Question of the day: 'Why are police officers so reluctant to speak up about possible mistakes and share evidence of wrongful convictions?'...New Zealand Journalist Mike White poses the question - which is relevant to many of the cases discussed in this Blog over the years - in 'North and South' to seasoned investigator Tim McKinnel. His answer? Read on!

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "I’m certain there are police officers out there that have worked on cases, who have real doubts about the safety of convictions and have genuinely-held concerns about the way investigations were conducted,” McKinnel says. “And I’ve had a number of off-the-record conversations with people who say helpful things, but aren’t prepared to stand up and risk their reputation and their friendships. At a human level, I understand that, but in respect of our criminal justice system, it’s a problem.”

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PASSAGE  ONE OF THE DAY: "McKinnel believes this reluctance of police to speak up about possible corruption and mistakes had much to do with a misplaced sense of loyalty to their colleagues, which was a part of police culture worldwide. And those who did speak out, such as Dave Henwood who claimed in 2012 that Teina Pora was innocent, often had their lives made very difficult by the police, meaning it was even less likely others would break ranks and step forward. “His treatment at the hands of his employer was awful. There was insinuation, there were rumours, there was refusal to give him free access to his own documents – those types of decisions at high levels were, in my view, unnecessary and quite concerning. There’s little doubt that those sorts of pressures coming from senior police officers have a chilling effect.”

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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "McKinnel predicts Gail Maney’s case “will one day be regarded as the most grotesque miscarriage of justice New Zealand has seen.” Maney was convicted of murdering Deane Fuller-Sandys and her case is the subject of the award-winning Stuff-RNZ podcast Gone Fishing. The former detective has investigated the case for the last year and says he has “grave concerns about what went on. From my perspective, it’s the scale and the extent of the deception and what is, in my view, four people convicted of a brutal crime that never happened.” McKinnel says whenever such convictions were questioned, there seemed to be an utter reluctance by police to even consider they might have made mistakes or charged the wrong person, until the very last minute “when there’s no room left to wiggle, and then a concession will be made”. He points to how police, for years, across two commissioners, ignored concerns about Teina Pora’s conviction, and only accepted he was innocent, when it was impossible to resist that conclusion any longer. But sometimes that concession was never made, including in one of the country’s most infamous cases, where Arthur Allan Thomas spent nine years in jail for the 1970 murders of Jeannette and Harvey Crewe before being pardoned. Despite this, and the findings of a Royal Commission, it seemed police were still trying to “re-write history and exculpate police who planted evidence,” McKinnel says. What was just as frustrating was that even when police accepted someone had been wrongfully convicted, they almost never reviewed their faulty investigation. In Teina Pora’s case, “as far as I’m aware, there’s not been a single step made by police to see where they went wrong, and what lessons could be learnt. And that’s an extraordinary thing, when somebody goes to prison for 22 years for something they didn’t do. I can’t understand why you don’t want to see where improvements could be made.”

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STORY: "Top investigator urges police to speak up about wrongful convictions," by Mike White, published by North and South on July 18, 2020. (Mike White has been a journalist for 20 years and has reported from many countries, including Afghanistan and Iraq. Since 2003 he has been a staff writer and photographer for North and  South.)

PRELUDE: "Why are police officers so reluctant to speak up about possible mistakes and share evidence of wrongful convictions? Mike White talks to investigator Tim McKinnel, who says police often turn a blind eye to possible corruption out of a misplaced sense of loyalty to colleagues. McKinnel will be speaking at a NOTED Live panel discussion on crime and famous New Zealand murder cases with forensic scientist Anna Sandiford and criminal psychologist Devon Polaschek.

GIST: "Investigator and former cop Tim McKinnel has issued a blunt challenge to his colleagues to speak up about faulty investigations. “Dear former police detectives,” McKinnel wrote on Twitter, “if you know about or have evidence of wrongful conviction, it is not traitorous or treacherous to share that information or evidence. Thank you.” McKinnel, who was instrumental in proving Teina Pora’s innocence after he’d spent 22 years in prison for raping and murdering Susan Burdett, is currently investigating the cases of Gail Maney, and Alan Hall, who were both controversially convicted of murder. “I’m certain there are police officers out there that have worked on cases, who have real doubts about the safety of convictions and have genuinely-held concerns about the way investigations were conducted,” McKinnel says. “And I’ve had a number of off-the-record conversations with people who say helpful things, but aren’t prepared to stand up and risk their reputation and their friendships. At a human level, I understand that, but in respect of our criminal justice system, it’s a problem.” McKinnel believes this reluctance of police to speak up about possible corruption and mistakes had much to do with a misplaced sense of loyalty to their colleagues, which was a part of police culture worldwide. And those who did speak out, such as Dave Henwood who claimed in 2012 that Teina Pora was innocent, often had their lives made very difficult by the police, meaning it was even less likely others would break ranks and step forward. “His treatment at the hands of his employer was awful. There was insinuation, there were rumours, there was refusal to give him free access to his own documents – those types of decisions at high levels were, in my view, unnecessary and quite concerning. There’s little doubt that those sorts of pressures coming from senior police officers have a chilling effect.” McKinnel predicts Gail Maney’s case “will one day be regarded as the most grotesque miscarriage of justice New Zealand has seen.” Maney was convicted of murdering Deane Fuller-Sandys and her case is the subject of the award-winning Stuff-RNZ podcast Gone Fishing. The former detective has investigated the case for the last year and says he has “grave concerns about what went on. From my perspective, it’s the scale and the extent of the deception and what is, in my view, four people convicted of a brutal crime that never happened.” McKinnel says whenever such convictions were questioned, there seemed to be an utter reluctance by police to even consider they might have made mistakes or charged the wrong person, until the very last minute “when there’s no room left to wiggle, and then a concession will be made”. He points to how police, for years, across two commissioners, ignored concerns about Teina Pora’s conviction, and only accepted he was innocent, when it was impossible to resist that conclusion any longer. But sometimes that concession was never made, including in one of the country’s most infamous cases, where Arthur Allan Thomas spent nine years in jail for the 1970 murders of Jeannette and Harvey Crewe before being pardoned. Despite this, and the findings of a Royal Commission, it seemed police were still trying to “re-write history and exculpate police who planted evidence,” McKinnel says. What was just as frustrating was that even when police accepted someone had been wrongfully convicted, they almost never reviewed their faulty investigation. In Teina Pora’s case, “as far as I’m aware, there’s not been a single step made by police to see where they went wrong, and what lessons could be learnt. And that’s an extraordinary thing, when somebody goes to prison for 22 years for something they didn’t do. I can’t understand why you don’t want to see where improvements could be made. The same was the case when accused people were acquitted, such as Ewen Macdonald who was found not guilty of murdering Scott Guy, but police have never reviewed their whole investigation.

McKinnel puts this resistance by police to considering they might have made errors down to myopia, over-confidence, human biases, “and I think there’s a degree of ‘exceptionalism’ where there’s a culture where police officers begin to think they can see things in a way nobody else can.” And he believes it’s a culture that comes right from the top – from police commissioner Mike Bush himself. Bush notoriously gave a eulogy at the funeral of one of the officers found to have planted evidence in the Arthur Allan Thomas case, where he lauded the officer, Bruce Hutton, and read a quote that “his integrity is beyond reproach”. (Bush later apologised for any offence he may have caused.) McKinnel says he has seen flashes of progressive attitudes from Bush, but his funeral comments were an example where he seemed steeped in the traditions of police culture. He encouraged Bush to show leadership, “acknowledge when you get it wrong as quickly as you possibly can, once you realise you’ve got it wrong. It’s about openness and transparency. I just think there needs to be an adjustment in the culture and that comes with open-mindedness, intellect, education and with a bit of humility.” McKinnel stressed that for the most part, police did a good job, and New Zealand could lead the world in the quality of its criminal investigations, “but this requires an ability to understand and accept mistakes and learn from them.” To that end, he called on all former police officers to be honest about past investigations that were flawed “If you’ve got knowledge of a wrongful conviction, absolutely, come forward and do the right thing and be prepared to stand up for the same principles and values you stood up for when you were in the police.” A police spokesperson said police do review investigations, “in certain circumstances, where appropriate,” and also conduct “debriefs”. “Police continuously seek to improve investigative practices and techniques, and ensure that identified lessons learned are shared and incorporated into training and police instructions.” The spokesperson said officers who have concerns about any aspects of investigations were encouraged to speak up, and there were a number of channels through which they could do that. Police commissioner Mike Bush stressed staff worked meticulously to do their best at all times, particularly with major investigations. “It is enshrined in modern investigative practice to ensure that we carry out thorough, robust and professional inquiries, which meet the high standards rightly expected by the courts, victims, offenders and the public. Where we fall short of these standards, or make errors, we own our mistakes and we learn from them.” Mr Bush said police acknowledged deficiencies in the Teina Pora investigation, had apologised, and had learnt lessons from the case. There had also been significant advances in police investigative practices since Pora’s convictions in 1994 and 2004. These included better interview practices, and greater awareness of confessions and the risks these may create. Mr Bush said police’s investigative decisions continued to be scrutinised by the courts. He did not respond to concerns raised about his statements at Bruce Hutton’s funeral, or police treatment of Dave Henwood."

The entire story can be read at:

https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/currently-crime/tim-mckinnel-investigator-urges-police-to-speak-up-about-wrongful-convictions

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE:  The disturbing  experience  of  former RCMP Const. Dave Moore  in Halifax, Canada, in the notorious Glen Assoun case - the subject of numerous posts on this Blog -  is relevant to  the question posed by Mike White - with one qualification: "Why are police officers so reluctant to speak up about possible mistakes and share evidence of wrongful convictions?"The qualification? Why would a police force risk a wrongful conviction by side-lining an officer who was attempting to pursue  evidence pointing to an alternative suspect - a serial killer  - and imposing work-related sanctions on him in the process? In short, why would a police force  actively engage in engineering a miscarriage of justice. In this case it was Canada's national police force - The RCMP. For background, read  Michael Tutton's Canadian Press story, "Assoun murder case: RCMP suppressed, erased evidence of other suspects," published  on by CTV  Friday July 12, 2019 at the link below.

Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.

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PASSAGE OF THE DAY:  (RCMP Cnstbl. Dave Moore): "The preliminary assessment says the RCMP superiors told Moore to stop working on the file, and two of his direct superiors told him to "stop wasting his time." He then brought his findings to the attention of Insp. Leo O'Brien, the head of the ViCLAS unit. The senior officer told Moore it was the Mounties' policy not to disclose information from the analytical system to defence counsel "since all of the information that the analysis was based on was otherwise available from other sources." Green wrote that Moore objected. He was later taken off the ViCLAS unit. His job evaluations went from very positive in 2003, the year of his work on the file, to negative the following year. In his response to his job evaluation, Moore wrote there was "no consideration given to the information or the fact that there was a possibility an innocent man was in prison." He continued that while he recognized there was "sensitivity" from the Halifax police -- who were leading the investigation -- "there was a legal responsibility to bring this information forward."

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GIST: "The RCMP chose not to disclose an investigator's theories about other suspects to a wrongfully convicted Halifax man fighting to prove he was innocent of murder, federal documents revealed on Friday. Not only that, but the Mounties digitally erased or destroyed most of this potential evidence -- including the possibility a serial killer, Michael McGray, was a suspect, says the report. The August 2014 federal report, released Friday by Nova Scotia Supreme Court, was a key to the release on bail of 63-year-old Glen Assoun almost five years ago. By then, Assoun had spent almost 17 years in prison for his 1999 conviction in the killing of Brenda Way -- whose throat was sliced on Nov. 12, 1995, in a Halifax back alley. "There is a host of new information suggesting links between Michael McGray as well as other suspects, and the murder of Brenda Way," Justice Department lawyer Mark Green wrote in the preliminary assessment. He pointed to an analysis done in 2003 by former RCMP Const. Dave Moore using a police database system, referred to as ViCLAS, that led the analyst to believe McGray -- who has been convicted of seven murders -- was a suspect.

Green noted that Assoun's lawyer in his unsuccessful 2006 appeal -- Jerome Kennedy -- had specifically asked for the Crown to disclose this type of information, but never received it. Moore's analysis also raised the prospect that a violent sexual offender, Avery Greenough, may have picked up Way in his vehicle on the night of the murder. "Const. Moore certainly considered both McGray and Greenough as strong suspects in the Brenda Way murder," wrote Green in his conclusion.
Outside court on Friday, Assoun said the revelations are startling. "It's been 21 years, and it's destroyed my life. The time gone is time I'll never get back ... It affected me and my kids, and I can't get back the time they took from me for something I didn't do." An RCMP news release says the force did an internal investigation and concluded the files were deleted for "quality control purposes," but the actions were "contrary to policy and shouldn't have happened." It says it was done without malicious intent. Green's report was released in its entirety Friday after a provincial supreme court judge ruled in favour of a case launched by The Canadian Press, CBC and The Halifax Examiner. Earlier this year, Justice Minister David Lametti declared there was reasonable basis to believe a miscarriage of justice had occurred and that "reliable and relevant information" was never provided to the defence. Justice James Chipman declared Assoun innocent on March 1 after the Nova Scotia Crown dropped its case. Assoun's lawyers Phil Campbell and Sean MacDonald say with the release of the hundreds of page of documents, the public is finally learning the full reasons behind "a tragic loss to the administration of justice." "Glen's lawyer and the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal were deliberately denied highly probative information, from an objective expert analyst," said Campbell in an email. "If the Court of Appeal had known in 2006 about the profiling of Michael McGray ... it would never have upheld Glen's conviction and life sentence." Assoun remained in custody for eight more years following the denial of his appeal. The preliminary assessment says the RCMP superiors told Moore to stop working on the file, and two of his direct superiors told him to "stop wasting his time." He then brought his findings to the attention of Insp. Leo O'Brien, the head of the ViCLAS unit. The senior officer told Moore it was the Mounties' policy not to disclose information from the analytical system to defence counsel "since all of the information that the analysis was based on was otherwise available from other sources." Green wrote that Moore objected. He was later taken off the ViCLAS unit. His job evaluations went from very positive in 2003, the year of his work on the file, to negative the following year. In his response to his job evaluation, Moore wrote there was "no consideration given to the information or the fact that there was a possibility an innocent man was in prison." He continued that while he recognized there was "sensitivity" from the Halifax police -- who were leading the investigation -- "there was a legal responsibility to bring this information forward."

 https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/assoun-murder-case-rcmp-suppressed-erased-evidence-of-other-suspects-1.4505150

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;


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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."

Lawyer Radha Natarajan:

Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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