'New beginning' for Unger

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Kyle Unger, with lawyer Hersh Wolch, says he waited nearly 20 years to get his life back. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

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An RCMP officer shows reporters in 1990 where popular teenager Brigitte Grenier was slain near Roseisle, Man. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

Kyle Unger will have to sue the Manitoba government and RCMP if he wants to see any compensation for the 14 years he spent in prison for the June 1990 slaying of 16-year-old Brigitte Grenier.

Unger, 38, walked out of Winnipeg's Law Courts Building Friday a free man after the Crown said it had no evidence to use against him for Grenier's slaying.

"It's the first day of my rest of my life, a new beginning," a smiling Unger said.

Assistant deputy attorney general Don Slough said in court moments earlier that Crown prosecutors had no evidence to retry Unger.

While his confession to undercover Mounties was admissible in court at the time Unger was originally tried, the confession cannot be used under current rules.

DNA testing of hair linked to the crime scene had eventually proved not to be a match.

"He is entitled to an acquittal," Slough said. "In the eyes of the law, he's an innocent man."

But less than two hours later, Attorney General Dave Chomiak snuffed out any chance of ending the Unger saga quickly. Chomiak said the province will not pay a dime in compensation to Unger for his time behind bars because under standards back then, police and the Crown did nothing wrong in investigating and prosecuting the case.

"In this case, the 12 men and women who convicted him did so on the basis of a confession that nowadays would not be entered into court," Chomiak said.

"So we're left with a conclusion that is not clean or clean-cut. We're left with a conclusion that Mr. Unger cannot and will not be prosecuted and nobody knows to this day who tragically murdered Brigitte Grenier."

Unger said his confession to police was coerced. He believed at the time officers were recruiting him to join a criminal gang.

"I found it was a very unfair strategy," he said. "You take an innocent man of any culture, any walk of life, who's destitute... and you offer him more than what he needs, you'd be surprised what you can get from that person."

Chomiak also said Unger was not entitled to compensation because he was not proven innocent of the crime; he was only found not guilty because no evidence was called.

"I don't want to tell (his) legal counsel what to do," Chomiak added. "I suspect they'll launch some sort of action."

Unger's lawyer, Hersh Wolch, said his client will consider suing.

"It's so disappointing," Wolch said. "This is his day to enjoy the moment. Why do they have to rain on the parade?"

Wolch, who helped negotiate a $10-million settlement for wrongfully convicted client David Milgaard, said he would like an independent review of the province's position on compensation.

Unger said he was revelling in his acquittal and not immediately focused on compensation. He walked into court Friday in jeans and an old ski jacket.

He wants to extend his stay in Manitoba instead of immediately returning to his home in Merritt, B.C., where he has lived since he was freed on bail five years ago.

"I spent 20 years wanting my life back. I got it today, and like I said, I'm trying to absorb the fact that I got what was most important to me: my freedom, my exoneration, my innocence proven," he said. "It's going to take some time to really figure it out."

In Canada, there is no legal entitlement to compensation for a wrongful conviction, although such a provision is under review, Chomiak said.

Right now, the only financial remedy for the wrongly convicted -- unless found factually innocent -- is to launch a claim for malicious prosecution, negligent investigation, prosecutorial misconduct, false imprisonment or even perhaps a claim for a breach under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Factual innocence can be established if someone else is convicted of the crime or if evidence arises that proves the accused could not have been involved.

How the wrongfully convicted are compensated now was demonstrated in New Brunswick earlier this week.

The New Brunswick government and the City of Saint John agreed to pay compensation to Erin Walsh, who was wrongfully convicted of a slaying 34 years ago. Details of the compensation deal are confidential.

Walsh spent 10 years in prison before he was paroled.

He was acquitted in March 2008 after he uncovered documents that were not presented to the jury, including evidence suggesting another person had killed the victim.

The New Brunswick settlement came as the case was about to go to trial, something sources here have said will likely be duplicated if Unger sues.

A Manitoba RCMP spokeswoman said there are no plans to reopen the investigation into the Grenier case.

Chomiak said he will not call a public inquiry into Unger's prosecution.

The province has had two recent, and costly, inquiries into wrongful convictions. Both led to changes in how evidence is collected by police and disclosed by the Crown at trial.

Chomiak said Thomas Sophonow was awarded compensation because factual evidence was presented by then-police chief Jack Ewatski that exonerated him of the 1981 slaying of waitress Barbara Stoppel. Another man was identified as a suspect, but he killed himself before he could be charged.

Chomiak said in the James Driskell case, there was clear evidence some information was not properly disclosed by the Crown to Driskell's lawyer at trial. That included evidence of more than $100,000 in payments to witnesses, witness perjury and secret immunity deals.

Chomiak said his officials have spoken to the Grenier family about Unger's acquittal.

Slough told reporters outside the court the family was "devastated" by the news. "They've suffered this horrible loss," he said.

The Greniers could not be reached.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

'The sad reality of this entire tragedy is that had it not been told to an undercover police officer that he killed Brigette Grenier, even all the other available evidence would not have sent him to jail. Without his confession he would not have been charged. Without the confession he would not have been convicted'

-- Manitoba Justice Minister Dave Chomiak

'In the eyes of the law, he's an innocent man'

-- Don Slough, Manitoba's deputy attorney general, after Unger's acquittal. Slough was one of the prosecutors who worked with Dangerfield on Unger's trial.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 24, 2009 A3