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[This edited version of the report has been prepared by Dr Robert N Moles]

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On 7 March 2008,Tracey Tyler of the Toronto Star reported "Appeal panel reviewing Romeo Phillion's conviction in 1967 death.”

Retired cop denies frame-up

Romeo Phillion, 68, was at Osgoode Hall on March 6, 2008 for a hearing assessing whether he was wrongfully convicted of a three-decades-old slaying. A friendly greeting quickly flared into a testy exchange yesterday when Romeo Phillion came face to face with the man who arrested him for murder more than three decades ago.

"How are you doing, other than this?" asked Steve Nadori, a retired Ottawa police inspector, referring to Phillion's conviction review hearing before the Ontario Court of Appeal.

"Good," Phillion replied.

"He's doing okay," a supporter chimed in.

"You should have done that 30 years ago," said Nadori as he stood beside Phillion outside an Osgoode Hall courtroom.

"Let me tell you something," said Phillion. "I should have never been charged with murder. This is a frame-up."

For his part, Nadori told a three-judge panel yesterday he would have never framed the 68-year-old former drifter. "And he knows it," he added.

Phillion's lawyers have presented a somewhat more complex scenario. They say their client falsely confessed to the August 1967 murder of Ottawa firefighter Leopold Roy. Nadori was questioned extensively yesterday by James Lockyer, one of Phillion's lawyers, on his willingness to accept Phillion's story despite its stark inconsistencies with known facts about the crime.

Seven hours after he confessed to the slaying on 12 January 1972, Phillion placed a phone call to his mother from the Ottawa police holding cells, with Const. Claude Couture listening on an extension. During the conversation in French, Phillion told her he confessed because he was "fed up" and prepared to "say anything." He also hoped to collect $2,500 in reward money for information about the crime and split it with Neil Miller, a 17-year-old drag queen with whom he resided.

Handcuffed to Nadori and accompanied by two other officers, Phillion was taken to the crime scene twice to re-enact the murder. The first time, he failed miserably.

He told police the murder happened at a rear stairwell of Roy's apartment building; the opposite was true. Roy was stabbed near the front of the building. Phillion also pointed to an apartment he claimed to have broken into before the murder, stealing jewellery and a knife used as the murder weapon. But police later found the apartment hadn't been robbed. Phillion said he fled through the rear of the building, climbed into his car and drove along some "black bridges." But the bridges were for trains only and an eyewitness saw an intruder leaving from the front of the building soon after Roy was killed. At a second re-enactment, Phillion's story aligned more closely with the facts and Det. Rolly Huneault, Nadori's former partner, told a court in 1972 it's possible police may have "fed" Phillion information.

Asked by Lockyer yesterday if they might have shown Phillion exactly what happened, Nadori said he didn't remember.

"You must remember – you were handcuffed to the guy," Lockyer persisted. Nadori said being handcuffed to Phillion is why he isn't able, today, to say what happened. "I couldn't make notes," he said. "You'd have us believe that you're handcuffed to Romeo, and there are perhaps these conversations going on with (officers) Huneault and Norton, and you don't remember if there were because you were too busy worrying about whether he (Romeo) escaped?" asked Lockyer asked. "I'm not trying to be a difficult person. But I do not remember. I'm under oath, and it means something to me," Nadori said.

Later yesterday, Nadori said he didn't know until five years ago that another Ottawa police detective investigated and confirmed Phillion's alibi in April 1968, concluding he couldn't have committed the murder. The report was never mentioned to the jury at Phillion's trial.

Nadori, who assembled the Crown's evidence for the trial, will likely be questioned more about that report today when the hearing resumes before Justices John Laskin, Michael Moldaver and James MacPherson.

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