INDEPTH: BERNARDO
Homolka court appearance - Online diary
CBC News Online | June 6, 2005
Tracey Madigan is CBC.ca's online journalist in Montreal. She was a television and radio reporter before she joined cbc.ca/montreal when it was launched in 1999.
Two days of drama. Karla Homolka's return to the public eye as the clock ticked down on her 12-year manslaughter sentence for her role in the murders of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.
Before her scheduled release, Crown prosecutors from Ontario wanted a judge to put restrictions on her freedom – under Section 810 of the Criminal Code. The argument was that Homolka still poses a risk to society.
At the end of two days of testimony, the judge agreed and listed several conditions that Homolka would have to adhere to after walking out of the maximum security prison in Joliette, Que.
CBC online journalist Tracey Madigan was there. The following is what she filed as the case unfolded.
7:25 a.m.
Here we all go again. So far, the morning is a carbon copy of yesterday, weatherwise. Bright, warm and humid.
Everyone knows their roles a little better today. The photographers and some cameramen are staking out the side door already. They're waiting for Homolka's armoured van to arrive.
I'm in the Louisbourg, the cosiest of restaurants, and I'm sure I'm the only person here who is not from Joliette.
As I order my muffin, the sole two employees giggle behind the counter: “Hey, did you see yourself on Radio-Canada last night?” one asks the other.
“Yeah! It was just a shot of my arm pouring a cup of coffee. You couldn,t even see my face,” she laughed.
“I tuned in again at 10. I got to see it twice.”
The regulars are out in full force this morning. Ordering the usual.
If they don't look out the window of this tiny place, to spy all of the hubbub the media is building in front of the Joliette courthouse, it's because they're savouring the gory details of yesterday's proceedings in the morning paper.
Yet my impression is that they, like those in the rest of the country, are sharing their opinions on Homolka, as opposed to the fact that all of this is happening in their backyard.
8:45 a.m.
The weather may be the same as yesterday, but the mood is decidedly different. First of all, although the media tents are still up, reporters and technical crews are not as abundant. Only a handful of morning shows are doing live interviews from here.
The other difference is the lineup: There is no lineup.
In fact, there is nobody standing in front of the door where dozens crowded yesterday, many silently fearing that there would be no space for them in the courtroom. It turned out not to be a concern at all. Not as many members of the public showed up as had been expected, and seats sat empty yesterday -- not in the main courtroom, but in the spillover room.
So, many gambled today that there was no need to worry about having access. That gamble will likely pay off in the form a few more hours of sleep this morning.
9:24 a.m.
The camera lenses looked like suction cups up against the windows of the white van.
Photographers and cameramen lunged at the moving vehicle as it turned off the small street and into the restricted driveway to the Joliette courthouse.
The driver does slow down ever-so-slightly, long enough for lenses to move in. And as the van rolls the 20 metres to the restricted area, the gang follows.
It is a black mass. It is stuck to the van. And it is made up of people who intend to hold their very spot on the van despite the fact that it is moving.
I'm surprised to see that the van is actually moving at about 10 km per hour. Pretty fast, considering. Pretty dangerous, too.
Once the van enters the restricted area, everyone backs off. Photographers cower over the tiny displays on their cameras, rifling through the shots they grabbed.
No one seems to be confident that they got a good shot of Homolka. But they can't tell for sure, because of the bright sunlight on their screens.
They'll have to check out their goods on their laptops. Off they scurry.
As they walk away, I hear one of them say, ”I got banged really hard with the back of a TV camera.”
“Yeah, me too. Oh, it broke the skin, there's blood here,” another says as they scurry.
A TV camerman leans over to check his foot. He's wearing running shoes. They didn't protect him from a little trampling.
9:48 a.m.
The proceedings have begun.
Today, Homolka is wearing a dark khaki or maybe gray jacket. It's tough to tell because I'm watching her on a big screen TV.
The sound, though, is fine. So I can tell that once again, she is free of her shackles.
10:04 a.m.
Dr. Louis Morissette from the Pinel Institute is testifying this morning. He is a witness called by Homolka's lawyer.
Morissette met with Homolka for a total of three-and-a-half hours over two days – May 19 and May 25. Homolka also completed a written questionnaire for him.
He is here to talk about the “risk evaluation” he has completed on Homolka.
10:20 a.m.
Morissette says it's tough to do a risk evaluation. It's not a perfect science. He says he had to try to stay objective, despite his knowledge of the crimes she has committed.
He started by looking at what kind of person she was before she met Paul Bernardo. Was she stable? Did she have a job? Was she getting into trouble?
Her record back then was spotless, Morissette says.
But a psychological evaluation made some important discoveries about the Karla Homolka who had yet to meet Bernardo. She had very little self-esteem. She was vulnerable. She was convinced that she needed to be with a man.
So in many ways, Morisette says, Bernardo was a perfect match for Homolka.
10:31 a.m.
Morissette continues, saying that once Homolka and Bernardo hooked up, gradually, she began to do horrible things.
As far as her relationships in prison, Morissette says Homolka did have a homosexual relationship with a fellow inmate. The relationship lasted a few years and ended over two years ago.
He says it is very common for homosexual relationships to grow in prison, especially among prisoners serving lengthy sentences.
10:39 a.m.
Details about Homolka's current boyfriend are now being revealed.
Yes, she has verbal and written communication with a man in another prison. Yes, they exchanged pairs of clean underwear not too long ago. Yes, she has a photo of her boyfriend. It's a shot of him in a swimming pool. He is not wearing a shirt, but he is not naked, Morissette says.
He says Homolka and the man exchange letters at least once a week. Homolka doesn't hide the relationship. She often discusses it, Morissette says.
10:52 a.m.
As Homolka sits watching, Dr. Morissette paints the picture of a woman who was fine before she met Paul Bernardo. And a woman whose prison record is clean, and who has become a better, stronger person over the past few years, she shuffles in her seat every once in a while.
He outlines how his evaluation shows that Homolka is neither a sexual deviant, nor a psychopath. In fact, on a test given to find out whether she has psychopathic tendencies, she scored a five. A very low score, Morissette tells the court.
He goes on to say that not only is it virtually impossible to get a zero on the test, but most of the people in the courtroom would score at least a one or two.
Virtually all of Morissette's findings on Homolka's behaviour today are very positive.
11:05 a.m.
Morissette was asked to evaluate Homolka's empathy, loyalty, and promiscuity.
As for promiscuity, Morissette outlined the sexual relations Homolka has had: one boyfriend before Bernardo, Bernardo, a boyfriend in 1993, and then the girlfriend she had while in prison.
He had earlier told the court that Homolka and her new boyfriend – Jean-Paul Gerbet – had been caught exchanging a kiss in a library once.
Gerbet is serving a life sentence for murdering his ex-girlfriend. He will be eligible to apply for full parole in 2008.
11:45 a.m.
Homolka is a woman who has developed significantly since being locked up 12 years ago. That is what Dr. Morissette says he has discovered in his three-and-a-half hours of meetings with her.
He says she has much higher self-esteem now. She wants her rights to be respected, and demands her opinion be heard now, which Morissette believes are all signs that her personality is improving.
12:07 p.m.
Morissette is still talking – most of his points have been made before.
Homolka knows what she did was wrong. She knows that it was her bad choices that led her to stay with Paul Bernardo. She acknowledges that she chose her own life to the detriment of others.
Morissette says she stuck by Bernardo while he committed horrendous crimes, not because she enjoyed doing what she did, but because she was bound and determined to stay with her husband.
12:22 p.m.
Judge Jean R. Beaulieu is now questioning Morissette directly. Homolka's lawyer is standing silent.
Beaulieu has questions about Homolka's current boyfriend, who seems to be exactly the type of man experts say she shouldn't be seeing. Jean-Paul Gerbet is in a Québec prison for killing Cathy Carretta in the Montreal suburb of Laval on Feb. 10, 1998.
Morissette says Homolka poses no threat to society. Yet other experts say she does pose a threat, especially if she's involved with a violent or dangerous person – like her current boyfriend.
Morissette acknowledges that Homolka has shown bad judgment by keeping this relationship going. He says judgment is something she will have to work on in her years of therapy that she has agreed she must undergo.
Homolka's head is slightly tilted. She looks a little tired.
12:27 p.m.
Homolka's lawyer wraps up her questioning of Morissette. Judge Beaulieu adjourns the proceedings for lunch.
We're scheduled to resume at 2:15 p.m. EDT.
2:10 p.m.
The media pounce on Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the familes of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. During the court proceedings, he is in the main courtroom, sitting not far from Homolka.
He is complimentary of the judge's work today. I had noted how the judge was asking very specific questions about the reams of information he has been given to read. And so has Danson, who says the judge's “informed, insightful questions” show that he has read all of the material he has been given.
Earlier, I had kept looking at Homolka as the judge grilled Morissette on her bad choice of boyfriends. And the fact that if dating a violent man is the one thing she's not supposed to be doing it, why should he believe that she is working on her behaviour.
Homolka didn't flinch. She didn't physically react at all to what was, in effect, a criticism of her behaviour. The reporters are feverishly taking notes today. A lot more information than yesterday is coming at us.
3:00 p.m.
Karla Homolka taps the security guard sitting next to her on the shoulder. She whispers something in his ear and, like yesterday, her lawyer comes to the edge of the prisoner's box to listen.
This is the third time Homolka has done this, the first time today.
No way of knowing what she said. But it might have been about what Morissette was telling the court at that very moment: James Ramsay, the lawyer representing Ontario prosecutors, wanted to know how Karla feels today about the crimes she committed.
She played an active role in the murders, Ramsay said. She did it deliberately, in cold blood. She doesn't apologize for it. Her husband made her do it. She recognizes now she should have left him earlier. She was ready to do anything to keep him.
"Why was she laughing in the video during the crimes?" Ramsay asks.
The response appeared at first to come out of left field.
"I saw (former Montreal child entertainer) Nathalie Simard in a video shot years ago," Morissette said. "She smiled and laughed, even though she was being abused."
Simard made headlines recently, coming forward years after she was abused at the hands of her manager. Morissette says Homolka recognizes that she was being “self-centred” when she played along with her husband's sordid criminal pleasures.
That's the point in the testimony that Homolka felt the urge to share something with her lawyer.
3:10 p.m.
Letters exchanged between Karla Homolka and her current boyfriend say things like “some day we'll be together.”
Ramsay also points out that there are sexual connotations in their correspondence.
3:25 p.m.
As part of her counselling, Homolka has established criteria for selecting her next eventual partner. It was read out in court today.
He should:
- Believe in the moral value of marriage.
- Be loyal.
- Have a good education.
- Want to have children.
- Love his mother.
- Have a good attitude towards women.
- Have no history of family abuse.
- Love pets.
... And "if possible, be attractive.”
Ramsay replied, “This isn't a good description of Jean-Paul Gerbet.”
4:05 p.m.
Speculation is that the reason Karla Homolka opted to have this entire hearing in French is not to help her practice her new second language, or to embrace the language of the province which has housed her since the summer of 1997. Au contraire.
Homolka chose to have lawyers, specialists and a judge talk about her future in a different tongue to spite the media. Canada's – and especially Ontario's – English-speaking media, has jumped all over any and all news on Homolka since the day Bernardo was arrested in February of 1993.
Recently, a Toronto newspaper reporter discovered a psychiatric report on Homolka that wasn't covered by the usual publication ban. The paper jumped on the opportunity to publish large chunks of the report.
When Homolka found out, she was furious. She tried to get the document to be covered by the publication ban, but by then, the cat was obviously out of the bag.
The buzz is that Homolka requested that effective immediately, any and all paperwork carried out regarding her case was to be in French. And so unilingual English reporters sit through these proceedings, struggling to understand the nuances of what is being said.
Voila.
4:25 p.m.
Things are starting to wrap up.
Homolka's lawyer – Sylvie Bordelais – closed her final arguments by reiterating that she believes Homolka poses a minimal risk to society upon her release.
Homolka is ready to undergo counselling. There is nothing to justify the public's fears of her release. Nor the fears of the victims' families.
4:35 p.m.
The judge says he will hand down his decision in 10 minutes.
4:58 p.m.
The crown has put forward 11 conditions to be placed on Homolka upon her release. And the judge has ruled there are reasonable grounds to suspect that Homolka poses a threat.
5:10 p.m.
Homolka stares stone-faced at the judge as he outlines the restrictions she'll have imposed on her.
She will have to tell police where she is almost all the time.
She is to tell police her home address, work address and who she lives with.
She has to notify police as soon as any of the above changes.
She will also have to notify police of any change to her name.
If she wants to be away from her home for more than 48 hours, she will have to give 72 hours notice.
She cannot contact Paul Bernardo, the families of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French or Jane Doe. She also may not contact any violent criminals.
She also will be forbidden from being with people under the age of 16 and from consuming drugs other than prescription medicine.
If she violates any of the conditions, she could go back to jail for two years. The conditions are in effect for a year. Crown prosecutors would have to go back to court and reapply to have them extended.
5:54 p.m.
Tim Danson – the lawyer for families of Karla Homolka's victims – says his clients will likely be very pleased with the conditions imposed upon her.
“It will give them some level of comfort to know that (Karla Homolka's) attempt to con the system failed,” he said just moments after the decision was handed down.
A formal document outlining the conditions is being signed by those involved as I write this.
Homolka's reaction to her new rules and to news she will have to give authorities a DNA sample, is pretty much a mystery. She showed no emotion as she stared at the judge while he read his decision.
6:05 p.m.
Danson says he spoke to Donna French, Kristen's mother, who said that she would be willing to fight this fight again next year. Danson says he'll be with the families every step of the way.
6:51 p.m.
The judge has spoken, and Homolka will soon have her own definition of freedom.
As the media wraps up its equipment, it occurs to me: this could very well be the last time the media covers Homolka this way.
Next time she won't have the protection of a courtroom setting. Nothing to prevent someone from sticking a microphone in her face.
The media won't lose interest in her. But will they ever lose track of her?
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