PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "The Crown is proposing Woodside conduct a psychiatric assessment in at least one upcoming Toronto murder trial to help the court determine the accused’s mental health at the time of the killing. “It is my view that Dr. Woodside should not be used in cases until and unless there is a review of his work to date,” said defence lawyer Leora Shemesh, who is representing the accused in that trial. Shemesh has already told the trial judge there are numerous other forensic psychiatrists to choose from rather than Woodside, the head of the Sexual Behaviours Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. He did not return the Star’s request for comment Friday or last month. Ohler, the other defence lawyer, said that while a review of Woodside’s previous reports could have a “significant impact” in terms of cases potentially being reopened, it will be challenging to identify red flags because “defence counsel doesn’t have access to his previous reports.” In February, prosecutors emailed Woodside flagging numerous errors in his Nettleton report, identifying them as “typos.” During cross-examination in court, Woodside acknowledged incorporating identical paragraphs from a 2014 report he wrote about a different offender, but minimized the impact of the mistakes, according to the judge’s June ruling."
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STORY: "Judge who rejected prominent Toronto psychiatrist’s report sentences man to 5 and a half years in prison," by Crime and Courts reporter Betsy Powell. published by The Toronto Star, on July 14, 2023. (A superb reporter, who I had the honour and pleasure of working with at the Toronto Star, Betsy is the author of Bad Seeds: the True Story of Toronto's Galloway Boys Street Gang.)
SUB-HEADING: "Last month the court scuttled one attempt after ruling forensic psychiatrist Dr. Scott Woodside was not qualified to give evidence relating to the accused because he was too biased."
GIST: "A Toronto man prosecutors have twice unsuccessfully sought to have declared a dangerous offender received a five-and-a-half year sentence Friday for a 2018 robbery, a sharp contrast to the indefinite sentence originally sought by the Crown.
Last month, Superior Court Justice Laura Bird scuttled the Crown’s attempt to have 37-year-old Caleb Nettleton declared a dangerous offender after ruling forensic psychiatrist Dr. Scott Woodside was not qualified to give evidence relating to the accused because he was too biased.
Not only had Woodside made numerous mistakes in his report on Nettleton, including erroneously suggesting he had assaulted the mother of his children and that he was a gun and drug-trafficking member of the Driftwood Crips — incorrect information cut and pasted from another offender’s report — he refused to properly acknowledge his mistakes while testifying in court, Bird found in her June ruling.
Legal experts believe it is the first time a dangerous offender hearing has been halted in these circumstances; the dust is still settling as to the repercussions of the judge tossing the evidence of a frequently used expert. A number of outstanding appeals are before the Ontario Court of Appeal in which Woodside testified as the court-appointed expert; the psychiatrist is responsible for more than 160 court-ordered assessments.
Meanwhile, despite Bird’s ruling, prosecutors have indicated they intend to continue to rely on Woodside as an expert in court.
In the Nettleton case, the ruling left the prosecution without a valid psychiatric assessment report and opinion, a prerequisite for a dangerous offender application.
Had it been successful, the Crown intended to ask that Bird impose a sentence of detention in a penitentiary for an indeterminate period of time. Instead, Crown attorney Jennifer Stanton earlier this week asked the judge to impose a twelve-year sentence, less pre-sentence custody, after arguing Nettleton had zero prospect of rehabilitation.
The introduction of expert evidence at a dangerous offender proceeding is central to the hearing, where the Crown must prove to the sentencing judge that the offender poses a risk to public safety and is highly likely to reoffend.
The consequence of a dangerous offender designation can be the imposition of an indeterminate sentence, which is the equivalent of a life sentence.
It’s the most serious sentence in Canadian law, said Toronto defence lawyer Amy Ohler, who has appeared in numerous dangerous offender hearings and appeals and is not involved in the Nettleton case.
(She notes an indeterminate sentence is not mandatory for dangerous offenders, and judges can impose a determinate prison sentence with a long-term supervision order.)
According to invoices included in the court record, Woodside was paid $38,561.25 (including tax) in 2020 for his dangerous offender assessment of Nettleton, who refused to be interviewed on four occasions. In 2022, Woodside billed the Ministry of the Attorney General a further $17,585.63 for his work on the Nettleton file.
Prosecutors have twice failed to have Nettleton designated a dangerous offender. Since 2001, he had been convicted of more than 46 criminal offences, including five convenience store robberies.
In July 2017, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery and one count of breach of probation, a different judge found the legal test to declare him a dangerous offender wasn’t met.
By then, Nettleton had been convicted of four robberies, two in 2005 and two in 2015, all containing “an element of violence or threat of violence,” the judge wrote.
Nevertheless, the judge said Nettleton’s behaviour, “while frightening, has never resulted in death or injury.
“He has no history of physically hurting anyone,” the judge wrote, dismissing the 2017 dangerous offender application.
A video surveillance footage capturing Nettleton tussling with the owner of a Wellesley Street convenience store owner, showed him displaying “minimal physical force.”
During the 2018 robbery of a Subway sandwich shop for which he was sentenced Friday, Nettleton put a note on the counter that read, “Be calm, be patient, don’t panic. Give me all your money, otherwise I’ll shoot you.” There was no evidence that he used actual violence during the incident.
Earlier this week at Nettleton’s sentencing hearing, Dean Embry, the lawyer appointed to assist the court because Nettleton was representing himself — told the judge the Subway robbery was on the low end of the serious scale and recommended a five-year sentence, calling that “substantial.”
Embry stated Nettleton’s pattern of robberies has, in fact, de-escalated over time. And while he has a serious history of making threats, including against judges, prosecutors and correctional officers, “he’s never acted on any of them.”
“He presents as a much more dangerous individual than he actually is,” Embry told the court on Wednesday.
Nettleton addressed the judge that day for almost an hour. A large man, with a shaved head and tattooed hands, he urged the judge to be skeptical of the prosecutor’s position that he’s remorseless and dangerous.
While admitting he’s made “some very selfish and negative decisions against people who didn’t deserve it,” Nettleton told Bird he hopes to live a prosocial life with his spouse and two children, and is working on a rehabilitation program for youthful and adult offenders.
On Friday, reading her reasons for the sentence, Bird said while Nettleton’s history of criminal behaviour “gives rise to a very real concern as to the safety of the public … he is not without hope.”
Because he received an additional three-year sentence since his March 2018 incarceration, Nettleton likely won’t be released from jail until 2025."
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/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
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.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
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