Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog:
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "CIPEM was developed by Fitzgerald to crack cold cases and was primarily aimed at getting cagey suspects to talk with police. It was first used in 2019, but wasn’t made public until 2022, when Stuff was first able to reveal the case against three men accused of murdering Tolley had collapsed. In that case, Justice France said CIPEM was used to “unacceptable excess”, and the interviews weren’t a pursuit of a “neutral truth” but “a sustained pursuit of a particular ‘truth,’” and ruled the interviews were inadmissible as evidence. Since then, CIPEM’s use in 2019, during the investigation into the cold case 1985 homicide of 1-year-old Penny-Tui Taputoro, has also been criticised by one of the country’s leading barristers, Nigel Hampton, KC, who described an interview with suspect Kathleen Smith as “very troubling” and “oppressive”. Police have fought to keep many aspects of CIPEM hidden, forcing Stuff to twice obtain court orders to release documents and information related to the controversial technique, which is now known as PEACE Plus. Last year, Justice France said there was a “legitimate public interest” in further scrutiny of CIPEM, which “has been so poorly implemented by specialist interviewers”."
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STORY: "Country's top cop becomes involved in controversy over interviewing technique," by Senior Journalist Blair Ensor (Investigations) and Senior Writer Mike White, published by 'Stuff' on April 7, 2023.
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In September 2021, High Court judge Simon France ruled detectives who used the Complex Investigation Phased Engagement Model (CIPEM) misled a suspect in the 2016 murder of Upper Hutt woman Lois Tolley, and “manipulated” him to make a confession that was “very flawed” and “not credible”.
Since then, the controversial interviewing technique has led to two complaints to the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA); a leading lawyer has slammed its use in another homicide investigation; its architect, Detective Superintendent Tom Fitzgerald, has retired; and police have launched a major review into all interviewing practices, including CIPEM.
Despite these concerns, and further revelations about the previously secret technique, which has been the subject of a more than 12-month Stuff investigation, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster, who only learnt of the judge’s criticisms from media coverage, had very little involvement in addressing the problems with CIPEM.
It wasn’t until early this year, after repeated interview requests by Stuff, that the Commissioner took action.
On January 19, Stuff asked for the third time to speak with Coster about CIPEM, and what he knew about the controversy surrounding it. Police didn’t reply.
In this meeting, Coster and Schwalger agreed to send the judge’s criticisms to the IPCA under a memorandum of understanding between police and the watchdog, which was updated late last year to include “self-referrals for adverse judicial comment”.
Coster also insisted all future use of CIPEM had to be signed off by the national crime manager, the head of the Criminal Investigation Branch, until the review of police interviewing practices was completed, later this year.
IPCA investigations manager Stu Graham confirmed the referral was made on January 30, 10 days after Coster met with Schwalger.
An investigation into two other complaints about CIPEM, received in August and September last year, was ongoing, he said.
Stuff requested all details about the police referral of Justice France’s criticisms to the IPCA, and the memorandum of understanding between the two organisations, in February. However, police have repeatedly failed to provide these documents and information.
The review of interviewing practices - the first in nearly two decades - is being led by Detective Inspector Shaun Vickers, and is due to be completed by May 31, 2023."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
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