Susan Clairmont: Murder trial hears about ‘clerical error’ involving potential suspect

Homicide detectives failed to tell the Crown attorney a confidential informant had named someone else as the killer on a case already heading to trial.

For a year, investigators forgot to tell assistant Crown attorney Fraser McCracken that a police informant pointed to a possible alternate suspect in the murder of Michel Pilon, who was found hog-tied and strangled in his supportive housing unit.

McCracken was already preparing to prosecute George Opassinis for second-degree murder when he first learned police had information that another man bragged about committing the murder.

It was a clerical error," Staff Sgt. Cathy Lockley told the jury Tuesday at Opassinis's trial.

The revelation came while Lockley was under cross-examination by defence lawyer Barry Fox.

A one-time confidential informant named Shaun Anderson - who has since waived his right to have his identity protected - told a police officer in August 2019 that a man named Marek Dirda admitted to killing Michel.

Dirda said he tied Pilon up in the shower and jammed something in his mouth," Fox suggested to Lockley.

Lockley became aware of the information on Sept. 9, 2019.

The jury has already heard of Dirda.

In his opening address, McCracken told jurors Dirda is a drug dealer who will testify that Michel owed him money. The night Michel was killed, Dirda went to his apartment and spent 23 minutes inside, according to security video. When Dirda left, Michel and Opassinis were alone in the Melvin Avenue apartment until first responders arrived 24 hours later.

Court has heard Michel, 53, was found dead in the bathroom on Nov. 30, 2018. He was clothed, his neck, wrists and ankles bound with shoelaces and an electrical cord that were also looped through a support bar on the wall.

There was nothing in his mouth.

The shoelace around Michel's neck had blood on it containing his DNA and that of Opassinis, an expert from the Centre of Forensic Sciences testified.

Michel, who weighed 97 pounds, sometimes needed a wheelchair to get around.

Opassinis had been staying with Michel. Dirda allegedly told the confidential informant (CI) that Opassinis stayed in the apartment with Michel's body because he didn't know what else to do.

Lockley, the primary investigator on the case, testified the tip from the CI was passed on to her but she was not allowed to retain" the original paperwork in her files due to police policy. She vetted references to the CI out of her own notes.

We would never disclose a CI report," she told the court.

Det. Ross Johnson, the file manager on the case, did not include a summary of the tip in the thousands of pages of disclosure he gave to the Crown, Lockley said.

It wasn't until September 2020 - after a trial preparation meeting with McCracken, Lockley and major case manager Staff Sgt. Dave Oleniuk - that the lack of disclosure was discovered.

While walking back to the police station from the courthouse, the two detectives wondered why the Crown hadn't mentioned the Dirda tip when discussing what the defence strategy would be.

That odd omission prompted Oleniuk to phone McCracken to remind him of the CI tip.

McCracken knew nothing of it.

The trial also heard there was a second tip from another CI that wasn't properly disclosed. Even Lockley said she didn't know about it for some time." This tip came directly to Oleniuk. The jury wasn't given any details.

The alleged confession by Dirda prompted Justice Toni Skarica to issue midtrial instructions to the jury.

What they heard from Lockley and Fox is not evidence, the judge told them. So they cannot consider their information when deliberating on a verdict.

Susan Clairmont is a Hamilton-based crime, court and social justice columnist at The Spectator. Reach her via email: sclairmont@thespec.com