megimoo
03-14-2009, 12:22 AM
Controversial technique used by police bags crooks – but price is too high, critics say
Her car has broken down and she is all alone. Young, attractive and in distress, she looks fetchingly at a young man leaving work and asks if he would be so good as to help.He obliges.Before they part, she hands him her phone number, then smiles with the unspoken promise of future romance.
He cannot believe his good fortune. But in reality, the woman is an undercover RCMP officer, and soon he will be in a prison cell.
This is a real-life example of a controversial Canadian police technique known as the Mr. Big sting. It came from the trial of two men connected to the slaying of four RCMP officers in March 2005 near the Alberta hamlet of Mayerthorpe.
This week, the technique was in the news again after Canada's Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson, ordered a new trial for Kyle Unger, 38, of Manitoba, ruling he was probably a victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Unger has spent 14 years behind bars after being convicted of the sex murder of his former high school acquaintance, Brigitte Grenier, in 1992 at a bush party near Roseisle, a hamlet in south-central Manitoba.
In stings like the one used against Unger, undercover police officers connect with a target and then introduce him to Mr. Big, a man posing as a major mobster. The target is invited into Mr. Big's crime group, but only if he will admit committing a major crime.
The target in the Mayerthorpe case was drawn into an elaborately staged plot that involved a bogus beating, pretend gun running, cigarette smuggling and diamond stealing. One Mountie even played the role of Santa at a fake company Christmas party.
After Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman were convicted of murder for helping the actual killer in the Mayerthorpe case, Barry Hennessey, father of Shawn and father-in-law of Cheeseman, revealed that Cheeseman had sometimes feared for his safety because he thought he was dealing with bona fide organized criminals."He was scared for his life,'' Hennessey told reporters. "He thought they were Hells Angels."'
Critics of the Mr. Big technique argue the police stings often lead to false confessions by people seeking to make illegal money.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/601583
Her car has broken down and she is all alone. Young, attractive and in distress, she looks fetchingly at a young man leaving work and asks if he would be so good as to help.He obliges.Before they part, she hands him her phone number, then smiles with the unspoken promise of future romance.
He cannot believe his good fortune. But in reality, the woman is an undercover RCMP officer, and soon he will be in a prison cell.
This is a real-life example of a controversial Canadian police technique known as the Mr. Big sting. It came from the trial of two men connected to the slaying of four RCMP officers in March 2005 near the Alberta hamlet of Mayerthorpe.
This week, the technique was in the news again after Canada's Justice Minister, Rob Nicholson, ordered a new trial for Kyle Unger, 38, of Manitoba, ruling he was probably a victim of a miscarriage of justice.
Unger has spent 14 years behind bars after being convicted of the sex murder of his former high school acquaintance, Brigitte Grenier, in 1992 at a bush party near Roseisle, a hamlet in south-central Manitoba.
In stings like the one used against Unger, undercover police officers connect with a target and then introduce him to Mr. Big, a man posing as a major mobster. The target is invited into Mr. Big's crime group, but only if he will admit committing a major crime.
The target in the Mayerthorpe case was drawn into an elaborately staged plot that involved a bogus beating, pretend gun running, cigarette smuggling and diamond stealing. One Mountie even played the role of Santa at a fake company Christmas party.
After Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman were convicted of murder for helping the actual killer in the Mayerthorpe case, Barry Hennessey, father of Shawn and father-in-law of Cheeseman, revealed that Cheeseman had sometimes feared for his safety because he thought he was dealing with bona fide organized criminals."He was scared for his life,'' Hennessey told reporters. "He thought they were Hells Angels."'
Critics of the Mr. Big technique argue the police stings often lead to false confessions by people seeking to make illegal money.
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/601583