Evidence contamination not possible, officer testifies during letter bomb trial

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/10/2017 (2686 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Contamination of police evidence against a Winnipeg man accused of mailing three bombs wasn’t possible, a forensic identification officer testified Thursday.

Const. Brian Neumann responded to suggestions from Guido Amsel’s defence lawyer that items seized by police at the sites of three explosions in the city in July 2015 could have been contaminated by officers to implicate the 51 year old, saying the investigation was run in such a way as to prevent any contamination. Amsel has pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and several explosives-related charges. His provincial court trial continues in front of Judge Tracey Lord, who presided over defence lawyer Saheel Zaman’s cross-examination of Neumann Thursday.

Much of the questioning of Neumann, who was responsible for photographing all three explosion sites and keeping track of the evidence collected at all three locations, has focused on an orange and purple zipper pouch that police found on Winnipeg lawyer Maria Mitousis’s desk after an explosion severely injured her at her law office on July 3, 2015. She lost her right hand in the blast. Two other suspicious packages, including one mailed to Amsel’s ex-wife and one to his lawyer, were safely detonated by police later that same weekend. Mitousis had represented Amsel’s ex-wife, Iris, during their divorce proceedings, and court heard the pouch on her desk tested positive for a homemade explosive known as TATP.

Neumann agreed with Zaman that he wasn’t the only person who had access to the Winnipeg Police Service evidence storage where the pouch in question was being kept.

“You’d agree with me it’s possible there could have been some degree of contamination?” Zaman asked.

“That I can’t agree with you,” Neumann responded.

“But you don’t know what happened when you weren’t there, do you sir?” Zaman continued.

“I don’t know what happened when I wasn’t there but I took every precaution necessary to ensure that all of the exhibits were placed in separate locations, all members of the forensic section knew that we had separate scenes with separate cases and exhibits. It’s not anywhere different than my daily business if I go to a robbery, a sexual assault, a sudden death. Those exhibits were all treated independently… I’m not lumping all of my exhibits into one bag, one box,” Neumann said.

“I have no necessity to place Mr. Amsel as part of each and every investigation I collect the evidence for… if there is a later connection that’s made, then that’s made by someone other than me,” he added under further questioning from Zaman.

Neumann acknowledged some of Amsel’s belongings were seized by police as part of the investigation and were also stored in the basement of the Public Safety Building, but he said they were stored away from any of the evidence collected at each of the three crime scenes, and that all of the evidence was kept under lock and key.

“I have to put faith in my colleagues and the fact that I do not inject myself into other people’s investigations and they do not inject themselves into mine.”

Through his questioning of Neumann Thursday, Zaman focused on the differences in the evidence collected at each of the three locations where explosive packages were sent. At Mitousis’ office on River Avenue, police found scraps of a handwritten note on yellow paper. There was no yellow paper found at the other two explosion sites, where explosive mail was detonated by police bomb units: an automotive shop on Washington Avenue and a law office at 280 Stradbrook, court heard. Instead, pieces of a notebook were found at the Washington Avenue address, and pieces of an electronic greeting card were found at the Stradbrook Avenue address. Fragments of different brands of batteries were also found.

Judge Lord is set to hear Friday from another Winnipeg Police Service officer who was involved in the investigation.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay

Katie May
Reporter

Katie May is a general-assignment reporter for the Free Press.

   Read full biography