TOP COP SAYS LYING OK

Lying to and deceiving those involved in the Jason Dix murder investigation
was necessary to build a case against him, northern Alberta's top Mountie
said yesterday.

Two murder charges against Dix, 33, were dismissed Thursday for lack of
evidence after a four-year probe in which, court heard, police repeatedly
lied to Dix, his friends and associates while trying to build a case
against him.

That's nothing new, says assistant commissioner Don McDermid. Mounties are
allowed to lie and frequently must.

"Although some may not be pleased with the techniques and methods used, no
rules were broken. And until I'm satisfied that rules were broken, what can
we do? If we're not lying to cause an innocent confession, then we can use
it," McDermid explained.

"Joe Citizen may not like it but did we really do anything but offend
people who are looking at one side of the story?"

Dix may fit the latter description but he said yesterday the trickery went
too far. He's considering a civil suit.

"I don't think it's acceptable to me. They didn't just lie to me, they lied
to everybody - my ex-wife, my mom, my dad, and so on and so forth. It
didn't matter to them," he said.

"There has to be other tactics. I understand that the police have to use
deception and trickery to catch the bad guys but it goes overboard when
they start lying to my mom and dad, my wife. My wife was lied to repeatedly
so that they could use her. And they did.

"She said at one point that 'if he ever failed the polygraph, I'm gonna
leave him.' So what did they do? They told everybody I failed."

In addition to those lies, Dix was told cops had crime-scene evidence
against him, had seen him burying the gun and was seen near the murder
scene on the day Tim Orydzuk and James Deiter were gunned down while
working at the Crown Packaging plant in Sherwood Park.

McDermid said the force doesn't advertise its right to lie.

"We don't put it in the books we produce for the general public to read
because it diminishes our opportunities to use it to solve other crimes,"
he said.

It also draws judicial wrath. At Dix's preliminary hearing, Judge John
Maher called the lying "deplorable."

"The investigation of crimes is not a game pitting one team against an
accused," Maher said. "The investigation ... must remain independent,
objective and fair. The fact of the matter is the police were out to get
the accused."

McDermid says that's their job. If they didn't use every legal means
available, the public would be at least as unhappy.

"It may not be morally the best thing to do, but it's not morally wrong
either," he said. "If we played by the rules of a Sunday school teacher, I
don't think we'd win too many cases."

One officer, Cpl. Randall Marchand, was disciplined for his handling of the
initial investigation, which ruled the shooting deaths an accidental
electrocution. He has since retired.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson