An independent review has found the Truro Police Service badly bungled its investigation into the 2005 death of a three-year-old Nova Scotia girl, failing even to get a warrant before seizing items from the suspect’s home.
Samantha Mercer died on March 3, 2005, from injuries including a severe head injury. Terry Dean Allen, the boyfriend of the girl’s mother, was charged with manslaughter, but was acquitted in September 2009.
Gerard Mitchell, police commissioner for Prince Edward Island and retired chief justice, said in his report released Wednesday that the investigation was flawed in multiple ways.
“This was clearly a major case that required a very careful, methodical, and painstaking investigative approach. The Truro police did not take that kind of approach,” said the review, ordered by Justice Minister Diana Whalen earlier this year.
Mitchell said the case was marred by “procedural errors, neglect, lack of diligence, and failure to provide the Crown with appropriate deliverables in a timely manner.”
In fact, Mitchell states that the review was ordered after the Justice Department found out in April that a Truro police officer was disciplined for neglecting his duties in the Mercer case.
The report said the officer was found guilty following a review of the case by the chief of another municipal police department. He was demoted and ordered to attend a major case management course, it said.
“The (Mercer) investigation lacked the leadership, teamwork, organization, and supervision that are the hallmarks of proper major case management,” Mitchell said in the report.
The 24-page review said officers searched the suspect’s home and seized items without a warrant, and took a statement from Allen without advising him of his rights to counsel.
It also said that Truro police should have communicated better with the prosecutor’s office throughout the investigation.
Nevertheless, Mitchell said in a news release that he cannot say that a better-managed investigation would have produced a different result.
The report said although there were “serious deficiencies” in the capacity of the Truro Police Service to deal with major crimes in 2005, that is not the case today because of their relationship with the RCMP.
It makes several recommendations, including that the Justice Department ensures small police forces have access to support for major crime investigations, perhaps by establishing a “major case support unit.”
It also says the department should conduct regular audits of municipal police services and that investigators should seek legal advice from the Crown as soon as possible when dealing with major crime cases.
In a release, the Truro Police Service says they haven’t had a chance to review the entire report, but it accepts the recommendations made.
“In particular, we are very pleased with the recommendation that the Nova Scotia Department of Justice become engaged in audit and policing standards,” the statement reads.
It went on to say that justice department involvement is something the force has been looking for for several years.
The police service thanked Gerard Mitchell for his work on the case.
– With files from Global News.
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