Family drama in Vermont: bungling police and judicial saga

VAT New

Thursday, January 18, 2018 19:44

UPDATE
Thursday, January 18, 2018 19:48

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In August 2006, when Louise Desnoyers went to Vermont to drown his son, Nicolas, the father and the brother of the child of eight years old have seen their lives switch.

Looking back on the drama, and the show, “J. E.” has noted that the bereavement of Réal Langlois and his son has been seriously disrupted for many years due to a bungling police officer, and especially of the very long procedures, which followed those sad events.

The father of a family has filed a complaint in the police ethics commission against the police officers who have not taken their complaints seriously in the evening of the murder of his son.

Five police officers were told that they have worked poorly. There have been sanctions against two of them, while three have been the subject of a reprimand. Two sergeants have challenged the decision of the ethics Committee before the courts until last year, eleven years after the tragedy.

Back on the events

While the mother was committing the worst of the other side of the border, Réal Langlois had gone to report the disappearance of his wife and suicide of his son to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).

It was 22: 20 when Mr. Langlois took on the role of district 27 near his home. He told his story to an agent on the spot. After listening, the officer told him to return to the house to report the disappearance to 911, because the post office had to close its doors.

Mr. Langlois said to have insisted on the fact that his spouse had held about suicide the same morning, that she had taken her younger eight year old son with her, that in his opinion, it was necessary to act now. The officer who was ending his shift has still refused to take the complaint and asked him again to get out of the police station.

This that did not know Mr. Langlois, is that the sergente Josée Deslongchamps, head of the night shift, heard his story. She was in a different room and she has not intervened.

It is one of the elements contained in the investigation report of the police ethics Committee on this matter, a report obtained by issuing “J. E.” through the law of access to information. Among the evidence filed, there is also a recording of a telephone conversation between the clerk called 911, who took the call from Mr. Langlois and sergente Deslongchamps.

The sergente then told him “it looks bigger than it is… the guy came to the post sometimes. It is more a case of divorce, it is a crime against his wife.”

The sergente mentions to the clerk to 911 that she wants “the feeder, that Mr. Langlois has brought in his guys the oldest, and then there he was coming to seek his other guy, but it was a party before him. Then he was angry. Then it is not bad”. The woman at 911 said to put the complaint “stand by”.

The show “J. E.” has heard this audio tape to Réal Langlois. The father of the family was initially upset to see how his call for help had not been taken seriously.

“A lack of judgment on the part of police officers who have not seen the red light,” he said. I have however talked about about suicidal from my wife, of my concern, they have not lit up there.”

Ethics

After investigation by the police ethics Committee, three officers have been reprimanded, two sergeants have been disciplined.

The ethics committee accuses mainly to these two officers in authority not to have immediately launched an alert to all the Québec police force, learning that a suicidal woman was missing with her child of 8 years. This is only a dozen hours later, the next morning it was done.

The two sergeants have contested the sanctions before the courts. They have exhausted all judicial remedies up last year, 11 years after the tragedy.

On February 1, 2017, a judgment in the Court of appeal has finally put an end to this long legal saga. As citations to appear dated back to 2009, it was time to close these files, ” said judge Manon Savard, who heard the case.

There has therefore been a suspension of five days without pay for the sergente Josée Deslongchamps. Until the very end of the procedure, its argument was that it did not breach its duties, that she did what she had to do.

As for the sergeant Jocelyn Angers who oversaw Josée Deslongchamps that night, he is now retired. If he decided to resume his career in the police, he could not practice his trade for six months because of an inability to work.

“I had disturbed the police. They said that I had not given the right information. While it was quite the opposite. I told them that my wife was suicidal, but they were not lit,” said Réal Langlois, indignant to see that the police officers were questioned during so many years their sanctions.

In 2006, Louise Desnoyers has killed his son, Nicolas, at the isle Lamotte, Vermont. Then she attempted suicide by drinking windshield washer fluid, inflicting injuries to the wrists. A pot of codeine empty was in his vehicle near the location where it was found.

Even if she was convicted of manslaughter and, therefore, without premeditation, the detective of Vermont responsible for the investigation, Edward Meslin, has given the show “J. E.” that, for him, there is no doubt that the gesture of the woman was premeditated.

The boy had been drugged before being murdered, an element that had not been revealed in court. The show “J. E.” has obtained the report of toxicological analysis which demonstrates that Nicolas had codeine in the blood. A powerful painkiller absorbed in such quantity that it had to be to confused when his mother was drowned in lake Champlain.

In Vermont, Louise Desnoyers was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 15 years to be served behind bars. As the mother of a family, his conduct was without reproach behind bars in the United States, it will be released on August 16, 2021, approximately two years earlier than planned in the original award.