The day after the tragic shootings of four RCMP officers near Rochfort
Bridge, Alberta last March a
fifth estate team set off to find out how
it happened. Just who was James (Jimmy) Roszko?
the fifth estate spoke to dozens of sources in Alberta – including
the five families directly affected by the shootings, police and community
members. In many cases, like that of Cash and Tracy MacMillan and her
brother Dale Mindus, we tracked down people whose violent run-ins with
Roszko had never been documented before.
the fifth estate also spent months talking to James Roszko's mother,
father and siblings. This dialogue ultimately led to exclusive access
to James Roszko's farm – the site of the RCMP murders.
John
Roszko, brother: "He was accustomed to havin' his own way...And
as he got older, it didn't matter what he did, what kind of crime he
created, and especially if he got off he just assumed it was the right
way."
JAMES ROSZKO'S LIFE
We slowly began to fill in a timeline that
started decades ago when James Roszko was born. We gathered hundreds
of pages of material – including
Roszko family divorce files, autopsy reports, bailiff reports, court
records and records of James Roszko's numerous legal cases. (see a list
in
resources)
Since last March, the RCMP has been investigating possible accessories
to murder in relation to the shooting of four RCMP officers. In April,
the fifth estate learned that the RCMP had sealed five search warrants
and information related to the ongoing RCMP criminal investigation into
the Roszko shootings.
THE COURT CASE TO UNSEAL THE DOCUMENTS
After
the fifth estate began making inquiries the Crown quietly sealed
all five of the warrants indefinitely. The Alberta judge who sealed the
warrants also sealed his decision.
the fifth estate went to court and an Alberta superior court justice
made two rulings:
- That the Crown violated an Alberta statute when they sealed the RCMP
warrants indefinitely and failed to give public notice. In September
Court of Queen's Bench Justice T.D. Clackson ordered the Crown
to give notice to the media, thereby setting an important precedent
for transparency in Alberta Justice.
- On October 25 Justice Clackson ordered the complete release of all
five RCMP search warrants and Informations, giving the public the first
window into Roszko's actions from the moment he fled his farm
on in the afternoon of March 2 to the moment he returned and shot the
four officers on the morning of March 3.
THE SEARCH WARRANTS
the fifth estate went to court so that the search warrants in the Roszko case
could be made public.
Here are some
highlights of information obtained
from the over 200 pages of documents.
The information in the warrants made news in Alberta and across the
country, confirming the intense interest Canadians still have in finding
out all the facts behind the shootings. (see highlights of the warrants)
In his October 25 decision, Justice Clackson determined that "there
is nothing to suggest that the investigation will be compromised by disclosure
of the sealed materials" and that "There is no foundation
to suggest that full disclosure of the sealed materials would pose a
serious threat to any of the persons who assisted police. In result,
there is no basis on which the continued sealing of these materials can
be justified."
RCMP RESPONSE
On October 31, hours after the public release of the warrants, the RCMP
held a press conference at K Division Headquarters in Edmonton in response
to the release of the warrants. Inspector Gary Brine, Operations Officer
for Western Alberta District explained that "what we were trying
to do was conduct an investigation that would get to the bottom of what
happened. We still hope to do that. But the fact is, information which
we were holding back in order to get at the truth is now out in the public
domain. If we can't hold back certain information about our strategy,
we lose the ability to investigate the possible involvement of others
in the community." (Read an
RCMP
press release)
The RCMP declined to assist the fifth estate with the telling of this
story.
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NOTE: Some of these documents are PDF files.
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