Globe and Mail

[Scott MacLean]

Man lands in jail over pellet gun

Review of statement by neighbour spurs release after nine days in custody

By KIRK MAKIN
JUSTICE REPORTER
Saturday, January 18, 2003 - Print Edition, Page A5

Arriving home at 8 a.m. from his graveyard shift, Tim Lacasse decided to put up a target in his back yard and test out a pellet gun he had borrowed from a friend.

It quickly dawned on Mr. Lacasse that he might wake up the neighbourhood, so he returned indoors and washed the dishes. He was nearly asleep when police banged on his door.

Mr. Lacasse's personal descent into hell was under way.

Mr. Lacasse, 43, said in an interview that one officer told him as they searched his house, "I guarantee I'm going to make your life miserable. And if you say a word, I'll handcuff you to the railing for the rest of the day."

He was charged with pointing a firearm at a widow in her sixties who lived next door, assault with a weapon and possessing a dangerous weapon. Mr. Lacasse was whisked away in handcuffs and put in Toronto's Don Jail.

Denied bail, the bakery delivery man spent five of the next nine days sleeping on floors in the chronically overcrowded jail. He said he could not change his filthy clothes and was repeatedly threatened by inmates and guards.

Mr. Lacasse also said that he spent one night sharing a cell that was strewn with feces and garbage. "It turned out that the other guy had TB and nobody would clean his room," Mr. Lacasse said in the interview.

"I was on the verge of panic. Nobody even knew where I was. I had to beg a guard to let me make just one phone call. My head was spinning over how fast I had gone from being a contributing member of society to being in jail accused of pointing a weapon at a 65-year-old woman."

Mr. Lacasse said he has often thought about the five years he backpacked around South America and Africa without coming to any harm. "That this kind of thing could happen here in my own country blows my mind," he said.

On the ninth day of his incarceration, a troubling problem emerged for the Crown. It had no real evidence to back up the charges. A police review of the neighbour's police statement revealed that she had said Mr. Lacasse never pointed the pellet gun at her.

Mr. Lacasse was released. He recently filed a $1-million malicious-prosecution lawsuit against Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino and seven officers.

A statement of claim prepared by lawyer Sean Dewart alleges that the police knowingly placed false information in the case record, causing the Crown to oppose bail for Mr. Lacasse, a man with no criminal record or history of violence.

"The police wield incredible power in deciding whether or not to lay charges," Mr. Dewart said in an interview. "Once the criminal process is put in motion the results are grave, as Mr. Lacasse's jail experience demonstrates. His ultimate vindication does not undo the harm caused by what can most charitably be described as recklessness on the part of police in this case."

In their statement of defence, the police maintain they acted in good faith. They say that Mr. Lacasse should have known he would frighten his neighbour by carrying a gun into his back yard.

The police say Mr. Lacasse never told them about trying some target practice in the back yard and that he authored his own misfortune by saying initially that he didn't have a firearm.

Mr. Lacasse acknowledged that in his confusion, he did lie about having the weapon. "I don't think that lie excuses them of responsibility," he added.

Mr. Lacasse said he called police a few weeks before the incident after his neighbour launched some cat droppings over the fence and was told that the police believed she suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

Mr. Lacasse said he approached an area church for mediation help. A mediation session was set up for Aug. 25, by which time Mr. Lacasse was stuck in the Don Jail.

"If they had just dropped all the charges and admitted they had made a mistake from the start, I probably would have just dropped the whole thing," Mr. Lacasse said yesterday.

_______________________
Scott MacLean
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