Law Times

www.lawtimesnews.com Page 6 march 17/24, 2008 / Law Times O ne of the keys to pre- paring a good defence, or even to establishing that there is one, is the disclosure inventory. Ideally, the disclosure inventory is a one-page docu- ment on which you can see, at a glance, whether the file is com- plete. It also includes a summary or synopsis of the case. Now, some police offi- cers produce briefs that are a thing of beauty with a table of contents and indexes. These are a rarity. Too many briefs are post-Stinchcombe thickets that you must weed through. They seemingly contain every- thing you might want. This is when you must be really care- ful to find out what is missing. Most disclosure inventories fit on a sheet of yellow foolscap (no high-tech here — and very easy to locate in the file). The inventory starts with the date the file was first reviewed and the client's full name and date of birth. Under this, it is helpful to put the number of the information and the police occurrence number, so that they are readily available when you write that inevitable letter about the missing disclo- sure. Below that, one can list all charges by section number and briefly describe the allega- tion (e.g. name of complainant, weapon used). The next section is crucial for checking completeness of disclosure. I list all witnesses on the Crown's witness list, and beside that I have three columns in which I can place check marks for receipt of their will say, their written statement, and their video/ audio statements. Any omis- sions result in a circle rather than a check mark. Your eye will quickly learn to jump to these empty circles. In a do- mestic, you would want to add a fourth column in which to check off whether the Crown had met the complainant and had disclosed those notes. Next, I list all of the police of- ficers. Again, there are three columns next to the officers' names: will say, reports, and notes. Again, I check off which of these I have received and put a circle where anything is missing. Some officers help- fully mention in their will say that it serves as their report. The inventory is "file-driven" — what works for a domestic does not work for an impaired. Consider what ought to be in the file. Some things are constants: you will need a copy of the in- formation and any undertaking or recognizance. You will usu- ally want the 911 call. So after listing all witnesses, I list the things that I would have ex- pected to see: accident report, medical reports, statement of the accused, receipts for dam- ages, exhibits seized, videotape of the shoplifting. If an item is included, there is a check; if not, there is a circle. At the bottom of the page I compose a brief, objective sum- mary, which is annotated after meeting with the client, who has now also reviewed the disclo- sure. If there are ID issues, if the complainant "got physical" first, this is where I note it. After reviewing disclosure I decide what is really missing. The decision is made whether or not to order it. As the new dis- closure comes in, you can put a check mark in the circle. The added convenience of the disclosure inventory is that it is very portable for pretrials. The list of charges at the top of the page can be marked up with notes as to which counts could be offered on a plea (to those or to included offences). If the pre- trial is being used to discuss trial readiness, the inventory readily reveals what is missing. Preparing a draft inventory is a useful task to assign to stu- dents, and reviewing the draft inventory is useful for the law- yer, too. The beauty of the inventory, in addition to revealing the de- ficiencies of the Crown's case, is that it can make you look good. It avoids the embarrass- ing question that the client or the Crown might pose: did you receive so-and-so's statement? "Just a minute — I'll check my inventory." Rosalind Conway practises crimi- nal law in Ottawa. She can be reached at rosalind.conway@ magma.ca Catch me if you can E very once in awhile you hear a story that makes you say, "I couldn't have made that up." Or, "It's just like a Hollywood script." And you peek through your fingers at the car crash. Often it involves a politician, and a sex scandal — say, with a hooker and a hotel named Mayflower — and there's a good dose of irony thrown in for flavour. But not always. Sometimes, a story is a story simply for its telling. To wit this Canadian Press story from Ottawa: "A Cassanova fraudster who bilked his fiance's family out of more than $60,000 has been sentenced to 18 months in jail and ordered to re- pay his victims nearly $170,000." This little gem crossed our desk the other day as we were sifting through the coverage of the demise of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer's elected ca- reer, which ends officially today. And while we have questions about the sor- did mess, including what did he say to get his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer, who like her husband is a Harvard Law grad, to stand stoically beside him not once but twice on the podium of shame? Or, why do they get all the good sex scan- dals south of the border? We've decided instead, to regale you with our example of an "it's just like a Hollywood script" story. Canadian style. According to our sources, (a com- bination of canoe.ca and the Ot- tawa Citizen), 25-year-old Matthew Charles Cahill pleaded guilty to 18 fraud-related charges involving mul- tiple victims, including three young ladies he wooed. The facts are simple: The victims were conned out of their cash when he got them to give him their credit card numbers and other financial details in exchange for deals on vacations. He told them he needed the information to guar- antee them places on cruises and flights and they wouldn't be charged. Well, in- stead, the cards were run up to the limit. In one of the cases, Nathalie Gravelle was his fiancée. Cahill spent the money meant for their wedding. In fact, Grav- elle's mom told the Citizen she gave the cad $17,000 to organize a luxuri- ous bash at Casino Lac-Leamy for 200 guests. Except two weeks before the mo- mentous event, Cahill's mother phoned, said she hadn't received an invitation, and warned the "engagement was likely a hoax," according to the Citizen. "Wedding invitations had already been sent, the dresses picked, and the menu set for a swanky reception . . . when Natalie Gravelle learned that her fairytale wedding was a sham," said the CP story . "He deserves everything that comes to him," poor Natalie said after his sentencing. Another victim, Laura Wilkinson, met Cahill at a wedding reception when she was "in the mood for love." She be- came suspicious when his "boasts of a jet-setting lifestyle didn't add up," said the CP article. Among his cons, Cahill posed as a maker of the movie Shrek and as a Universal Pictures location scout, to get goods and services, including limo and helicopter rides and trips to the Ca- ribbean and New York. His most notorious scam was pre- tending to be a pilot; he told Gravelle he worked at the Ottawa airport. Oh, he had the uniform alright. But not the job. When police searched his home they found the pilot's uniform and a fake airport security pass. "It's reminiscent of Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio," said Crown attorney Stephen Donoghue. The movie is based on a true story about Frank Abagnale Jr., who before his 19th birthday scammed millions by pretending to be a Pan Am pilot, a doc- tor, and a prosecutor. You can bet someone's working on a Spitzer script right now. After all, you just couldn't make it up. — Gretchen Drummie Editorial Obiter Editorial Obiter Disclosure inventory a key to good defence COMMENT Law Times is printed on newsprint containing 25-30 per cent post-consumer recycled materials. Please recycle this newspaper. Publications Mail Agreement Number 40762529 • ISSN 0847-5083 Law Times is published 40 times a year by Law Times Inc. 240 Edward St., Aurora, Ont. L4G 3S9 905-841-6481. lawtimes@clbmedia.ca circulations & subscriPtions $141.75 per year in Canada (GST incl., GST Reg. #R121351134) and US$266.25 for foreign address- es. 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