http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2014/06/wrongful-convictions-day-aidwyc.html
Harold Levy; Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
STORY: "Judge throws out all evidence gathered in 'Mr. Big' case," by reporter Wendy Gillis, published by the Toronto Star on June 27 2014.
SUB-HEADING: "Durham Regional Police operation "Project Fearless," involved the dumping of a fake body."
PHOTO-CAPTION: "Alan Dale Smith, charged with first- degree murder in the 1974 death of Beverly Smith, leaves Oshawa Court Friday after an Ontario Superior Court judge dismissed all of the evidence gathered against him through a police tactic known as Mr. Big."
GIST: "An Ontario Superior Court judge has thrown out all evidence police gathered during an elaborate “Mr. Big” sting which charged a man for a 1974 murder, ruling their tactics were an abuse of process and breached the man’s Charter rights. Justice Bruce Glass ruled Friday the Durham Regional Police operation —“Project Fearless,” which at one point involved the dumping of a fake body — produced confessions from Alan Dale Smith so unreliable from you could “drive a Mack truck” through all the holes. “Working an admission to first-degree murder from a person when the person is functionally detained by police in deprivation of his right to remain silent or pushing him to incriminate himself improperly has a result that cannot be more serious for Mr. Smith,” Glass said. “The officers in effect pushed the envelope with the use of a corpse to shake loose admissions from (Smith).”........The confession was not voluntary,” Glass said, noting he did not believe the undercover operatives “set off on a course to be nasty.” But the judge did rule definitively that officers had used a controversial investigative tool known as the “Mr. Big” sting, something Durham police had earlier denied. The subterfuge involves convincing the target of an investigation he or she is consorting with criminals, and must confess to a serious crime to gain trust and entry into the criminal group..........The tactic emerged in the early 1990s in British Columbia. Between 1997 and 2004, 180 such investigations were conducted in that province alone. Critics say the tool goes beyond what should be allowed by police and produces unreliable information. “There is a real concern that the technique may cause innocent people to falsely confess, giving rise to a risk of wrongful confessions,” Toronto lawyer Peter Copeland writes (with co-authors Timothy Moore and Regina Schuller) in Deceit, Betrayal and the Search for Truth, the first major legal and academic study on the Mr. Big scenario. “The Mr. Big procedure is a fundamentally deceitful exercise,” they write."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2014/06/27/judge_throws_out_all_evidence_gathered_in_mr_big_case.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com.
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
