The condemnation of murder derived from the disappearance of an Edmonton woman of 1987 has been expelled, partly because there was evidence not revealed from police investigation.
Roy Sobotiak’s lawyers presented written arguments in support of their bail application on Friday, which shed light on the problems they raised with the investigation and trial that ended in 1991, condemning Sobotiak of second degree murder in the death of Susan Kaminsky.
That is, they describe problems around unleashed evidence, a “Big” police operation covered in the late 1980s and additional forensic evidence linked to the case, some of which were discovered after the condemnation of Sobotiak.
“In 1991, the case against Mr. Sobotiak was apparently very strong. He was with Mrs. Kaminsky the night before her disappearance and she was believed that she never left her mother’s house alive due to her confessions. [the undercover officer] And his greatest arrest confession, “says the report.
“Today, the factual panorama has changed fundamentally. There is a reasonable probability that the murder position is maintained due to the non -dissemination and/or due to the way in which the great operation was performed.”
Kaminsky, a 34 -year -old mother, disappeared in February 1987 and her body was never found.
Sobotiak, who was just over 20 years old at that time, was the last person known to see her alive. He had told the police that Kaminsky took him to his mother’s house, where the two had spent time together after being in a bar after midnight.
The Federal Justice Minister ordered a new trial for Sobotiak this year, almost 36 years after Sobotiak was arrested and imprisoned.
King Erick Macklin’s Banking Judge granted the launch of FRIDAY OF SOBOTIAK. It is under a curfew and other conditions ordered by the Court.
James Lockyer, founding director of Innocence Canada and one of Sobotiak’s lawyers called him “the most condemned man for the history of Canadian history.”
He pointed out that the only other comparable case is Romeo Phillionwhich passed almost 32 years in prison before his conviction for murder was annulled in 2003. A new trial was also ordered in that case, but the prosecutors of the crown in Ontario withdrew the position of murder against him in 2010.
Sobotiak, now 61, asked the Minister of Justice to review his conviction, Lockyer told the court.
A subsequent investigation by federal officials discovered unleashed evidence of police archives, including evidence of other possible suspects in Kaminsky’s disappearance, according to a written memorandum of the Legal Legal Team of Sobotiak.
“Its impact on the result of the applicant’s trial and the equity of his judgment had to be evaluated,” says the report.
The document, presented at the King’s Bench court earlier this month, says that lawyers cannot reveal details of the investigation report due to a confidentiality agreement.
‘Mister. Big ‘research
Sobotiak’s lawyers argued that the great operation that was used to cause the original Sobotiak confession was abusive and cannot resist legal scrutiny.
In a Big Sting, undercover police officers attract a suspect to a fictitious criminal organization. A ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada in 2014 established new standards on how this evidence can be used, with stricter rules about the legal admissibility of the confessions made during this type of investigations.
In this case, they say the written arguments, the operation came with implicit threats of violence and induced Sobotiak to confess portraying membership in the false criminal group as a path to emotional and financial security.
“The officers took advantage of their vulnerabilities: their poverty, their mental health problems and their addictions,” says the report.
“It is surprising that Mr. Sobotiak has endured as much as he did.”
Sobotiak constantly denied any participation in Kaminsky’s disappearance for almost 11 months of Mr. Big Sting, who began after the police investigated Sobotiak through surveillance, telephone listeners and a police informant who lived with him for several months.
The details of the investigation were revealed in the Court during the original trial.
As of October 1988, an undercover police service in Edmonton became friends with Sobotiak and led him to organized drug agreements and false exploration trips to look for places to hide a corpse. The detective also bought food and sobotiak alcohol, and paid him for being a “vigilant” during drug transactions.
In September 1989, the police decided to try to get drunk sobotia “to see if it would” say something. “
The undercover officer then pressed to obtain details about Kaminsky’s death in a hotel room, while Sobotiak drank a 26 -ounce full vodka bottle.
Roy Sobotiak was convicted of second degree murder in the 1987 murder of Edmonton’s mother, Susan Kaminsky. But after the Federal Justice Minister ordered a new trial this year, a judge granted the release of Sobotiak on Friday, saying that it is now considered legally innocent.
At the video recorded on video, Sobotiak is visibly intoxicated. The officer continued to press him with statements that include: “‘Our circle’ knew that he had killed Kaminsky and needed to be honest if he wanted to be in his organization.”
Sobotiak then “adopted” the suggestion of the officer that Kaminsky died by accident, says the report of the lawyers. He said she fell and broke her neck as she tried to take her down the stairs in her mother’s house.
The undercover detective promoted Sobotiak to obtain details of Kaminsky’s death in three more meetings during the following week. Sobotiak told a variety of stories, first repeating death was an accident, but added that he had transported his body from his mother’s house in a canvas bag, dismembered it in his apartment and eliminated him in two containers. Then, he said that he had strangled her after a sexual encounter.
The fourth and last time, after the officer told Sobotiak about “the importance of his confession as a means of entry into his criminal organization,” the story repeated, claiming that “he went crazy.”
Sobotiak was arrested the next day. The man with whom he had spent time was officially revealed as a police officer.
Questions about the dissemination of the witness’s statement
There is limited evidence about what was revealed during the original Sobotiak trial, since the crown archives and the former defense lawyer have been destroyed, according to the report presented in the Court.
But the brief alleges that the “substantial” evidence of evidence, saying that the “most striking” examples are the statements that Sobotiak’s sister gave the police that suggested that Kaminsky was alive when he left the house, before he disappeared.
Another witness told the Police that he saw a woman who looked like Kaminsky walking with a man, who was not sobotiak, later the day he disappeared, after the police said that Sobotiak killed her.
A young neighbor also told the Police about possible Kaminsky’s avistations and his car that day, later that Sobotiak told the undercover police officer who killed her.
“His statements would have undermined Mr. Big Concessions of Mr. Sobotiak and his greatest arrest confession,” says the report.
During the original trial, the defense received a police investigation report that mentioned that “several ex -boyfriends” from Kaminsky had supposedly been violent with her, including one that an RCMP officer suggested that he should be considered suspicious in his disappearance.
“No more information was provided about these partners of Mrs. Kaminsky and what steps were taken to investigate them,” says the report.
He adds that DNA analysis in 2023 is not compatible with Sobotiak statements made during his confession at Mr. Big Sting, on putting Kaminsky’s body in a canvas bag that possessed and dismembering it in his department.
The Alberta Crown Prosecutor’s Office has not yet made a decision on whether they will put Sobotiak in trial for the second time, almost four decades after Kaminsky disappeared.
The province has requested a judicial review of the decision to order a new trial.
There is still no date on a federal court, and Sobotiak’s lawyers say it could have been resolved for years.
