Ironically I just got this in my email. This prosecuter is saying the right thing here. Thank god.
Woman admits false accusation
Fingered ex in 2002 violent assault
By SEAN McKIBBON, Ottawa Sun
Andre Tolkacz was bewildered, a court heard yesterday, when police woke him from a sound sleep at the Union Mission and arrested him on charges that he trashed his ex-girlfriend's house and violently assaulted her.
But police soon learned Tolkacz had every right to be bewildered. Nothing seemed to add up as the man, who was neatly dressed with no signs of scratches or blood, talked with police and protested his innocence.
Tolkacz was innocent.
Police were called to the house of Mary Brown, 32, on the night of Aug. 14, 2002, after a 911 call from a woman reporting that there was an intruder in her house, that the person had trashed the place and that she had fought with him.
CONVICTION QUASHED
Brown pleaded guilty yesterday to public mischief for falsely accusing Tolkacz, an accusation Crown prosecutor Debbie Hanscom said could easily have resulted in Tolkacz being jailed as a result of a zero-tolerance policy adhered to by police and prosecutors in domestic assault cases.
"Men are particularly vulnerable to false allegations of domestic assault," Hanscom said.
Tolkacz had a conviction, for domestic assault against Brown, quashed this summer and will have a retrial early next year, in part because of the false accusation.
Court heard that it was an open-minded approach by police and some quick thinking by Tolkacz that ferreted out the lie.
When police arrived at Brown's residence they were confronted with a "house in complete disarray," Hanscom said as she read in the facts of the case.
Police saw a fridge overturned, blood on the walls, glass and house plants on the floor, a TV and audio equipment pulled out of the wall, Brown with cuts on her arm and her two daughters terrified.
Brown initially said she didn't know who her attacker was, but then said she thought it was her ex-boyfriend. Her daughters, 10 and 7, corroborated the story by saying Tolkacz had come over that night. They gave a vivid account of waking up to the fighting.
FELT PRESSURED BY COPS
But Tolkacz told police he hadn't seen Brown in a year and told them to ask her for a description.
A year ago, he had long hair. Now he had short hair and a goatee.
When police asked Brown, she gave a description of long hair and a scruffy face.
When confronted about the lie, "Miss Brown remained unco-operative and denied making a false allegation," said Hanscom.
Eventually, she did provide the name of her boyfriend at the time, Roy Woods, who police arrested the next day.
Woods pleaded guilty in connection with the incident on Nov. 12, 2002.
Brown's lawyer, Susan Richer, said her client felt pressured by police and didn't want to identify Woods, who had threatened her.
Justice James Fontana handed Brown a conditional discharge and one year of probation in consideration of her previously clean record.