Judge’s decision delayed in controversial abuse case

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This article was published 07/06/2016 (3377 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba judge has reserved her decision in a controversial domestic violence case rocked by allegations that Crown misconduct led the victim to commit suicide.

Brett Johnston confessed to beating his girlfriend, telling police he lashed out after a drunken argument. But he is now seeking to be cleared of wrongdoing because the woman later took her own life and can’t be put on the stand for cross-examination.

“The right to confront an accuser is a constitutional right,” defence lawyer Ian Histed argued Tuesday.

The Crown says this is the sort of case where a victim’s previous unchallenged statement to police should be allowed in as evidence. Investigators say the woman told them Johnston kicked her in the face, which is what caused her extensive injuries including a dislocated jaw, broken nose and torn ear.

“In this case we have so much collaboration,” Crown attorney Ari Milo said Tuesday. He noted that Johnston himself admitted “I did it, I hit my girlfriend” upon arrest, and the medical evidence clearly shows she suffered injuries.

“He knew he had done something wrong. His actions were very serious. They constituted an assault,” said Milo.

Queen’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey has reserved her decision until later this summer on whether to allow the woman’s statement to be admissible. McKelvey also reserved her decision on another motion filed by Histed, in which he seeks to have the case tossed based on alleged misconduct by a different Crown attorney previously on the case.

“There was a criminal act by the Crown attorney, extortion, that led to this poor woman’s death,” Histed told court on Monday. “I see a lot of cases with abuse of process. I have not seen anything like this. There has never been a case as serious or blatant as this.”

Heather Leonoff, the head of Manitoba’s constitutional law branch, called Histed’s claims “histrionic and over-the-top in the extreme” and urged McKelvey to reject them.

Johnston was charged with assault causing bodily harm following the April 2014 incident at his home. According to Histed, a provincial Crown attorney sent him an email in September 2014 and indicated she would accept a plea bargain to the existing charge.. However, she indicated that refusing to admit responsibility could result in her authorizing a more serious charge of aggravated assault against Johnston before taking him to trial.

“That’s extortion. That’s a direct threat,” Histed said Monday. Leonoff claims there was nothing unsavoury about the offer made to Histed and that this was “legitimate plea bargaining” which happens all the time between lawyers.

Histed said the same prosecutor also warned him in the fall of 2014 that his client could also face a possible obstruction of justice charge, as Johnston’s girlfriend had been repeatedly going to victim services telling them she wanted the charge dropped and to resume contact with the accused.

Histed said he responded by telling the Crown his client had not influenced the woman in any way and was actually quite concerned — she had been expressing suicidal thoughts and there were fears she would act on them. Histed asked the Crown to drop the case and allow Johnston to resume a relationship with the woman, as she clearly wanted. The Crown refused. Histed said the woman then ceased all contact with victim services and the Crown. She ended her life weeks later.

Leonoff said the Crown did all it could in the case, including leaving voice mail messages with the woman that weren’t returned. They had lined her up with proper supports, and there had been in-patient treatment for her mental health. Ultimately, doctors released her on the belief “she was doing well,” said Leonoff. At no time was the woman discouraged from making her views about the criminal case known.

www.mikeoncrime.com