Toronto man cleared of charges he already served time for – Oct. 7, 2016 Toronto Star

An Oct. 7, 2016 Toronto Star article is entitled: “Toronto man cleared of charges he already served time for: Three years after he was released from prison, Nosakhare Ohenhen was acquitted of all charges — the very same charges for which he spent six years in prison.”

The opening paragraphs read:

In 2010, a judge ruled that Nosakhare Ohenhen’s version of events detailing his arrest, including the allegation that Toronto police planted drugs on him, to be a “fabrication” and “totally implausible.”

He was convicted on a number of drug and firearm offences, as well as for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. He was sentenced to nine years in prison, with credit for time spent in custody since his 2008 arrest.

After having completed his sentence, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered a new trial in 2015, finding the judge made errors in assessing Ohenhen’s credibility.

And then last month, following the conclusion of that second trial, a different judge ruled that he largely accepted Ohenhen’s evidence, that the police officers’ testimony at the retrial was “troubling,” and that Ohenhen’s rights to not be arbitrarily detained and unreasonably searched, as well as his right to a lawyer, were “totally and shockingly ignored by the police.”

Three years after he was released from prison, Ohenhen was acquitted of all charges — the very same charges for which he spent nearly six years behind bars.

[End of excerpt]

Comment

Among other things, Nosakhare Ohenhen’s persistence is inspiring and commendable – and thanks are owed to the judges who possessed the competence to take into account what the evidence indicated.

The judges also possessed the competence to assess the frame of reference within which the police presented their version  of the evidence. As well, they had the competence to assess the issues directly related to the credibility of the individuals involved in the case.

The story prompts me to realize that much of what I have written at this website, since the day it was launched, addresses issues which bear directly on this news report.