Fort Rouge fires raise tricky issue

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This article was published 06/08/2011 (5302 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

What do you do when an adult accused of a crime has the mental age of a 10-year-old?

That’s the question facing justice officials as they deal with a 20-year-old man who’s accused of torching 18 properties, mainly in Fort Rouge.

Police said this week they’d arrested Brandon Sutyla late Tuesday night after he lit a vehicle on fire on Chancellor Drive. His mother and lawyer said they don’t believe he’s guilty of the charges.

His mother said her son has an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a global cognitive delay. Sutyla also went before the court last September as an intellectually disabled adult with a low-to-borderline IQ.

Michael Weinrath, the chairman of University of Winnipeg’s criminal justice department, said cases in which the accused has a mental disability pose investigative challenges for officers. It means they must proceed carefully. A successful case depends on whether a “confession was obtained without coercion or inducement, and that the rights of the accused were fairly read to that person and they had a reasonable understanding of them,” he said.

“The third factor that would become more important probably in this case, is that there’s some corroborating evidence of a physical or other nature, eyewitness account or physical evidence that they were at the scene,” said Weinrath.

Police haven’t revealed the details about how they nabbed Sutyla.

After police announced Sutyla’s arrest, his lawyer, Martin Glazer, said his client lacked the “sophistication” to carry out the crimes and hard evidence is needed to back up the charges.

“I fear that the police in this particular case have, rather than getting hard physical evidence, are relying on a statement which in my view will be ruled inadmissible because it’s just not going to stand up in court,” Glaser said Friday.

Barkley Engel, executive director of Turning Leaf Community Support Services, said more than half of the non-profit’s clients have faced criminal charges.

“Often, they don’t fully understand the process,” Engel said. “Often, they acquiesce, they’ll admit to things without fully understanding the consequences or their rights.

“There’s a strong tendency for the folks that we’ve worked with to strive to be accepted by people, even if it’s a negative peer group.

“That’s the largest reason why they’ve been in conflict in the law — a desire to please the people that have been around them, such as gangs or just negative influences.”

People grappling with mental illness and intellectual challenges “tend to require a different kind of support,” Engel said. “(They) will respond very well to treatment for whatever behaviour it is that has brought them into conflict, whether it be inappropriate sexual behaviour, whether it be the arson or whether it’s domestic abuse or domestic assault. They respond very well to treatment, and I think that our job is, in part, to help the community become aware of the options that are available,” said Engel.

John Leggat, acting executive director of the province’s disability programs, said there are a number of community agencies that provide the specialized services ordered by the courts or after psychiatric assessments on arsonists who are diagnosed to have intellectual disabilities.

“It’s not just three months of support — we’re looking at a lifetime of support,” Leggat said.

“For some, they will require constant support while others can show change and can earn that independence.

“Any time we can provide support and prevent something negative from happening, it makes a lot of sense.”

Leggat said an individualized program is set up for each person. “The range of folks we’re talking about includes some who are quite competent to make decisions and others who are impacted by intellectual disabilities. Or their mental health can be impacted by mental illness.

“There’s quite a range of resources available,” he added. “Some live with families, some in apartments, some in 24-hour staffed homes, some in foster situations with a high level of support.”

Leggat said he can’t say how many people are enrolled in these programs. The department looks after 5,000 people with disabilities.

“Of that, it would be a very small number,” he said. “We need to be clear: it’s not always the disability that causes this behaviour. It can be something else.”

The Winnipeg Police Service would not comment about whether officers have difficulty building a case against people with intellectual disabilities, or who are mentally or cognitively challenged.

However, the issue of Sutyla’s mental state came up at a news conference on Thursday.

“I don’t have any indication in terms of the reports I’ve been given that that’s what investigators looked at,” said spokesman Const. Rob Carver.

 

— With files from Kevin Rollason

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca

 

Arson and disabilities

This isn’t the first arson arrest where a person’s disability has been an issue:

— Kelly Peter Sawchuk: Police arrested a 37-year-old man in May 2005 after cardboard boxes were lit on fire in a Broadway apartment. A media report said Sawchuk had the mental age of a seven-year-old, and grappled with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. His lawyer, Martin Glazer, said police extracted a false confession.

— Christopher Leo Fillion: He was accused of setting 23 fires in 2004. Fillion said he had fetal alcohol syndrome disorder and hyperactivity. Another media report said he had the mental age of a 13-year-old.