Why a Star reporter went to court to get public documents

The Harrisons died one by one in their home over five years.

At the conclusion of a high-profile criminal trial, media outlets will often assign a reporter to write a “deep dive” piece looking at the characters involved, the police investigation and the evidence presented in court.

It’s a way to bring readers a more fulsome picture of the trajectory and drama of a case that daily reportage of a trial often does not allow.

In order to do this, reporters need access not only to the players — police, lawyers and relatives of victims and the accused — who can provide a human angle, but also to court records that clearly lay the case out, such as the application record (essentially a massive collection of evidence), exhibits from the preliminary hearing that didn’t come out at trial, and Information to obtain a search warrant, if used by police.

Despite the open court principle — the idea that Canadian courts are presumptively open to the public — reporters often are forced to file an application before a judge in order to access what are already public documents. Star lawyers believe the proper interpretation of common-law suggests these documents should be made available to the public when requested, without having to take the onerous, time-consuming and expensive step of going before a judge.

But that’s just what reporter Amy Dempsey had to do recently while reporting on the disturbing story of the death of an entire Mississauga family — Bill Harrison, his wife Bridget Harrison, and their son, Caleb.

“I have no law degree, no legal training, but the Star cannot afford to hire a lawyer every single time we are denied documents — it is too common and too expensive,” she said.

Back in August 2013, Dempsey was assigned to write a weekend feature about the unusual and disturbing coincidence that all three members of the Harrison family had been found dead in the same Mississauga home between 2009 and 2013.

Up until Caleb’s death in the summer of 2013, neither Bill’s nor Bridget’s death had been ruled a homicide. But that changed shortly after police found evidence that suggested Caleb, a 40-year-old father of two, had been murdered.

For her first story, Dempsey told the story of the Harrison family’s custody battle with Melissa Merritt, Caleb’s exwife, and a series of unfortunate events that had befallen the family. That first story had the headline, “Three deaths, one home, and a mystery — what happened to the Harrisons?”

Merritt and her common-law partner, Christopher Fattore, were later charged in all three deaths (though Merritt was not committed to stand trial on Bill’s death, while Fattore was committed to stand trial in all three.)

“If the allegations proved true, it meant that police, coroners and pathologists had somehow missed two homicides. How did that happen?” asked Dempsey. She was determined to find out. “This was more than a whodunit. It was a story of mistakes made by the authorities meant to protect us, and two potentially avoidable deaths.”

At the conclusion of the trial earlier this year, Fattore was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Caleb and Bridget. He was found not guilty in Bill’s death. Merritt was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Caleb. A mistrial was declared on her charge in Bridget’s death after the jury could not reach a verdict. Both are appealing the guilty verdicts.

After the trial, Dempsey began work on an 8,000-word feature called “Improbable Cause” published last month, that uncovered disturbing mistakes made by police, coroners and pathologists during their investigations into the deaths.

In order to tell the story fully, Dempsey needed access to records filed in court. But getting the records, which are public, would prove a challenge. First, she had to file an application in Brampton court and had to serve all interested parties — the court, the Crown, Merritt’s defence, Fattore’s defence and a third party she can’t name due to a publication ban.

Then, once everyone had been served, Dempsey had to appear before a judge four times over a period of several weeks to make legal arguments before a decision was made. Among the documents she found was a full transcript of Caleb Harrison’s 2010 police interview that took place hours after his mother’s body was discovered (the jury was presented with a significantly redacted version). The full transcript proved that the Harrison family had expressed concern about Merritt and Fattore from the day Bridget was killed. The documents also confirmed no homicide detectives investigated Bridget’s death, a fact only hinted at during trial.

The revelation of these and other details were only possible because Dempsey went to court — a step journalists might increasingly have to take.

“As financial challenges continue to confront media organizations, it’s important that more journalists go to court on their own, as Dempsey did, to argue for the release of records that serve the public interest,” said Bert Bruser, the Star’s newsroom lawyer.