BACKGROUND ON CIPEM : From a previous 'Stuff' investigation CIPEM story: story: "Comfy Chairs and McDonald’s chicken: "There are any number of reasons why crimes go unsolved, drifting from front page to back burner to cold case, over months and years. No forensic evidence, nobody sees what happened, and commonly, nobody wants to talk to cops. And this is what led Tom Fitzgerald, a police officer for more than 30 years, to create CIPEM. Get away from movie stereotypes with a detective hammering the table while accusing a suspect of death and deviance. Instead, under CIPEM, suspects should be treated almost informally, with interviews being more fireside chat than fiery interrogation. Instead of tables between suspect and detective, there would be sofas or comfortable chairs arranged at a “10 to 2” position, or 90°. Note-taking would be replaced by shared takeaways. And on paper, CIPEM seemed as innocuous as it was common sense.
Indeed, a November 2021 review found it was in line with international best practice. However, that review curiously didn’t look at any examples where CIPEM had been used, and just considered it as a theory. If it had investigated the reality, the conclusions may have been quite different. Kathleen Smith and baby Penny-Tui" When Tom Fitzgerald got the green light to roll out CIPEM in 2018, officers began suggesting cases where it could be used. One of the first related to a 1985 child homicide. On May 1, 2019, Fitzgerald picked up the phone and rang Kathleen Smith, the suspect in the death of Dannevirke toddler Penny-Tui Taputoro. Somehow he convinced her to front up at a Hamilton police station the next day, without a lawyer, to talk to a detective about the case. Decades earlier, Smith had described a series of mishaps, including a fall and accidentally dropping Penny-Tui, which led to the child’s fatal head injuries. Despite suspicions about her story, police concluded the 1-year-old's death was an accident and Smith was never charged. But a coroner ruled Penny-Tui’s brain injuries were consistent with her being severely shaken. The Taputoros weren’t happy about the outcome, but it was more than three decades before they asked police to reopen their investigation. “I look forward to the coff [confession] and seeing some kind of closure for the whānau,” Detective Superintendent Tim Anderson wrote in an email to the officer reviewing the file in October 2018. Fitzgerald hand-picked Detective Sergeant Maania Piahana to interview Smith. Today, it’s about … making sure that you leave here, me knowing what happened, and you being able to share that burden [with me],” Piahana told her. Smith insisted she’d told the truth in 1985. Piahana pushed back: “Kathy … I don’t want you to go back down that same rabbit hole. Today is about making sure that everybody has the truth so that everybody’s lives can move on.” Slowly, Smith recounted a new version of events. She was emotional – crying, hyperventilating and often unable to give clear answers. “I think my life is going to be over,” she said at one point. Piahana comforted and confronted Smith in equal measure. “This is going to make your life better because we take it off your shoulders … I just need you to tell me what happened.” Smith then said she was playing with Penny-Tui, bouncing the child on her knee, before Penny-Tui fell backwards. After being challenged that her story still didn’t explain the severity of the child’s injuries, Smith admitted she’d shaken her. Only later, Smith said, did she learn of the dangers of shaking a baby. After more than four hours, the gruelling interview ended. In October 2019, a senior Manawatū detective sought advice from the Crown about charging Smith, but appeared uneasy about the CIPEM interview. “I believe that a … prosecutor should review the interview to accurately appraise themselves not only of the contents but the challenges this interviewing style is likely to raise in any future proceedings.” But Crown solicitor Ben Vanderkolk said he believed there were grounds to charge Smith with manslaughter, provided there was medical evidence of Penny-Tui’s injuries. Vanderkolk felt the information gleaned during the CIPEM interview was reliable. Piahana was firm with Smith, but engaged in a “kind, patient and respectful” manner, and wasn’t “forceful or overbearing”.
While Smith at times “operated under significant psychological distress”, she had a law degree, knew her rights, and chose not to end the interview. In Vanderkolk’s opinion, the interview was likely admissible. But veteran defence lawyer Nigel Hampton, KC, holds a very different view, after reading a transcript of the interview obtained by Stuff. "It’s quite extraordinary. I've seen some … extreme interviews over the years, but I've never seen anything quite like this," says Hampton, who is a member of the Criminal Cases Review Commission - an independent body established to investigate miscarriage of justice claims in New Zealand. He believes there are numerous issues with the interview, the most glaring of which is the “unremitting persistence” of Piahana over a lengthy period. “A person might well start to be compliant to try and put an end to the ordeal. You're in foreign surroundings, a police station which has some authority built around it, and you're being talked to at great length … and the only out really being offered is, tell me what I want to hear and what the parents of the child want to hear, and then you're out of here “So what will a person do in the end? They comply with it, and that in itself is oppressive.” Hampton also takes exception with what he says are “misleading” statements by the interviewer. “It's that persistency of that one theme that if you give me the answers we both want … your life will be better for it. “Crikey dick, the whole point of this interview exercise was indeed to disrupt her life, it wasn't gonna make her life better at all. And that's the fundamental lie that's being sold here. And that's never gonna stand up in court.” Ultimately, Piahana’s CIPEM interview with Smith, now known as Katrina Werahiko, was never tested. As police readied the case for prosecution, they found Penny-Tui’s medical records had been destroyed."
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "In one of the disclosed emails, Dylan Ross, then an acting detective senior sergeant, takes the extraordinary step of warning all other CIPEM/PEACE Plus-trained officers not to use the technique until a national review of all investigative interviewing is completed. “I know we have discussed this in training and in our hui’s (sic) but I will say it again for your benefit and my own peace of mind - I would certainly caution you to be aware of being involved in any interviews as a “Peace Plus” trained person within district during this interim period. “You will have noticed the ongoing media attention to the CIPEM/Peace Plus model and unfortunately, from experience, I cannot assure you that there will be support down the track, particularly until the manual, policy and training are finalised/updated. “It is vital to Det Inspector Steve Anderson (Tumaru/Raro) and I that none of you experience the kind of situation that we have been confronted with over the last year.” Four days later, police hierarchy backtracked and sent out another email, saying the use of CIPEM in cold cases had not been suspended."
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STORY; "The damning emails about a controversial interview technique police tried to keep secret," by Senior Journalist - Investigations Blair Ensor and Senior Writer Mike White, published by 'Stuff' on September 2, 2023.
GIST: "Damning emails, which police tried to keep secret, show the true level of concern senior officers had about a controversial interviewing technique.
The emails indicate the fallout and internal tensions from Stuff’s year-long inquiry into the Complex Investigation Phased Engagement Model (CIPEM) – an interview technique that resulted in a man making a false confession in a high-profile murder case.
In that case, Detective Sergeant Dylan Ross and Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Anderson, under the observation of CIPEM’s creator – and the country’s top investigator at the time – Detective Superintendent Tom Fitzgerald, coaxed a false confession from a man known as X, who police suspected was involved in the 2016 murder of Lois Tolley in Upper Hutt.
In 2021, High Court judge Simon France excoriated the interviews, saying X was “manipulated” into making a confession that was “very flawed” and “not credible”.
The judge pointed to “repeated and serious” breaches of interviewing guidelines, with Ross and Anderson knowingly not following “the lawful process”, misrepresenting facts, and using CIPEM techniques to “unacceptable excess”.
Police subsequently withdrew the charges against X, as well as two other men charged with Tolley’s murder, as their investigation into the cold case collapsed.
In response, Fitzgerald defended CIPEM (now known as PEACE Plus), an interviewing technique that aims to put the suspect at ease in an effort to get information and confessions.
He blamed any errors on Ross and Anderson, despite Fitzgerald himself observing the interviews as they happened, and relaying instructions to Ross and Anderson.
This led to police sources saying the CIPEM officers seemed to have been thrown under the bus by Fitzgerald.
But in what appeared to be coordinated internal emails in May last year, which were released to Stuff within 90 minutes by the police media team, Ross and Anderson denied this was how they felt, and claimed full support for CIPEM and Fitzgerald (see timeline below).
Fitzgerald resigned unexpectedly from the police in October last year, but insisted it had nothing to do with scrutiny of CIPEM.
However, following further revelations by Stuff about CIPEM, Anderson and Ross emailed colleagues in December last year saying the use of CIPEM interviews to investigate cold cases was being suspended.
These emails were previously released to Stuff by police under the Official Information Act.
However, police attempted to conceal the contents of other emails sent at this time – which reveal how concerned officers actually were about CIPEM and the lack of support for those using it.
These emails were only released a fortnight ago after police were told to do so by the Ombudsman, following a complaint by Stuff.
In one of the disclosed emails, Dylan Ross, then an acting detective senior sergeant, takes the extraordinary step of warning all other CIPEM/PEACE Plus-trained officers not to use the technique until a national review of all investigative interviewing is completed.
“I know we have discussed this in training and in our hui’s (sic) but I will say it again for your benefit and my own peace of mind - I would certainly caution you to be aware of being involved in any interviews as a “Peace Plus” trained person within district during this interim period.
“You will have noticed the ongoing media attention to the CIPEM/Peace Plus model and unfortunately, from experience, I cannot assure you that there will be support down the track, particularly until the manual, policy and training are finalised/updated.
“It is vital to Det Inspector Steve Anderson (Tumaru/Raro) and I that none of you experience the kind of situation that we have been confronted with over the last year.”
Four days later, police hierarchy backtracked and sent out another email, saying the use of CIPEM in cold cases had not been suspended.
They again publicly blamed Anderson, who is one of the most experienced CIPEM practitioners, for the bungle, saying his email “was incorrect and should not have been sent”.
Police interviewed a woman using the controversial CIPEM technique while reinvestigating the suspicious 1985 death of 1-year-old Penny-Tui Taputoro.
A week earlier, and just three days after a major Stuff expose of the CIPEM technique, another senior officer, Whanganui area commander Inspector Ross Grantham, wrote to Detective Superintendent Dave Lynch regarding the review of police interviewing, saying he was “extremely disappointed in how our foundation work has been tainted, and would love to see NZ Police again leading the world with our investigative interview material and training.”
When asked about the difference in Ross’ position – between his May 2022 claims he hadn’t been publicly thrown under the bus by police hierarchy and his December 2022 email warning officers not to use CIPEM because of a lack of support – police claim Ross’ “view towards the situation changed”.
“It was DSS [detective senior sergeant] Ross’s personal view that due to the media reporting over a period of time, he felt at times that police did not publicly support those involved in the PEACE Plus model,” Assistant Commissioner Lauano Sue Schwalger said this week.
Schwalger said police had assured Ross and others that they were supported and “extremely valued and skilled members of the NZ Police” and his concerns “will be addressed as part of our review into our investigative interviewing programme”.
Regarding Grantham’s concerns about police interviewing being “tainted” and no longer world-leading, Schwalger said Grantham was merely “expressing his opinion” and the subject generated “diversity of thought”, given its crucial role in policing.
“We acknowledge that from time to time we don’t always get it right, but this should be seen within the context of the thousands of interviews carried out every year by our staff, which lead to successful convictions of criminals,” Schwalger said.
“It is not about being ‘world-leading’, it is about our officers doing the best they can every day for victims of crime so that offenders can be held accountable.”
The latest revelations come after more than a year of police attempting to withhold details of CIPEM, prompting Stuff to twice take court action to obtain documents and lift suppressions, successfully appeal to the Ombudsman about police withholding documents and make numerous Official Information Act requests.
As well as the ongoing police review of investigative interviewing, the Independent Police Conduct Authority is investigating two complaints about CIPEM. Meanwhile, the Law Commission announced in May that it was examining the technique as part of its review of the Evidence Act.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
December 2016: Lois Tolley murdered.
14-16 August 2019: X interviewed by Dylan Ross and Steve Anderson, overseen by Tom Fitzgerald.
September 2021: Justice Simon France rules X’s “confession” inadmissible, and slams the police interviews and use of CIPEM.
November 2021: Police withdraw charges against X. Two weeks later, they withdraw charges against the other two defendants.
February 2022: Suppressions lifted allowing Stuff to report on CIPEM for the first time.
April 2022: Fitzgerald publicly blames Ross and Anderson for faults with X interview.
19 May 2022:
2.49pm: Police media team liaises with Tom Fitzgerald about Stuff questions regarding CIPEM, and advise him to not respond.
4.20pm: Tom Fitzgerald emails Dylan Ross and Steve Anderson, saying he will call them the next day regarding an upcoming Stuff story about CIPEM. Ross and Anderson acknowledge they will speak with Fitzgerald.
6.59pm: Fitzgerald forwards to Anderson and Ross the statement Police had prepared for Stuff in response to questions about the interview with X, and suggestions Ross and Anderson had been thrown under the bus for the faults with it.
20 May 2022
8.41.00am: Anderson emails Assistant Commissioner Lauano Sue Schwalger denying he and Ross have been thrown under the bus, and expressing support for Fitzgerald and CIPEM.
8.41.21am: Ross sends a similar email to Schwalger. Police have not released any records of Schwalger replying to either Anderson or Ross.
8.48am: Ross forwards his Schwalger email to Fitzgerald.
8.52am: Anderson forwards his Schwalger email to Fitzgerald.
10.09am: Police media team sends Ross and Anderson emails to Stuff within 90 minutes of them being sent to Schwalger.
7.42pm: Schwalger thanks police media manager Juli Clausen for her work to “try to manage this”, and accuses Stuff of not being balanced in its inquiries.
14 October 2022: Tom Fitzgerald retires unexpectedly.
3 December 2022: Stuff publishes expose of CIPEM, and interviews that Tom Fitzgerald had been involved in.
6 December 2022: After reading Stuff’s story, Inspector Ross Grantham writes to senior police saying he is “extremely disappointed” police investigative interviewing has been tainted.
8 December 2022: Anderson and Ross send out internal emails saying the use of CIPEM for cold cases has been suspended. (Two of these emails are later given to Stuff under the OIA. But a second email from Ross, where he criticises the lack of support he and Anderson have received, is concealed, until the Ombudsman orders its release in August 2023.)
12 December 2022: When Stuff questions police about CIPEM being suspended, police respond saying Stuff’s information is “mistaken and inaccurate”.
14 December 2022: When pressed further by Stuff, Police admit to Anderson’s email, but blame Anderson for any confusion, saying it was “incorrect and should not have been sent”, and CIPEM’s use in cold cases would continue."
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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