‘Welcome you to the ranks of the wrongfully convicted’: Sophonow, Ostrowski watched court decision on 1973 case

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This article was published 20/07/2023 (779 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two men who fought for a half-century to prove their innocence weren’t the only wrongfully convicted people in a Winnipeg courtroom this week.

Thomas Sophonow and Frank Ostrowski were sitting in the public gallery Tuesday, watching as Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal acquitted Allan John (A.J.) Woodhouse and Brian Anderson of the 1973 slaying of Ting Fong Chan.

“I told them: let me be the first to welcome you to the ranks of the wrongfully convicted,” Sophonow said Thursday from his British Columbia residence.

“I’m happy for the people who were exonerated, but I’m pissed off about my case,” Ostrowski said in an interview. “I’m very happy for them.”

Sophonow, now 70, was convicted of the 1981 strangling death of 16-year-old Barbara Stoppel at a doughnut shop in St. Boniface — despite an alibi that included getting auto repairs, shopping, and distributing Christmas gifts at local hospital children’s wards.

He went through three trials, with the first jury failing to reach a unanimous verdict, and the second and third convicting him. The case was appealed and, after spending 45 months in custody, the province’s highest court acquitted him in 1985.

It took until 2000 for Winnipeg police to say Sophonow did not commit the still-unsolved slaying, and for the provincial government to apologize. After a commission of inquiry, he received $2.3 million for a miscarriage of justice.

Ostrowski was convicted of the 1986 drug-related slaying of 22-year-old Robert Nieman, and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. He spent 23 years behind bars.

Nine years after being released on bail, pending a federal review of the case, the province’s highest court stayed Ostrowski’s conviction, saying an undisclosed deal prosecutors made with a police informant culminated in a miscarriage of justice.

Ostrowski is attempting to go back to court to fight for compensation, because his initial claim for $16 million was deemed to be filed too late.

“My lawyers filed it at the wrong time,” Ostrowski said. “I spent 23 years in prison — even A.J. and Brian together weren’t in prison that long. I did more time than the both of them.”

Sophonow said he became emotional during the acquittal hearing for Woodhouse and Anderson — especially as he walked the Law Courts Building hallways, as he did many times decades ago.

“I was hanging on every word the judge was saying,” he said. “It did get a little bit emotional for me, but it is understandable.”

Sophonow and Ostrowski further criticized the city police handling of their cases, and the Crown prosecutor involved in both cases: George Dangerfield.

Dangerfield was also the prosecutor for the wrongful convictions of James Driskell and Kyle Unger.

“That (takes) him up to six wrongfully convicted,” Sophonow said. “And, if they can find the other Woodhouse fellow, it would be seven in total. Actually eight then.”

Clarence Woodhouse and Russell Woodhouse were also convicted in the 1973 slaying of Chan. Russell has since died; the location of Clarence isn’t yet clear.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

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Kevin Rollason
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Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.