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Ostrowski 'feels great' after bail granted

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 12/18/2009 1:30 PM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Frank Ostrowski outside the court house with daughter Amber. (STEVE LAMBERT / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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Frank Ostrowski walked out of the downtown Winnipeg Law Courts this afternoon, tasting freedom for the first time in 23 years and vowing never to return to prison.

The 60-year-old grandfather, convicted of a 1986 drug hit and sentenced to life behind bars, was granted bail earlier in the day while federal justice officials review whether he's a victim of a wrongful conviction.

"It feels great," a clearly emotional Ostrowski told a throng of media. His daughter, Amber, was in tears at side and declared his release the best Christmas present ever.

"I wish every single Christmas for my dad to come home," she said.

Ostrowski will live with his daughter and eight-year-old granddaughter under strict conditions while his legal status is in limbo, including a $50,000 surety. Ostrowski is confident his freedom won't be temporary.

"The evidence is too powerful. My lawyer has proven the justice system failed me," he said.

Ostrowski has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested in the first-degree murder of Robert Neiman. James Lockyer of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted has argued there is considerable evidence Ostrowski got a raw deal at his 1987 murder trial, in that important information was not disclosed by the Crown and police, specifically:

a secret deal with a key witness Matthew Lovelace made with federal authorities to testify against Ostrowski in order to get a cocaine trafficking charge against him withdrawn so he wouldn't go to jail; and
a police report detailing a phone call to police in which a man, who identifies himself as Sonny, says, "Frank has a contract out on my friend." "Sonny" was later identified as Lovelace. In the call, Lovelace didn't mention Nieman at all. He only referred to carpenter Dominic Diubaldo as the target.

Lockyer argues the secret deal and Lovelace's phone call should have been disclosed to the jury so they had a full picture of Lovelace's credibility.

"The justice system worked today," Lockyer said outside court this morning. He believes the review of Ostrowski's case could take a couple years.

Don Slough, Manitoba's assistant deputy attorney general, said his department was "satisfied" with Queen's Bench Justice Colleen Suche's decision to release Ostrowski, despite the fact the Crown was opposed to bail.

"There has been a public airing of the facts and it's brought a lot of clarity," he said. Slough said it's too early to declare Ostrowski a victim of wrongful conviction.

Suche said today there is no evidence Lovelace was aware of any deal in exchange for his testimony - but that doesn't change the fact it should have been disclosed to defence.

"Lovelace presented himself as an individual who simply told what he knew, had nothing to gain by testifying as far as he was aware, and was motivated only by an interest in seeing justice done," she said. Suche said concerns raised in Ostrowski's case are not "nearly so compelling" as those in the recent wrongful convictions of James Driskell or Kyle Unger.

"It might be fair to say that thus far the information has raised as many questions as it has answered," said Suche. "However, the questions raised are very serious and go to the heart of the Crown's case, being that they relate in a fundamental way to the credibility of a crucial witness and to trial fairness."

Ostrowski said his immediate plans include decorating for Christmas with his family and going out this evening for a buffet dinner.

"I'm going to start putting my life back together," he said.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

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