Cop investigated after details of fatal crash leaked
The Montreal police internal affairs division was asked to investigate how details from an investigation into the death of a five-year-old boy killed in a car crash involving a police officer were published in a newspaper before they were presented to the Crown.
Testimony heard before the Chamberland Commission on Wednesday appears to shed light on how Denis Mainville, a 30-year veteran of the Montreal police who retired in March 2015 as a commander, found himself having to defend his reputation after he retired and applied for a similar job with the St-Jean-sur-Richelieu police force. In a $480,000 lawsuit Mainville filed in 2015 against the city of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, he stated that a deputy chief with the South Shore police force said they would not hire him because they didn’t need someone who was “corrupt.” According to the lawsuit, when Mainville, a former head of the Montreal police major crimes division, demanded an explanation, the St-Jean-sur-Richelieu police changed their tune. He was told the police force had too many former Montreal police officers on staff. According to court records, Mainville dropped the lawsuit in April 2016.
On Wednesday, Det-Lt. Normand Borduas, an investigator with the Montreal police internal affairs division, told the Chamberland Commission that Mainville was the subject of a probe after details were leaked of the investigation into how five-year-old Nicholas Thorne-Bélance was killed when the car his father was driving, in Longueuil in February 2014, was struck by a car driven by a police officer who was on his way to a surveillance assignment for UPAC, the provincial anticorruption squad.
Borduas said Patrice Carrier, another commander with the Montreal police, had seen Mainville meet with a La Presse reporter inside Mainville’s office at Place Versailles just before the story was published by the same newspaper. Borduas said Carrier even confronted Mainville after the story was published.
“We wanted to know if he gave information that was privileged,” Borduas said, adding he asked a Montreal police analyst to research Montreal police emails to see if he could find a link between Mainville and La Presse reporters who worked on the story.
He said that the results of the investigation were sent to Quebec’s office of criminal prosecutions, but no charges were filed.
Commission lawyer Charles Levasseur asked Borduas why he didn’t seek warrants to search phone records to find out who leaked the information as Borduas had in other cases involving leaks to reporters. Borduas replied that he didn’t have enough evidence to point a finger at anyone for the leak.
“It would have been abusive (to request a warrant) without a suspect to identify,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Borduas’s testimony confirmed that the internal affairs division fabricated information in order to obtain a warrant. He was asked several questions concerning the division’s probe into how an investigation was launched when Roger Larivière, a now-retired Montreal police officer, was seen talking to reporter Stéphane Berthomet in a restaurant on Mont-Royal Ave. on Oct. 9, 2014.
Investigators with the Eclipse Squad, a group that targets Montreal street gangs, happened to be inside the same restaurant and took a photo of Larivière and the journalist, and reported it to their superiors. This week, Borduas told the commission that Berthomet noticed he and Larivière had drawn the attention of the four members of Eclipse, who were wearing civilian clothing. He also said Berthomet confronted at least one of the Eclipse investigators when he went to the bathroom. Berthomet told the investigator he knew he was a police officer, but the other man denied it. Berthomet then tapped on the investigator’s firearm, which he was wearing on his belt, and noted it was big for a cellphone.
The meeting at the restaurant touched off an internal affairs investigation. Larivière has since told reporters the investigation was plagued by lies in order to obtain warrants. Larivière had met with the reporter to complain about how he had been turned down for a promotion to the rank of commander for years.
Borduas said that during the investigation into Larivière, his partner, Det.-Sgt. Iad Hanna, handed him a statement that Hanna claimed was from a “coded source,” or an informant, that was used as evidence to obtain a warrant from a justice of the peace.
Borduas repeated to the commission on Wednesday that, two years later, he learned the information did not actually come from an informant. Borduas was grilled on this issue on Wednesday by Isabelle Briand, a lawyer representing the Montreal Police Brotherhood. She asked Borduas if he knew of other instances where statements were fabricated to obtain warrants.
The allegation of fabricated evidence is at the very heart of the investigation by a special squad — including investigators from the SQ, RCMP and some municipal police forces outside Montreal — assembled by the provincial government this year.
Borduas was visibly uncomfortable with some of Briand’s questions concerning the other internal affairs investigations where evidence was allegedly fabricated.
“(They) are covered by the mixed squad, so I can’t comment on that,” Borduas said while confirming that the squad is investigating instances similar to what happened in the Larivière investigation.
On Monday, the commission was informed that the Sûreté du Québec is investigating an allegation that Hanna recently threatened Borduas.
The commission is scheduled to hear testimony from Hanna this week. Larivière and Berthomet are scheduled to testify next week.