for marijuana possession has won a constitutional battle
against the local court practice of banishing drug dealers from
downtown Victoria.
The city's mayor and business
leaders say they want the Crown to appeal a decision that they
say could set back their fight to clean up their streets and
promote tourism, their No. 1 industry.
Judges regularly ban drug dealers
from a 2.5-square-kilometre area known as the "red zone"
as a condition of probation, and have even imposed the ban as
a condition of bail on those charged.
The area includes Victoria's
picturesque harbourfront and the historic Empress Hotel, and
borders the provincial legislature.
But Michael Reid, a welfare
recipient who was panhandling and playing drums on Victoria's
streets when arrested last year, contended that the Crown's application
to keep him out of the downtown for a year violated his rights
under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Mr. Reid said he can't
even take a bus because the route goes through the downtown core.
"I felt like an outcast,"
Mr. Reid, who had no previous drug convictions, said in an interview.
"I could have been arrested for going to a movie."
Mr. Reid pleaded guilty to
possession for the purpose of trafficking after he was arrested
with 45 grams of marijuana on a downtown street in the red zone
last Sept. 25. The Crown sought 30 days in jail and a one-year
prohibition from the red zone.
Hundreds of people charged
with or convicted of drug offences in the city have been "zoned,"
or barred legally from being in the area, which has been expanded
on an ad hoc basis to include one-seventh of Victoria, essentially
the entire downtown.
Mr. Reid challenged the prohibition,
saying it violating his Charter rights of freedom of association
in a case that pitted him against the city's police department,
downtown merchants and Mayor Bob Cross, who testified in support
of the red zone.
Provincial Court Judge Thomas
Gove backed the arguments made by Mr. Reid's lawyer, Robert Moore-Stewart.
"The use of exclusion
from a large area of downtown as a condition of bail or probation
seems to be unique to Victoria," Judge Gove said in his
37-page ruling released last week. "Virtually the entire
downtown is the red zone."
He said the area includes essential
health and social services and prevents those banned from carrying
out everyday interactions.
"Many people subject to
the red-zone conditions are denied the services that they need
to change their lives."
The judge gave Mr. Reid a suspended
sentence of eight months probation and 25 hours community service.
Mr. Moore-Stewart said that
although other Canadian cities may have areas of drug activity
for which the Crown may seek court-ordered restrictions for repeat
offenders, Victoria has a blanket ban.
"It makes it impossible
to live here. It's a de facto banishment."
Victoria Police Chief Paul
Battershill said he will consult Crown lawyers about the ruling's
impact. The Crown has until the end of the month to appeal. It
is still unclear how the ruling will affect the way the city's
police force handles drug cases.
"It may be the police
practices have to change in terms of why an area restriction
is necessary," said Chief Battershill.
Police say probation officers
have had the discretion to give banished offenders permission
to visit the downtown core for essential social services.
At first, banishment from the
red zone was used only as a condition of bail. In 1994, the ban
also became a condition of probation orders. Prosecutors have
routinely sought the ban for every person charged with trafficking
or possession for the purpose of trafficking of drugs in the
red zone.
Police statistics show that
drug dealing in the area has remained consistent over the past
five years. There were 131 drug-dealing charges laid last year
in Victoria; two-thirds occurred in the red zone.
The ruling comes while the
city is in the process of enacting a bylaw to make it illegal
for panhandlers to solicit "aggressively" or within
six metres of an automated banking machine or a liquor store.
The court decision has angered
merchants who say they don't want convicted drug dealers on their
streets.
"I don't feel it's restricting
someone's rights unduly," said Kathryn LeGros, general manager
of the Victoria Business Improvement Centre, which represents
2,100 business owners. "We don't want this kind of activity
here. Our whole economy is based on tourism. It's a very safe
city. We want to keep it that way."
Mayor Bob Cross said he would
like to see the ruling appealed and credits the red zone with
deterring drug dealing.
"When you engage in an
illegal activity such as drugs, I think you give up some of your
rights. I think of the rights of everyone else," he said.
Mr. Cross said the ruling sends
the wrong signal about British Columbia, where drug sentences
are widely regarded as among the country's most lenient.
"We're a haven in Canada
for drug dealers. They have no fear of the law. This was an attempt
locally to try to protect ourselves."
But Craig Jones, president
of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said it is unfair to
banish every citizen ever convicted or charged with a drug-dealing
offence from a city's downtown.
"We object to it,"
he said. "These conditions have to be carefully tailored
to each case. A blanket prohibition just doesn't cut it."
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
