|
January 25, 2005: The Federal government
released the
first national examination of the reasons for so many wrongful
convictions in Canada. This should be required reading for every prosecutor,
cop and criminal defence lawyer in the country. News
reports
Malicious cop promoted, January
2005 | Make
a comment on the blog |
Jason Dix
< < < Framed for murder
by the mounties
The judgment in the Dix lawsuit can be downloaded
in pdf format from the Alberta Courts' site: This
link should take you to the search page. Choose Court of
Queen's Bench and type in key word "Dix"
- Police, prosecutor 'cloaked
in malice':
- Judge awards Edmonton
man $765,000 in damages after he was jailed two years on murder
charges that were eventually dismissed
By JILL MAHONEY Tuesday,
June 18, 2002 Print Edition, Page A3
EDMONTON -- An Edmonton man
who spent nearly two years in jail on murder charges that were
later dismissed won a lawsuit yesterday against the RCMP and
Crown lawyers for malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and
breach of rights.
In a scathing decision, an
Alberta judge awarded Jason Dix damages of almost $765,000, plus
interest.
"The defendants are, quite
simply, legally cloaked in malice," wrote Mr. Justice Keith
Ritter, who was a Court of Queen's Bench judge when he heard
the case.
Mr. Dix's ordeal began with
the Oct. 1, 1994, execution-style killings of James Deiter and
Tim Orydzuk, whose deaths remain unsolved. The nightmare cost
him his marriage, a relationship with his children, steady employment
and his reputation.
"He's very pleased with
the decision. He, like I, thought there might be a larger amount
ordered by way of punitive damages," said his lawyer Hal
Veale, who originally asked for $14-million in compensation.
Alberta Justice Minister Dave
Hancock, who the judge determined was vicariously liable, said
the decision was "disturbing" and that his department
needed time to consider whether to mount an appeal.
The Mounties declined comment,
saying RCMP managers and lawyers in the federal Justice Department
needed time to review the judgment. The judge also held the federal
Crown vicariously liable.
Arnold Piragoff, the provincial
Crown lawyer who was in charge of the prosecution, did not return
phone messages. Judge Ritter held Mr. Piragoff, who is now in
private practice, personally liable for $200,000 in punitive
damages.
While Mr. Deiter and Mr. Orydzuk
were both shot three times in the head at the paper-recycling
company where they worked, RCMP initially believed they died
accidentally by electrocution. Investigators only realized they
had been shot after autopsies had been conducted the next day,
when most of the evidence had been destroyed or contaminated.
The RCMP soon zeroed in on
Mr. Dix, an industrial scale technician who got to know both
men when he installed a scale at their workplace in Sherwood
Park, just east of Edmonton.
Despite solid evidence, police
later concluded Mr. Deiter -- who was at a bar with Mr. Dix and
his co-worker mistress the night before his death -- had been
romantically interested in Mr. Dix's girlfriend. They believed
this gave Mr. Dix a motive for killing Mr. Deiter, who was supposed
to be working alone, and suspected he killed Mr. Orydzuk because
he also happened to be at work.
Although his wife and girlfriend
accounted for his whereabouts, the RCMP began surveillance and
planned undercover operations to draw Mr. Dix into a gang involved
in money laundering and drug trafficking. Their efforts included
staging a homicide and asking Mr. Dix watch guard outside.
After the operations, the RCMP
concluded Mr. Dix had a criminal mind because he had participated
in scenarios he knew to be crimes.
After consultations with Mr.
Piragoff, police arrested Mr. Dix on July 10, 1996, and held
him in jail for eight days with undercover RCMP officers posing
as his cell mates.
Judge Ritter ruled Mr. Dix
was not properly housed as a prisoner.
During the 11-hour questioning,
Mr. Dix told police 200 times he chose not to speak on advice
of his lawyer, but the interrogation continued, involving several
lies that the judge found objectionable.
"The right to silence
is a constitutionally enshrined Charter right, properly cherished
by Canadians, and is not something which it is appropriate or
acceptable for the police to ignore once asserted by an individual,"
Judge Ritter wrote.
At midnight, immediately after
the long interrogation, on the advice of Mr. Piragoff, the police
brought a frightened Mr. Dix to the scene of the killings, where
he again maintained his innocence. The judge dubbed the two-hour
trip "the midnight run" and a "macabre adventure"
and said the RCMP's conduct was "disturbingly surreal."
Judge Ritter was also highly
critical of former Crown prosecutor Mr. Piragoff, who used a
fake letter as evidence to deny Mr. Dix bail. The letter was
purportedly written by a friend of Mr. Dix's but actually penned
by the RCMP.
It was, Judge Ritter said ,
"a knowing attempt to mislead the court on a liberty issue."
During trial, in mid-1998,
Mr. Piragoff eventually had to withdraw after the issue of the
fake letter was raised. The prosecutor appointed to replace him
soon decided there was no likelihood of a conviction. On Sept.
3, 1998, a judge dismissed all charges against Mr. Dix.
Oct. 2001
Dix
v. AG et al In
the Jason Dix civil suit in Alberta against the federal and provincial
Crowns and numerous police officers for wrongful imprisonment,
malicious prosecution and negligent investigation, Justice Ritter
of Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench ruled that a publication
ban was only necessary in respect of pseudonym names used by
the RCMP undercover operators, and any description of the officers
themselves.
Alberta man awarded $765,000
for malicious prosecution
CBC, Jun 17, 2002
EDMONTON - A court in Alberta
has awarded more than three-quarters of a million dollars to
a man who spent nearly two years in jail for a double murder
he didn't commit.
Jason Dix, 37, was accused
in 1996 of killing Tim Orydzuk and James Deiter. He was held
in custody for 22 months before the charges were dismissed because
of a lack of evidence.
He sued the Crown and RCMP
for malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. On Monday,
Justice Keith Ritter awarded him damages of $764,863 plus interest,
with costs to be determined later.
The civil trial lasted for
more than four months. Ritter found that police had breached
Dix's rights on several occasions.
The 1994 killings of Orydzuk
and Deiter remain unsolved.
Both men were shot three times
in the head as they worked at a packaging plant in Sherwood Park,
east of Edmonton.
Written by CBC News Online
staff
Dix ex-lawyer told replacement what to say about
Edmonton man's murder case
January 24, 2001
EDMONTON (CP) - A former prosecutor
in the Jason Dix murder trial wrote a letter instructing his
replacement what to say when the case was dismissed, Dix's civil
lawsuit for malicious prosecution was told Thursday. A memo from
Arnold Piragoff urged his replacement, Bill Pinckney, to make
it clear it wasn't Piragoff's fault the case eventually collapsed.
"Remember, Bill, it is
my reputation on the line, not yours," Piragoff wrote on
Aug. 27, 1998, as Pinckney prepared to have murder charges against
Dix dismissed.
Three months earlier, Piragoff
withdrew from the murder trial following allegations he misrepresented
evidence at Dix's bail hearing.
Piragoff wrote in the letter
that there could be no suggestion the case collapsed because
of any misconduct on his part or that the Crown was proceeding
blindly even though there was no evidence to support the case.
The three-page letter was introduced
as the defence began its case in the civil lawsuit initiated
by Dix. He is suing the RCMP and the provincial government, claiming
he was the victim of negligence and malicious prosecution. Pinckney
was the defence's opening witness.
Dix spent 22 months in custody
after being charged with first-degree murder in the Oct. 1, 1994,
killings of James Deiter and Tim Orydzuk who worked at a packaging
plant in Sherwood Park just east of Edmonton.
RCMP officers initially said
the two died of electrocution in an industrial accident. An autopsy
two days later showed each was shot three times in the head.
Pinckney said he concluded
within six weeks of being assigned to the Dix case that Dix's
alibi and unreliable jailhouse informants meant there was no
hope of getting a conviction.
He met with relatives of the
two dead men, along with key RCMP investigator Cpl. Rick Pasker,
three hours before finally shutting the trial down.
Family members said police
had told them it was a great case and "Arnie Piragoff doesn't
back a loser," according to a memo Pinckney wrote about
the meeting.
"They asked, pointedly,
how could it go from that to what I was telling them."
Although he didn't record an
answer, he did deny Piragoff kept the case going as part of a
vendetta with defence lawyer Peter Royal.
An internal review started
immediately after Piragoff withdrew, Pinckney said.
Pinckney's memo noted Pasker
denied a suggestion the RCMP had been pressured to wrap up an
investigation they'd messed up at the beginning by arresting
someone.
From Alberta
Crown Attorney's site > >The Crown withheld information about
the identity of a jailhouse informant where they knew, or should
have known, that it would cause a conflict of interest with the
accused's counsel. Accused sought costs for the expense of hiring
a replacement lawyer to cross-examine that witness. HELD: costs
granted per s. 24(1) on solicitor-client basis. The existence
of a separate civil lawsuit by the accused against the Crown
is not a bar to this relief.
R. v. Jason DIX (02 FEB 2000)
Dix
needed the money
By TONY BLAIS-- Court Bureau,
Edmonton Sun, October 16, 2001
EDMONTON -- Jason Dix admitted
yesterday he knew he shouldn't have taken part in illegal activities
being done as part of an RCMP undercover investigation, but needed
the money.
The admission came as Dix,
36, was being cross-examined by federal prosecutor Jim Shaw during
Day 10 of a civil trial stemming from Dix's $14-million malicious
prosecution lawsuit against RCMP and the Crown.
Dix denied Shaw's allegation
that it didn't concern him to be involved with a criminal organization
which in reality was a bunch of undercover cops using an elaborate
operation to try to get Dix to confess to a double murder.
"If I didn't need the
money, I wouldn't have got involved with these guys," testified
Dix. "I knew what I was involved with wasn't legal and I
shouldn't have been involved with it. But the money was a bigger
draw than that."
Shaw, who asked Dix several
times if he believed the undercover cop who was trying to recruit
him into the gang was really a police officer, appeared to be
suggesting Dix had no qualms about joining a criminal gang or
taking part in any criminal jobs he was enlisted for.
However, Dix maintained he
was only paying lip service so he would get paid and would never
have crossed the line and committed any type of physical violence.
Dix testified he was paid about
$4,500 to do several supposedly crime-connected jobs for the
organization.
Court has heard Project Kabaya
was a 13-month RCMP undercover operation costing hundreds of
thousands of dollars in which police posed as fictitious gang
members.
The operation involved Dix
meeting a phoney Toronto mobster referred to as "Mr. Big,"
helping count $1 million in ill-gotten cash and witnessing a
staged murder in B.C.
Dix never confessed to the
killings and repeatedly told undercover operators he knew nothing
about them.
His lawyer, Hal Veale, said
in his opening statement that what the RCMP did to Dix in Kabaya
is an important component of his claim for damages.
Veale claimed the operation
used questionable tactics to turn Dix from a productive, law-abiding
citizen into someone who would lie and say he would do anything,
even kill, to become a member and reap financial rewards.
Dix sued Feb. 1, 1999, after
double murder charges against him were dismissed Sept. 3, 1998,
following claims the Crown misrepresented evidence at a bail
hearing. He spent 22 months in jail after being charged with
the Oct. 1, 1994, execution-style shootings of James Deiter,
24, and Tim Orydzuk, 33, at a Sherwood Park warehouse. < < <
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. 
The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns convictions : RCMP coerced confessions using
techniques which shame the "free" world