Prosecutor voiced fears about Ste. Anne police before MD’s sex assault case disintegrated, probe found By: Katrina Clarke Posted: 12:58 PM CDT Friday, Oct. 20, 2023

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This article was published 20/10/2023 (712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Crown prosecutor privately raised concerns with his superiors about a rural police department’s ability to handle a “difficult” high-profile sexual assault case, according to the findings of a Law Enforcement Review Agency investigation.

The prosecution’s case then collapsed when it later came out in court that the police force had apparently lost key evidence — its own notebooks.

The findings from the LERA investigation, obtained by the Free Press, shed light on what happened prior to the abrupt conclusion of the first of three trials for Ste. Anne physician Arcel Bissonnette, who was charged with 22 counts of sexual assault. What happened to the notebooks remains a mystery.

During Bissonnette’s first trial in January, a police witness testified her notebooks about the case had gone missing, possibly years earlier. The six charges at the centre of the case were then stayed, with the prosecution telling the judge there was no reasonable likelihood of a conviction due to late disclosure, but it was not explicitly clear what the late disclosure involved.

Bissonnette’s second judge-alone trial ended in the summer but is still awaiting a verdict. A third trial is scheduled for next year. The charges against Bissonnette have not been proven in court and he is presumed innocent.

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Six women, all former patients of Bissonnette’s, never had the opportunity to testify in the initial trial. Five are now suing the doctor.

One of the women, who can’t be named due to a publication ban, filed the LERA complaint against the officer whose notebooks went missing. LERA is the independent body in Manitoba that investigates non-criminal complaints about municipal police. The woman previously spoke with the Free Press last year about her concerns regarding how police had handled the case.

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The Crown, apparently, had similar concerns.

According to a summary of his interview with LERA, now-retired Crown attorney Paul Girdlestone told investigators he had advised his supervisors the case “was beyond the scope and ability of the (Sainte-Anne Police Department), the subject matter was difficult to investigate, and investigator(s) did not possess the necessary experience to conduct proper interviews of the complainants.”

Girdlestone added that the files the Ste. Anne police provided to the Crown “did not appear as properly maintained” and two inventories “determined there was file content that was missing.”

The head of the police force told the Free Press this week he was “surprised” by Girdlestone’s comments.

“Throughout the course of the investigation, we received numerous comments from the Crown’s office favourable to the work done by our officers,” Ste. Anne police Chief Marc Robichaud said in an email. “Should the Crown have had those concerns, they were not brought to our attention at the time. The dedication and professionalism of our force have always been a priority, and feedback from our partners in the justice system has largely reflected this.”

Still, when the case went to court, Girdlestone’s suspicion was confirmed.

Ste. Anne Const. Jacqueline Lawford, the former lead investigator on the Bissonnette case, testified she kept detailed records in several notebooks that she left in a drawer at the police station when she accepted a new policing job in 2019.

She later told LERA investigators the same thing: she left “six or seven” notebooks in a filing cabinet. The LERA report said she “unwaveringly denies intentionally or negligently” being responsible for the missing notebooks and submits that “she is being held as a scapegoat by the Crown.” She blamed her former boss, saying three years passed before the notebooks were detected as missing and “general procedures are lacking at the Ste. Anne Police.”

Robichaud said he takes “the absence” of Const. Lawford’s notebooks seriously.

“In response, we’ve implemented a system to track notebooks to ensure better retention and organization,” he told the Free Press. “This new process aims to maintain the integrity of our investigations and the trust of the public.”

”In response, we’ve implemented a system to track notebooks to ensure better retention and organization.”–Ste. Anne police Chief Marc Robichaud

No one interviewed for the LERA investigation seems to know what happened to the notebooks, nor were they able to confirm Lawford left them in the cabinet.

One police officer, described as Lawford’s assigned sergeant and the “exhibit custodian,” told LERA she didn’t receive Lawford’s notes. Robichaud said there was “no definitive information that substantiated Constable Lawford left file materials, notebooks behind in a file drawer.”

Girdlestone told LERA he had concerns the missing notebooks played a role in the collapse of the prosecution and “affected fairness of the trial process.”

However, the LERA probe determined there was no evidence Lawford “intentionally or negligently concealed” notes. It deemed the Crown’s suggestion that Lawford’s actions led to the collapse of the trial “unsubstantiated.”

Lawford, who has not been on active duty since November 2020, told LERA she is unlikely to return to policing and that she is “humiliated and upset” by any allegation she was involved in wrongdoing.

The LERA complainant said she is glad to hear police are updating their record-keeping processes but is “disappointed” by the agency’s findings.

“I did all that I could do to make them aware of my experience and I guess that’s all I can do,” she said.

“I did all that I could do to make them aware of my experience and I guess that’s all I can do.”

She said she complained because she is trying to “right some wrongs.” She hopes no one else has to endure what she’s been through.

The case went to trial in 2023, more than five years since she first went to police in 2017. Bissonnette was initially charged with six counts of sexual assault in 2020, before 16 more counts were added in 2021 after more women came forward.

The complainant also contacted the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba about the allegations in 2018 but the college allowed Bissonnette to keep practising medicine up until he was criminally charged in 2020. In January 2019, the college placed a condition on his licence requiring him to have a chaperone present when performing breast or pelvic exams.

Robichaud told LERA the “substantive portion” of the police’s investigation wrapped up in 2017, and that the investigative file was forwarded to Manitoba Prosecutions for Crown opinion, a process that took “several years.”

Reached for comment about the town’s confidence in its police force in light of the Bissonnette case, Ste. Anne Mayor Yvan St. Vincent said: “I can say that, without a doubt we have the utmost confidence in our police force and we always have.”

The Town of Ste. Anne has a population of nearly 3,000 people. The Sainte-Anne Police Department has five full-time officers.

katrina.clarke@freepress.mb.ca

Katrina Clarke
Investigative reporter

Katrina Clarke is an investigative reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press. Katrina holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University. She has worked at newspapers across Canada, including the National Post and the Toronto Star. She joined the Free Press in 2022. Read more about Katrina.

Every piece of reporting Katrina 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.