The police betrayed by its technology

Archival Photo Chantal Poirier
Police photographed the day of the search warrant at the office of Me, Loris Cavaliere, in November 2015. In 2014, their colleagues had to enter secretly seven times to install or repair their microphones and cameras.

Éric Thibault

Sunday, 25 February, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Sunday, 25 February, 2018 01:00

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The two leaders of the mafia in montreal can thank the sky for the technological failures repeated that contributed to screw up the police investigation of which they were the targets.

• READ ALSO: the Two leaders of the mafia paid to gangsterism

Leonardo Rizzuto and Stefano Sollecito were freed of charges of gangsterism and conspiracy on Monday, when the court has excluded the evidence of electronic surveillance that the accused, in holding that the police had obtained improperly.

Photo Martin Alarie

Stefano Sollecito
Released

The story might have been different if the police had not been betrayed by the recurrent problems of surveillance cameras and computer server, which have affected their daring espionage operation.

Cameras and microphones

The Squad’s joint regional anti-organized crime suspected Me Loris Cavaliere, a lawyer of long standing of the Rizzuto organization, to act as a facilitator for various criminal organizations. Leonardo Rizzuto was a lawyer in the same office, and Stefano Sollecito was a client.

In the summer of 2014, a judge allowed the police to enter inside the cabinet Cavaliere and Associates, on the boulevard Saint-Laurent, in order to conceal secretly cameras and microphones. It was a first in Canada.

The police have had to perform no less than seven entries surreptitious in the building to install their electronic equipment or attempt to repair it. These clandestine operations risky, have often been carried out in the middle of the night, and always when the premises were deserted.

However, the video camera installed in the conference room of the firm where the suspected mafiosos to hold business meetings with their partners — has started to droop a few days after his installation, at the end of August.

No signal

An officer of the RCMP testified that the problem was related to ” the transmission of the signal between the camera and the computer server of the central monitoring station of the state police.

As for the camera, that the police had installed in the reception area, ” it is completely frozen as of January 20, 2015 November 4, 2015 “, and has proven to be useless.

In addition, the camera they had placed on the outside of the building and used to “notify the control room that a target entered” in the office has also experienced failures.

“Some of the equipment have been replaced and efforts have been made in order to attempt to resolve problems remotely […] but the cameras have continued to have problems that could not be resolved “, said the judge Eric Downs in its decision of Monday.

Photo archive

Eric Downs
Judge

The Squad has gave up trying to solve these bugs, not wanting to risk getting caught in the office and jeopardize the whole operation.

The investigation was flawed. Private pictures of places, she has spied on other lawyers and their clients, who were not suspects, and that the conversations were within the obligation of professional secrecy.

A few numbers of investigation

As of January 2014, the police have had permission from a judge to intercept private communications that affected 82 people, including lawyers Cavaliere and Rizzuto.

• 13 236 conversations in total were intercepted at the law firm, Cavaliere and Associates, whose 8201 involving Me Cavaliere

• 3518 , these communications have been considered privileged under professional secrecy

• 19 suspects have been indicted in the fall of 2015

SEVEN INTRUSIONS BY CLANDESTINE

1. The police have made their first entry into the building housing the cabinet Cavaliere and Associates on July 15, 2014. The police begin to install the audio equipment in the conference room.

2. August 20, 2014 : They install a microphone in the conference room and into the private office of Me Cavaliere

3. Night from 25 to 26 August 2014 : They begin the installation of a microphone in the reception room

4. Night of 26 to August 27, 2014 : They complete the installation of a camera at the reception

5. Night of 2 September 3, 2014 : Installation of a camera in the conference room and repair of a micro

6. 22 September 2014 : A microphone is installed in the garage of the building

7. October 28, 2014 : They put a microphone at the reception

WHAT THE JUDGE SAID

“Despite their good faith, the actors involved in the monitoring have shown a caution insufficient. “

“It goes without saying that a law firm cannot become a vault to keep it away from lawyers or other persons who commit criminal offences. “

“In contrast, the reception room and the conference room were places frequented by other lawyers and their clients. The latter had the right to be fully protected from intrusion by the State. “

“Having regard to the status of counsel for Rizzuto and client Sollecito, in the interest of society militates in favor of the protection of solicitor-client privilege in the precincts of the law firm, except for the conversations not privileged in the personal office of Loris Cavaliere. “

The cameras were ” essential “, according to the judge

SCREENSHOT Of VAT NEW

Loris Cavaliere has been pulled out of bed by the police, which have arrested in this investigation on November 19, 2015. He was found guilty of gangsterism, and was granted parole in November 2017 after serving one third of his sentence.

The police would have had to suspend his espionage at the office of Me, Loris Cavaliere, as soon as the first failures of the surveillance cameras she had installed.

At least that is what suggests the judge Eric Downs, including the decision last Monday to either release the mafiosi Leonardo Rizzuto and Stefano Sollecito because of illegal wiretapping of police officers, will make case-law in the country.

Archival Photo, QMI Agency

Leonardo Rizzuto
Released

According to the judge, the use of surveillance cameras in the office of Me Cavaliere was “essential” to the police to conduct their investigation without the risk of infringing the professional secrecy, as a constitutional right protecting the private conversations between lawyers and clients.

Cameras became, somehow, the eyes of the police officers to know which suspects to save, at what time and in what room of this building, which was also the place of business of the lawyer Leonardo Rizzuto.

A lawyer for the RCMP had also advised the squad of” use in priority the cameras “and” avoid use of microphones to locate targets inside ” of the law firm.

“This simple advice and effective has not been applied,” said the judge.

Microphones open throughout

The judge of the superior Court has described as “alarming” the decision of the investigators to continue to intercept conversations in this firm of lawyers of Saint-Laurent boulevard, relying on only the microphones that the police had installed in the reception area, in the private office of Me, Cavaliere, and in the conference room.

“There has been no stoppage of interception when the cameras have had technical problems, he noted. Instead, the technique to identify where a target was in the cabinet was to open the three microphones at the same time. “

However, he adds, ” open all microphones placed in locations where they are likely to intercept privileged communications is not an adequate method in a law firm “.

The police have turned to ” which method is the most risky “, having recorded the passage “legal advice lawful” between other lawyers in the same firm and their clients. These private exchanges were protected by the privilege.