Charges filed in inmate’s death
Indigenous prisoner was reportedly involved in altercation with guards
HALIFAX— Charges including manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death were filed against 10 correctional officers in a Newfoundland court late Friday in connection with the death of an Indigenous inmate at a St. John’s prison — almost three weeks after those charges were first announced by police.
Jonathan Henoche, an Inuk man from Nain, N. L., was in prison in St. John’s awaiting trial on first- degree murder charges in the death of 88- yearold Regula Schule in Happy ValleyGoose Bay in 2016.
He’d been moved from the prison there to St. John’s over concerns for his safety while awaiting trial.
It proved a futile move, as it was there, at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary, he died Nov. 6, 2019.
The province’s Royal Newfoundland Constabulary initially announced the charges Dec. 22 but took the unusual step of not releasing the officers’ names at the time, or filing the charges in court, preventing the names from becoming public record.
Henoche’s lawyer, Bob Buckingham, said sources have told him Henoche became involved in an altercation with two guards and that several other correctional officers jumped in. Henoche was eventually taken to a special handling unit in the prison, where he died.
The chief medical examiner has ruled his death a homicide.
Correctional officers Jeff Thistle, Jason Anthony and David Constantine have been
“It’s an incredible double standard here.” BOB BUCKINGHAM LAWYER
charged with manslaughter. Thistle also faces a charge of failure to provide the necessities of life.
Officers Chris Coady, Stefan Cumby, Daniel Dalton, Scot Dwyer, Jenine Rickert, Riley Ricks and Lori Williams all face charges of negligence causing death.
All 10 correctional officers charged are scheduled to appear in provincial court in St. John’s next month.
Buckingham, who now represents Henoche’s family, had been calling for the release of the officers’ names since the RNC initially announced the charges in December.
“It’s unacceptable that it has been taking so long,” he said Friday. “It took pressure on a national basis to force them to make this decision when they did, as opposed to waiting another month. It should not have taken this long.”
“It’s caused anguish to the family over the last three weeks … and it was unnecessary.”
Buckingham contends favouritism and racism were behind the withholding of the charged officers’ names.
“In all the research that I have done — and I’ve had a number of my colleagues doing research on this across the country — no one has ever seen people charged with manslaughter who have been released by an officer in charge … without being brought to a court for a judicial interim release before a judge,” he said.
“This was favouritism to a group of Department of Justice employees. And the racism component involved the fact that my client was Aboriginal.
“These people were treated with kid gloves and privacy that has not been seen in our system in a long time. It’s an incredible double standard here.”
According to CBC, Justice Minister Steve Crocker has said the decision to withhold the charged officers’ names did not come from his department.
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary confirmed it was achoice made by the major case management team within the force’s criminal investigation unit, in line with the Canadian Criminal Code.