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Parasiris 'Relieved' Upon Learning His Fate
Pubdate: Sat, 14 Jun 2008
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2008 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Paul Cherry, The Gazette
PARASIRIS 'RELIEVED' UPON LEARNING HIS FATE
Not Guilty of First-Degree Murder. the Accused's Wife Gasps on Hearing
Verdict; Widow of Slain Officer Isn't In Courtroom
The nervous look on Basil Parasiris's face changed little when he
learned a jury had found him not guilty of first-degree murder in the
killing of a Laval police officer.
Parasiris appeared to be in disbelief, trying to make sure he had
heard the right words from the foreman of the jury that had
deliberated his fate for four days.
Parasiris's wife, Penny Gounis, and his relatives were more
emotional.
"Oh my God!" Gounis gasped on hearing her husband had been acquitted.
Before the verdict, she had been shaking as she sat on the edge of her
seat with her hands clutched together, resting on her lap. Parasiris's
sister Chrisa wept, and his brother Nick, who had been present for
most of the three-week trial, was visibly relieved.
Parasiris took small steps out of the prisoner's dock where he had
stood to hear the verdict, and he hugged Dominique Shoofey, one of his
defence lawyers. After that, his wife and relatives rushed to him in
the courtroom and embraced him. Parasiris then quickly exited the
courtroom in Longueuil and left without making any comments.
"He is relieved and satisfied by the decision of the jury," Shoofey
said. "It was a difficult case for everyone. At this moment, we won't
make any official comment. At this time, it would not be prudent to
comment." Crown prosecutor Joelle St. Germain said it appeared the
jury believed that Parasiris acted in self-defence when he killed
Laval police Constable Daniel Tessier last year.
She said that a committee of prosecutors will review the case to see
if the Crown will appeal.
The Crown has 30 days to appeal the verdict.
Parasiris, a 42-year-old businessman, testified that he believed he,
his wife and two children were about to be the victims of a violent
home invasion when he shot Tessier outside his bedroom in a darkened
hallway.
Shortly after 5 a.m. on March 2, 2007, Tessier, a 42-year-old father
of two, was the second of nine Laval police officers who stormed into
Parasiris's home after smashing in the house's front door with a small
battering ram. The raid was part of an investigation of five drug
traffickers selling cocaine in Laval.
The Laval police morality drug squad suspected Parasiris was supplying
the dealers with cocaine, and they were hoping to find a large
quantity of the drug in the home. Because of their suspicions, they
obtained a search warrant allowing them to make a so-called "dynamic
entry." Such warrants are designed to catch suspects off guard, so no
evidence can be destroyed. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled they
should be used only in exceptional circumstances.
Before the jury began hearing evidence, the trial judge, Justice Guy
Cournoyer, ruled the warrant was a violation of the Charter right that
protects Canadians against abusive search and seizure and that
evidence seized in its execution was inadmissable. In his decision,
Cournoyer also criticized the Laval police because they had no
evidence they would have found a large quantity of drugs in the home.
Parasiris was not charged with drug trafficking after the raid.
The jury wasn't told about the warrant or why the Laval police were in
Parasiris's home. The six men and six women on the jury didn't hear
that the police found less than one gram of cocaine, nearly two grams
of marijuana, 13 cellphones and four pagers inside the home.
They also found eight pages of what one investigator described as
possibly being the accounts of drug trafficking. Parasiris admitted
during an interrogation he had been involved in drug trafficking for
three years to get out of financial trouble. The jury never heard this
evidence.
The Crown's case had several weak points that likely created enough
reasonable doubt for the jury to acquit.
Defence lawyer Jacques Larochelle continually focused the jury's
attention on a police baseball cap that was recovered as evidence at
Charles LeMoyne Hospital, where Tessier was declared dead. The cap had
the word "police" on the front with the Laval police crest, which
would have helped to identify Tessier as a police officer during the
raid. None of the witnesses said they saw him wearing it. The cap
issue was a key part of the trial because Tessier apparently forgot to
make sure that the word "police" was visible on the front of the
bulletproof vest he wore during the raid.
During his closing arguments to the jury, Larochelle wondered aloud:
"So where did that cap come from?" He stopped short of accusing anyone
of planting evidence at the hospital.
Larochelle suggested instead that Tessier was wearing a black tuque
found in a bedroom where two of his fellow officers tried to
resuscitate him. No other officer involved in the raid claimed the
tuque as his or her own.
Even though the tuque probably belonged to Tessier, it was not sent to
be analyzed for bloodstains or gunpowder burns. Because of this,
Larochelle said, the Crown's case lacked integrity.
In a telling moment - and one when the jury was absent - prosecutor
St. Germain argued Larochelle had no right to make such allegations.
But Cournoyer held up a photo of the room where the tuque was found
and said he also wondered why the Crown didn't send it to be analyzed.
He said Larochelle's allegations "seem to be fair game." During the
raid, five officers headed up a stairway to the second floor of the
home, where the bedrooms were. Tessier headed for the master bedroom
and was shot by Parasiris as he neared the door.
Parasiris and his wife both testified they had no idea it was the
police who had broken into their home.
Both said they didn't hear officers shout "Police!" until after
Tessier had been shot.
Perhaps the best evidence to support Parasiris's claim he feared he
and his family were under attack was that he admitted soiling himself
during the raid.
Parasiris testified he opened his bedroom door, came face to face with
Tessier and fired his revolver when he saw Tessier's hand was pointing
toward him.
Parasiris fired four shots, striking Tessier three times. The fourth
shot struck Constable Stephane Forbes, who was about to open the door
to the bedroom of Parasiris's 7-year-old daughter, Stephanie.
On hearing the shots, three officers returned fire. Det.-Sgt. Nathalie
Allard fired four shots toward Parasiris, but struck his wife in the
right arm and Tessier in the foot. Constables Serge Lauzon and
Francois Leblanc, who was in charge of the investigation, mistook the
source of the shots and fired five rounds each toward the bedroom of
Parasiris's 15-year-old son, George.
Cournoyer acquitted Parasiris on Tuesday of three charges related to
Forbes, who was struck in the left arm by a bullet. Defence lawyer
Larochelle had pointed out the Crown had presented no evidence that
Parasiris meant to shoot Forbes.
Tessier's widow, Dominique Lapointe, left the courtroom shortly after
Cournoyer announced he was acquitting Parasiris of those three charges.
She appeared upset and did not return to the courthouse to await the
jury's verdict.
Parasiris still faces eight charges related to four loaded firearms he
kept in his house, including the Ruger .357 magnum revolver he used to
shoot Tessier. Parasiris had a licence for the revolver, but not for
the address at which he kept it.
He did not have licences for the other three firearms and is charged
with improperly storing all three.
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