In an Edmonton Sun article entitled, “Grill Session,” Tony Blais reports on the case of a woman who had been accused of giving her two-year-old son a lethal dose of morphine. Excerpt:
According to court documents obtained yesterday, charges against Corrine Lee Brooks were stayed after incriminating statements she made to city police detectives were ruled inadmissible by two Edmonton judges. In one particularly scathing decision, provincial court Judge Ralph Chisholm described the 5 1/2-hour interrogation as being an “atmosphere of oppression” and accused police of lying and offering false assurances to Brooks.
“In my view only one conclusion can be arrived at and that is that she was psychologically beaten into submission,” said Chisholm in a written decision. “I am satisfied that the police actions were effectively so overbearing as to deprive the accused of any meaningful independent ability to choose to remain silent,” he said.
The judge added Brooks was “reduced to a point where she was the mere tool of the police.”
Brooks, 24, was charged with manslaughter and failing to provide the necessaries of life after Austin Brooks-McDonell was found dead in an upstairs bedroom of their 3306 116A Ave. apartment on Dec. 12, 1997.
An autopsy and forensic investigation showed the toddler died of a morphine overdose from a drug known as MS Contin, which is a prescription drug commonly given to cancer patients to treat acute pain.
At a preliminary hearing in December 1999, Chisholm ruled statements Brooks made to Det. Ralph Godfrey of the polygraph unit and homicide Det. Dennis McGeady in an April 16, 1998, interview were inadmissible.
Chisholm described Godfrey’s interrogation method as “an academy performance” and accused the detective of implying to Brooks that she had failed a polygraph test when the results were actually inconclusive.
The judge also took Godfrey to task for telling Brooks that if she had given her son the drug to help him sleep, it was unintentional and not a crime, and if she admitted what she’d done there would be no legal consequences. Chisholm criticized Godfrey for ignoring her request to stop the interview and go home despite the fact she was crying, dejected and clearly emotionally distraught and had adamantly denied giving her son a morphine pill.
He also slammed police for making the interrogation a “much longer ordeal” by subjecting Brooks to lengthy and unnecessary questions about her sexual relationships.