The actions of police investigators involved in the wrongful murder conviction and imprisonment of Glen Assoun demand a full public inquiry, not a potentially biased investigation by the province's police watchdog, says a retired Nova Scotia Mountie and Tatamagouche councillor.
“This is a classic case of a flawed, tunnel vision investigation that cost a man 17 years of his life in prison and we need a public inquiry to know exactly how this happened,” said Michael Gregory, who spent 25 years in the force, including a stint as head of the former Tatamagouche RCMP detachment.
“The public needs to be assured that this will never happen again."
Nova Scotia's Serious Incident Response Team is determining whether it will conduct a criminal investigation into the officers' conduct. On Sept. 17, Premier Stephen Mcneil told reporters that on his advice, the case had been referred to SIRT.
SIRT director Felix Cacchione is tasked to determine whether the case falls within the agency's mandate. On Monday, Cacchione said he had not made a decision but is hoping to make one by the end of the week.
“How unbiased are they going to be writing a report on their own police departments?"
- Michael Gregory, retired Mountie
Assoun, 64, spent 17 years in prison for the killing of his former girlfriend Brenda Way in 1995 but was acquitted last year. Court documents contain details of a seriously flawed joint RCMP-Halifax Regional Police investigation into the case. Investigators destroyed evidence in 2005 that could have exonerated Assoun long before his eventual release from prison in 2014. Compelling evidence pointed to serial killer Michael McGray as a major suspect in Way's killing. McGray was living in an apartment near where Way's body was found in Dartmouth.
Gregory said the conduct of the investigating officers is an embarrassment to him personally but also for the RCMP that “turned around and let this stuff happen.”
“They focused in on the ex-boyfriend (Assoun) and with all of this information pointing to someone else as the killer and they never expanded their investigation and that's wrong."
Gregory said one of his chief concerns with SIRT potentially taking on the probe is the makeup of the investigation team that includes one seconded and two retired RCMP officers as well as one seconded Halifax Regional Police officer.
Officers from both forces were involved in the flawed Assoun investigation. However well-intentioned they might be, it would be difficult for them to conduct an impartial investigation, said Gregory.
“How unbiased are they going to be writing a report on their own police departments?" said Gregory. "It's not acceptable.”
That investigation team is typically responsible for conducting and preparing a full investigation report for director Cacchione, a former Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge. But the entire report is not released to the public, only a summary of it is made available.
Unlike a public inquiry, SIRT reports do not contain any recommendations that would lay out where changes and improvements potentially need to be made. SIRT also has a narrow scope, investigating whether police are guilty of criminal wrongdoing, not professional misconduct. Although he has full confidence in Cacchione, the former officer said the case deserves a more thorough review.
“What happened to Mr. Assoun is as serious as it gets,” said Gregory. "People need to have faith in policing in this province and they need to know that our officers will be held to account. A SIRT investigation in this case doesn't meet that test.”
