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CAS/Police Fabricate Evidence

February 15, 2007 permalink

Canada Court Watch reports on a case in which police and CAS created a videotape for evidence. When they found it did not contain what they wanted, they later created a second nearly identical recording. Somehow the family found out about the substitution and acquired copies of both recordings.

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Parent alleges collusion and cover-up by police and CAS workers to obstruct justice by attempting to fabricate false information for the courts

(February 15, 2007) A parent came forth to Court Watch with evidence which would support the parents claims that police officers in Ontario colluded with CAS workers in what would appear to be an attempt to fabricate false information in a child abuse investigation.

According to the parent, he has videotapes of interviews conducted jointly by police and CAS which were highly flawed and in the opinion of a leading expert on the subject, one of the worst cases of evidence tampering by law enforcement officials and those involved in the protection of children.

Two almost identical videos of the same child using the same questions by the same officials in the same room but a few days apart support claims that there was collusion amongst the professionals involved to conduct a second identical interview while covering up the fact that two interviews were conducted.

According to the parents of the child, unless one looked at the two videotapes very carefully, it would be difficult to detect that the interview tapes were not copies of each other. After viewing the tape carefully clear differences could be seen.

According to this parent, the police and CAS workers were colluding to provide misleading evidence to the court in order to frame the parents for child abuse. According to the parent, "CAS workers did not get what they wanted during the first interview, so they did a second interview asking the child the same questions again........They (The CAS workers) were very careful when they set up the interview. Everyone on the second tape was in the same position and in the same room. The second interview was almost identical, but they screwed up and made some mistakes which are apparent upon close inspection of the videotapes."

CAS workers and police originally denied the existence of the second video tape which CAS workers had attempted to conceal. Copies of CAS worker notes secretly obtained from CAS files reveal that the interview which CAS workers attempted to cover-up, was in fact conducted a second time by workers.

According to the parents, one police officer swore an affidavit as to the number of videotapes, yet the parents obtained copies of tapes which clearly contradicted what was said in the police affidavit. The videotaped interviews of the children including the videotapes that the CAS tried to hide will be presented to a jury during an upcoming civil lawsuit against the CAS and the workers who were responsible for this attempt at obstruction of justice. A full Court Watch Report will follow up on this story.

This story of incompetence and evidence tampering by CAS workers reinforces the importance of recording every conversation with CAS workers and police during a child abuse investigation. Parents in Ontario must protect themselves by also ensuring that they exercise their rights to audiotape their court proceedings as permitted under section 136 of the Ontario Courts of Justice Act. Parents in other provinces should push for legislation which will give them the right to record court hearings as is allowed under Ontario law.

Source: Canada Court Watch

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