VINDICATE - To clear of accusation, blame, suspicion, or doubt with supporting proof.

Imprisonment and the justice system

Years have passed since Mr. Dinelle was arrested but the damage that was done to his life and his reputation still lingers, not only in the minds of his family and friends, but on the websites of what we once believed were reputable news outlets.

The deliberate deception and underhanded tactics of the Cornwall Police and the Canadian Crown Attorney, working in lockstep with the American DEA were beyond unethical, they were disgraceful. They created the most vile of accusations and used them as a tool to hold Mr. Dinelle in jail and deny his right to post bail, to destroy his reputation, and to turn public sentiment against him. This was simply a tactic deployed by the prosecution and now Mr. Dinelle and his family are forced to live with this public shame and embarrassment.

These disgusting people, who have been entrusted with far too much power, believe their righteous ends justify their evil means. We have heard many stories about corrupt law enforcement officials and yet we sit by because it just hasn't affected us personally.

This is why the Lifers brand was born, because Mr. Dinelle's story could be your story! We must speak up about the outrageous behavior of the prosecution because if we don't then we can be certain that this will happen again and again and again!

The integrity of the justice system is supposed to be the load bearing wall that separates right from wrong but that wall has been pierced by corruption and is being demolished by unethical and immoral prosecutors. Our laws are being broken by the very people we have entrusted to uphold them. Injustice is committed in the name of justice. How far can these lines be blurred until they are indistinguishable?

That's why this challenge was created!

The scales of justice weighed against law enforcement power

Mr. Dinelle has decided to put his money where his mouth is and to directly challenge the validity of the accusations of the Canadian Crown Attorney and what better way then to get the public involved and offer a little incentive to spark everyone's curiosity and prove once and for all that Mr. Dinelle is not guilty of any of the crimes the Crown Attorney and the Cornwall police accused him of.

This challenge will also prove that our system of justice can be easily manipulated by those we have entrusted to responsibly and fairly wield this power. Furthermore, this challenge will exonerate Mr. Dinelle and hopefully redeem him in the eyes of his family and friends and most importantly, his children.

This is Vindication!

The Story

In November of 2008 the local media in Cornwall, Ontario began reporting that a man named Gaetan Dinelle had been indicted out of the Northern District of New York for Trafficking in Cannabis.

CBC News Coverage: Police seek 2 Ont. men accused of running $45M cross-border drug ring

This was big news for "The Seaway City" a small town with less then 50,000 people. Imagine the hysteria of the media reporting that one of their own was allegedly involved in international cannabis smuggling. Local coverage turned into regional coverage and soon even the major outlets as far away as Ottawa were carrying the story.

Cornwall Courthouse at 29 Second St. W. where legal proceedings took place

This was a real frenzy. Newspapers, radio, and television. Everywhere you turned you heard Gaetan Dinelles name and saw Gaetan Dinelles face and yet Gaetan Dinelle was a free man. He had no charges in Canada, in fact, he has no criminal record at all. He has been a tax paying citizen and contributing member of society his entire adult life.

US Department of Justice: Canadian Marijuana Traffickers Convicted After Trial

Mr. Dinelle heard the news about the indictment like everyone else did, watching television and listening to the radio. After Mr. Dinelle was aware of the news he contacted his attorney for legal advice and was told to go on living his life as usual because he was a low priority to the Northern District of New York and informed that in order to arrest him they would have to seek an extradition warrant, something his attorney said was hard to do.

As you can imagine, to go on living his life without the weight of all the possible outcomes of this situation pressing on him was all but impossible especially with the insatiable amount of media coverage that continued.

It's safe to say that all the attention Mr. Dinelle was receiving was causing a lot of resentment among local law enforcement. Here they had an accused international smuggler walking about freely in their midst. It's no stretch of the imagination to believe that this may have caused them to enthusiastically pursue clever ways to ensure that Mr. Dinelle would remain behind bars.

Cornwall Police Service Headquarters at 340 Pitt Street

What ambitious law enforcement officer wouldn't have coveted the opportunity to be the one to finally put the hand cuffs on Gaetan Dinelle and but for a moment get to share in all the fame and notoriety that comes along with the national spotlight.

The arrest finally came in June of 2012. Mr. Dinelle was picked up by a task force consisting of the Cornwall Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Ontario Provincial Police. He was booked on a United States extradition warrant.

DEA Press Release: Continuing Criminal Enterprise No More, Jury Trial Convicts Pair

It's important to note at this point that Mr. Dinelle has not been charged with anything else, not in the United States, nor in Canada. Four years of constant surveillance and investigations into every aspect of his life by every available law enforcement agency and they failed to uncover any additional criminality.

How frustrating that must have been for the police, the investigators, and the prosecutors to face the reality that there was nothing further to charge him with. So the United States and Canada had no other choice but to proceed with the extradition process and Mr. Dinelle was arrested.

Law enforcement arrest and detention process

With Mr. Dinelle finally behind bars the media circus only intensified. Every news organization in the area was fighting for the eyes of the public trying to capitalize on this once in a lifetime opportunity!

In this highly competitive atmosphere, clicks are king. Let's remember that reporting the news is a business. The notion the journalism is comprised of well meaning, curious investigators whose only motivation is speaking truth to power, is dead! These are major corporations whose sole purpose is selling advertising slots bookended by the most sensational news stories they can find. Where facts are subjective to the opinions of the writers and the agendas of the producers. Where ethics are now viewed as an outdated notion that have no place in the highly politicized environment we now live in.

So, It's no surprise that the medias coverage of Mr. Dinelles case was not factual starting with the details of his bail hearing. It took about four months after his arrest to finally get an opportunity to post bail. After a short hearing in the presence of multiple news agencies they quickly reported that bail had been denied and Mr. Dinelle would remain in custody until his extradition hearing. That was factually incorrect. At the hearing the judge made it clear that Mr. Dinelles bail plan was not satisfactory. Two weeks later Mr. Dinelle was back in front of the judge with a bail plan that was granted and he was allowed to post his bail. This is just one instance of bad reporting and it may seem like a harmless error but it gave the impression that bail was off the table permanently only to be reversed two weeks later planting seeds of doubt about Mr. Dinelles integrity. Why the sudden change in the stance of the court regarding bail? Was Mr. Dinelle now a cooperating witness? The facts were clear, bail had not been denied, the bail plan had been unsatisfactory and two weeks later an updated plan was approved and bail was granted. No revision or follow up ever came from the media, it rarely does.

The justice system and court proceedings

Now that Mr. Dinelle was free once more it was difficult to live a normal life. The court ordered Mr. Dinelles sister to keep an eye on him 24/7. A GPS ankle monitor would have been sufficient for this job but in order to ratchet up the degree of difficulty his sister had to agree to these terms essentially placing them both under the strictest bail conditions Mr. Dinelles attorney had ever seen. Besides the four hours they were allotted on the weekend for running errands and grocery shopping they were allowed to be in one of two places, Mr. Dinelles sisters home where he was now forced to take up residency or Mr. Dinelles sisters place of employment, where he was now forced to spend forty to fifty hours a week.

I would like to pause briefly to let that sink in... One of the bail conditions the judge ordered was that Mr. Dinelles sister was required to bring him to work with her. Imagine just for a moment something like this happening at your place of employment. The goal of the court was to make the conditions of bail so extreme that Mr. Dinelle wouldn't be able to qualify. Why not just deny bail altogether? Well, because Mr. Dinelle was not charged with any crime at the time. The United States had pursued an extradition warrant so It was up to the judge in Canada to decide if Mr. Dinelle should be extradited to the United States or not, that's it. Under Canadian law he had the right to fight extradition and he had the right to post his bail so he would not be held in jail while this process was taking place and he planned on fully exercising those rights.

Supreme Court of Canada Case #36078

This is the point in the story where the cops become the criminals, where the good guys cross the line because no longer are they allowing the criminal justice system to take it's course as it has been written into law. This is the point in the story where they place themselves above the law and their personal opinions about how justice should be dispensed trumps the way the Crown and our forefathers created our justice system to function, and trumps the current government and the judiciary who are constantly amending and updating our policies, laws, and procedures, so that every citizen gets equal treatment and equal rights in a lawful and just society. But when you delegate power to people of weak character with low morals you can be sure they will break the very laws they swore to uphold, they will compromise the integrity of the entire system of justice and gamble with the confidence of the public who have entrusted them, because they hold their own ideals higher then they do, the law, and they will stoop to great depths to enforce them.

The Re-arrest and New Charges

In February of 2013, after only four months on bail Mr. Dinelle was rearrested in a day time raid of his sisters place of employment. The police also smashed through the front door of her home and ransacked the place looking for electronic devices. Confused and worried about his family Mr. Dinelle learns that he has been charged with Procuring. His attorney explains that a criminal complaint had been filed claiming that Mr. Dinelle had reached out to a woman named Christina Sunday and requested a sexual encounter with a child.

CHALLENGE POINT #1

Law enforcement investigation and evidence collection

Provide any evidence supporting the claims that were made by Christina Sunday in the criminal complaint.

During the raid the Cornwall Police found no evidence to support the allegations they made to the judge to obtain the search warrants. In a desperate attempt they turned to his sister. With a large amount of money on the line and great concern for her brother she listened to investigators who encouraged her to help them to clear her brothers name. With feigned empathy they asked her to produce any other electronic devices she believes he may have had access to, in order to prove that Mr. Dinelle had not done any of these things alleged in the criminal complaint. With this in mind she made a diligent search and dutifully delivered two more devices to the police station later that evening.

While the police were on the scene during the raid they used a scanning tool that plugged into any electronic device and in a matter of minutes a complete search was made. However, the police did not follow this same procedure when Mr. Dinelles sister delivered the last two devices to the Cornwall Police Station. Instead, they received the devices and kept them as evidence before they even scanned them.

The very next day Mr. Dinelle received a visitor. Meet Detective Anderson of the Cornwall Police Department. This mans fingerprints have been all over this investigation from the very beginning. After executing search warrants on multiple locations and finding none of the evidence they claimed they were looking for, does Detective Anderson admit that he made a mistake? An honest detective in a real investigation would have but Detective Anderson is not honest and this was not a real investigation. So, detective Anderson doubles down on his fraud in a deliberate move to prevent Mr. Dinelle from being released on bail. Detective Anderson shows up at the jail and tells Mr. Dinelle that he has now been charged with possession of child pornography.

CHALLENGE POINT #2

Electronic evidence and forensic analysis

Produce any evidence that Mr. Dinelle was in possession of child pornography!

At this point Mr. Dinelles life has been destroyed! His attorney informs him that investigators, spearheaded by Detective Anderson are claiming that on one of the devices Mr. Dinelles sister delivered to the police station the night before contained a deleted file that may have, at one time, contained child pornography. This is just the sort of thing that police need to keep him in jail.

In light of this amazingly vague discovery Detective Anderson orders the device to be sent to an electronic forensic expert for a complete analysis. The results of which could take a year or more to come back.

Mr. Dinelles attorney is now sure that because of these "type" of charges, any bail options in the future would be impossible.

It's not hard to see how easy it is for skilled investigators to manipulate the system to achieve their ends, even going as far as hanging life destroying accusations around the neck of an accused cannabis smuggler to punish him for simply exercising his rights and not cooperating with the government.

We as citizens of our respective countries have rights written into the legal framework of our society. That framework gets weakened every time it is tested with lies and false accusations and what consequences are there for the police that perpetuate these frauds on individuals and on society... So far, none!

We blame the system and call it corrupt but it's the individuals that are supposed to be honorably administrating the system that are corrupting it and they are never held responsible.

CHALLENGE POINT #3

Forensic investigation and evidence analysis

Contact Detective Anderson of the Cornwall Police Department in Ontario, Canada and retrieve the electronic forensic analysis and produce the evidence that Detective Anderson claimed was child pornography.

The Investigation Unravels

Once the realization set in the Mr. Dinelle was going to have to remain in jail he became determined to clear his name of these disgusting allegations!

With the help of his attorney he began filing motions requesting the evidence that police were using against him and very quickly he noticed that the prosecution seemed to be holding back.

Over and over requests were made for full discovery and were ignored. The few details that did trickle out revealed what a fraud this investigation really was, starting with the application for the search warrants.

The police claim that Christina Sunday made a criminal complaint against Mr. Dinelle but when she was brought into the police station and shown a photo line up, and asked to identify him, She couldn't!

Instead of stopping after she said multiple times that she does not recognize him, the officer blatantly placed his hand above Mr. Dinelles photo and began tapping the table and asked her again if she was absolutely sure that she could not identify him. Even with this officer attempting to coerce this woman into picking him out, she maintained that she could not recognize Mr. Dinelle in any of these photos. All this is on video of course and was viewed by Mr. Dinelle and his attorney.

Police identification procedures and photo lineups

CHALLENGE POINT #4

Contact Detective Anderson and ask him to release the video of Christina Sunday viewing the photo lineup. Mr. Dinelle claims the officer was blatantly attempting to coerce her into picking him out of the line up. Prove him wrong, You win!

All they had at this point was a criminal complaint made by a woman who has a lengthy criminal record and is related to one of the cooperating witnesses in Mr. Dinelles cannabis case, and can't pick him out of a line up. No crime had even been committed. Investigators knew they needed more to get a judge to sign off on search warrants for multiple locations.

It's clear by now that the Cornwall Police Department will not be stopped by a minor problem like, a complete lack of evidence, they'll just create some!

When Mr. Dinelle and his attorney finally get the supporting evidence for the application for the search warrants they find that investigators used evidence from another case!

In Cornwall, Ontario a little boy who was doing some yard work reported that he was groped by an older man. This case was a year old at the time, the suspect had already been identified and here we find that evidence from this case was bundled with the criminal complaint and a report that a photo lineup was conducted, not the results of that photo lineup where Ms Sunday failed to identify Mr. Dinelle, just a report that one was conducted.

Cornwall Inquiry: Historical Context of Local Law Enforcement Issues

It's unclear at this point who was involved with this. Detectives knew obviously as they're cobbling this case together like Dr. Frankenstein. We don't know if the prosecutors were involved in the beginning. Of course, when they realized they had an unprosecutable case they should have shut it down, but instead they let it play out in court while withholding discovery right up to the last moments before Mr. Dinelle's extradition hearing, timing it just right so he never has the opportunity to post his bail again.

Instead of getting his day in court to face his accusers and clear his name of these accusations, the judge, at a video court session, orders a Stay of Proceedings. This means that the court is suspending it's prosecution of the case with the option to bring it back in the future. This type of ruling is usually reserved for cases that have a lack of evidence, giving prosecutors more time to investigate but it's used in this case as a slap in the face to Mr. Dinelle as retribution for exercising his rights, they robbed him of the trial he had been looking forward to for a year.

Ontario Court of Justice proceedings and video court sessions

The judge may have been misled in the beginning when he unknowingly signed off on warrant applications that contained evidence in them from a completely unrelated case, but there had to be a time in the next year as he was presiding over this case that he must have realized that he had been duped or he was also a co-conspirator. The fact that he ordered a Stay of Proceedings at video court and not in person was also telling, considering they had transported Mr. Dinelle to court on all other occasions with all the fanfare and media attention they could get and here they were putting Mr. Dinelle away as quietly as they could without the decency of restoring the mans dignity by completely dropping the charges and admitting that Mr. Dinelle was not guilty of Procuring, not guilty of Possession of Child Pornography, which would have been the result of a trial and they knew it!

If they would have done the right thing then they would have been admitting that they participated in a criminal conspiracy to defraud Mr. Dinelle of his freedom, to defraud the public of the resources they pay for, sending officers on raids with fraudulent search warrants only to find no evidence then to create the illusion that there may be some evidence buried on a hard drive wasting Mr. Dinelles time and the public's money on fake investigations and forensic experts, wasting the courts time and resources, paying prosecutors, court staff, attorneys, all the while burdening the tax payers further by housing Mr. Dinelle needlessly in jail for years! In the end, for what? Retribution for exercising his rights!

Global News: Cornwall, Ont., man sentenced to life in prison for cross-border pot smuggling

The Globe and Mail: Ontario man sentenced to life in prison in U.S. for cross-border pot smuggling

Mr. Dinelle was subsequently extradited to the United States where he stood trial, was convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. There was never another charge. There wasn't any violence, no guns, no hard drugs. Life, Life in prison for doing something that is now legal in many places.

US Department of Justice: Canadian Marijuana Trafficker Receives Life Imprisonment

DEA Press Release: Canadian Marijuana Trafficker Receives Life Imprisonment

Mr. Dinelle never cooperated with either governments, he exercised his rights to remain silent, to fight extradition, to a jury trial and for that he was punished.

The reality of life imprisonment for non-violent drug offenses

I know it may be hard to accept that the police detectives, prosecutors, and judges would compromise their integrity to this degree. It runs counter to what we believe about the justice system and threatens our very sense of security. The term that has been branded for this new kind of abuse is called "Lawfare" but is this really new? Or rather, newly exposed because of the attention it now gets in the media. It's not only the little guy that is subject to this anymore. Now anyone can be a target, but we only hear about it when it happens to celebrities, politicians, or presidents.

Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Drug Trafficking

Non-Violent Marijuana Life Sentence Cases

Mr. Dinelle has set this challenge because they robbed him of his vindication and now you have the opportunity to earn $100,000.00 all you have to do is... Prove him wrong!

THE $100,000.00 CHALLENGE

$100,000 Challenge to prove the allegations

You will be rewarded $100,000.00 if you can prove the following points, each point is worth $25,000.00

CHALLENGE POINT #1

If you can produce evidence that the claims made by Christina Sunday in the criminal complaint were true, YOU WIN!

CHALLENGE POINT #2

If you can produce evidence that Mr. Dinelle was in possession of child pornography, YOU WIN!

CHALLENGE POINT #3

Contact Detective Anderson of the Cornwall Police Department of Ontario, Canada and retrieve the electronic forensic analysis he ordered and provide the evidence he claimed was child pornography. If you can, YOU WIN!

CHALLENGE POINT #4

Contact Detective Anderson and ask him to release the video of Christina Sunday viewing a photo lineup. Mr. Dinelle claims that the officer blatantly attempted to coerce her into picking him out of the line up, Prove him wrong, YOU WIN!

The balance of justice and truth

Of course the opposite is true as well. If you do take up this challenge to win the money and you come to the conclusion that none of this evidence ever existed, then you must, by default, come to the conclusion that Mr. Dinelle has been the victim of one of the greatest smear campaigns in Cornwall Ontario's history and who will ever be held accountable for this?

Mr. Dinelle had to take matters into his own hands to clear his name! GOOD LUCK!

THIS IS VINDICATION!

Key External Sources Referenced:

1. CBC News: Police seek 2 Ont. men accused of running $45M cross-border drug ring
2. US Department of Justice: Canadian Marijuana Traffickers Convicted After Trial
3. DEA Press Release: Continuing Criminal Enterprise No More
4. Supreme Court of Canada Case #36078
5. Cornwall Police Service
6. Canada Department of Justice: Extradition Process
7. Globe and Mail: Life sentence coverage
8. Federal Drug Trafficking Penalties

Mr. Dinelle had to take matters into his own hands to clear his name! GOOD LUCK!

THIS IS VINDICATION!

Written by,
Sterling H. Roberts

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