THEY ALWAYS GET THEIR MAN

Investigators have confirmed that Dennis Cheeseman and Shawn
Hennessey, the brothers-in-law charged this week with four counts each
of first degree murder in the deaths of four RCMP constables on a farm
near Mayerthorpe in March of 2005, did not fire the bullets that
killed the Constable Anthony Gordon, Constable Leo Johnston, Constable
Brock Myrol and Constable Peter Schiemann. Nor were they present--or,
in all likelihood, even remotely nearby--when James Roszko shot the
officers and himself dead at his farm on the morning of Mar 3.

The case against the two 20-somethings is based primarily upon phone
records showing several calls placed from Roszko's cell phone to the
Barrhead tire shop where Hennessey worked, as well as so-far unproven
allegations that Hennessey had been selling marijuana he obtained from
Roszko, a charge he denies.

Presumably the police are in possession of more substantial evidence,
as a couple of phone calls and a vague suggestion of a drug connection
seems like a pretty flimsy pretense for a quadruple first-degree
murder charge, but no matter what investigators might have on
Cheeseman and Hennessey, everyone agrees that neither had anything to
do with the actual murdering.

The charges are the result of a two-year, $2 million investigation by
as many as 200 officers, which is a lot of time, money and man-hours
wasted if no arrests result.

The senseless killing of four young, brave, well-liked Mounties is
shocking, angering and galvanizing to both the membership of the RCMP
and the public at large, and the pressure on the force to make headway
in the case, both internal and external, has likely been
overwhelming.

Hennessey and Cheeseman certainly had contact with Roszko leading up
to the massacre.

They may have been his friends (though the vehemently deny this) and
were probably involved at some level in participating in at least some
kind of illegal activity with the killer.

They may well deserve to be charged with crimes in light of their
involvement. But unless they killed the Mounties (which they didn't)
or knowingly helped Roszko orchestrate the killing of the Mounties
(which seems dubious at best), branding these two young men as cop
killers and charging them each with four counts of the most serious of
offenses can't help but feel less like justice and more like the
meting out of grossly misplaced vengeance.

Hopefully the RCMP has evidence disputing this analysis, but if they
do, no one but them has seen it so far.