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oo Tg | "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" D> POI PERIY STAR Q ; ~~ COMMUNITY Variety night coming to Sunderland 4- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, April 1, 1997 i, 1 'Top Gun' to kick off Fest FY Sunderland's second annual Maple Syrup Festival kicks off this weekend with Friday evening's Family Variety Night. Special guest at the event, being held in the town hall in Sunderland, is area native Steve Nierlich, Canada's top fighter pilot. It's presented by The Sunderland District Business Association. NN NN LoS he Starting at 8 p.m. Friday, the evening includes appearances by The Critters, humorist Scott Samis, the Kawartha Male Chorus, Thomas and Company and special guest Captain Steve Nierlich, along with the Brock 659 Air Cadets. With your ticket pur- chase, $8 for adults and $4 for children under 12, you can be eligible to win one of three trav- el packages. The Sunderland Maple Syrup Festival will commence the fol- lowing day and runs April 5 and 6. HEATHER McCRAE/PORT PERRY STAR SAYING GOODBYE: At a retirement tea held for Community Memorial Hospital CEO David Brown on March 27, Rae Robson, (Chief Nursing Officer) presented a 'signature' quilt to Mr. Brown and his wife, Glenda. Made by Mary Nesbit, RN, the quilt is signed by every employee at the hospital "so you will never forget us" Ms. Robson said. Childrens' entertainer to play The Sunderland Child Care Centre is presenting children's entertainer Magoo in concert this weekend. Tickets for Magoo are $5 per person, The show will be held on Saturday, and children under the age of 2 get in (April 5) beginning at noon in the free. Sunderland Town Hall. If you are interested in purchasing The show is part of the Sunderland tickets for the show, contact the daycare Maple Syrup Festival, being held April 5 centre at 357-2618. Tickets can also be 6. The Sunderland Public School Choir purchased at the Port Perry Library. will be opening the festival with perfor- mances on both days at 9 a.m. Steve Nierlich, Canada's "Top Gun" will be the special guest at the 2nd Annual Family Variety Night in Sunderland this Friday. McArthurs' fate now in jury's hands Police could have framed suspects: lawyer By John B. McClelland Port Perry Star The fate of Mitchiel and Angus McArthur is in the hands of the jury. Justice Harry LaForme is to deliver his final instructions to the six men and six women today, and they will now have to reach a decision on the guilt or innocence of the two Kingston brothers. They face 34 charges in connection with the Oct. 20, 1994 robbery at the Bank of Montreal in Port Perry in which five people were wounded by gunfire. The charges include attempted murder, armed rob- bery, kidnapping and the use of disguises and firearms while committing a crime. The trial in Ontario Court, General Division at the Whitby courthouse has been lengthy and exhaustive. It started in mid-January and has heard testimony from more than 70 witnesses for the Crown and the defense. One of the two accused, 31 year old Angus McArthur, took the witness stand in his own defense; but Cindy Wasser, lawyer for 44-year old Mitchiel, decided not to put her client on the stand. Closing arguments from both sides in the case were heard in court last week, and Ms. Wasser delivered a stinging criticism of the Durham Region Police, suggesting that Mitchiel McArthur has been the victim of a frame-up. In a three hour address, Wasser asked the jury to believe that Durham Police had both motive and opportu- nity for "stacking, fabricating and manufacturing the physi- cal evidence" against her client. Noting that three of the five people shot the night of the robbery are police officers, Wasser said there was a strong desire on the part of the police to get McArthur, and "no time, money or effort was spared in the investigation." At one point she mentioned the names of David Milgard, Donald Marshall and Guy Morin as examples of wrongful convictions where the justice system failed. Wasser zeroed in on the key testimony of Durham Detective Dave Kimmerly, who said he spotted a red Camaro with licence plate TEY600 n.ake a U-turn on Simcoe St. in Port Perry at about 8:50 the night of the incidents. Another witness testified he saw a red Camaro make a U- turn in the same location at 8:25 PM, and other witnesses said they saw a red Camaro leaving the parking lot at Port Perry Hospital at 9 p.m. "Kimmerly could be wrong about the time he saw the U- turn, and he could be wrong about the licence plate," said Wasser. She also said that a notation of the licence plate in Kimmerly's rough notes is lighter than other notations, suggesting it could have been made at any time. "We have no way of knowing when the rough notes were made, and that is not good enough. They could have been written at any time," said Wasser. She went on to suggest the police had opportunity to plant shards of glass and fibres in McArthur's vehicle. His Camaro was not taken directly to the Forensic Science Centre, but went first to an OPP station in Toronto after it sat for more than 48 hours at the police sta- tion and compound in Kingston. She said her client wears a size six shoe. Police found foot- prints of shoes that are size eight and nine. One of the key pieces of Crown evidence was DNA test- ing on saliva from a balaclava found by police near the park- ing lot at Port Perry's Community Memorial Hospital. Wasser said a scientist at the Forensic Centre conducted only six of ten possible DNA tests on the balaclava. Any of the four tests not carried out could have excluded McArthur, she said, and no sound reason was given why the other four tests were not done. She said the balaclava was in the possession of police after saliva samples were taken from her client, suggesting they had the opportunity to place sam- ples on the balaclava. And Wasser said there was a second DNA trace found on the balaclava that was not reported by the Forensic Centre. This trace, she said, was underneath the sample that pointed to her client. She asked why was there no foren- sic report of the second DNA trace on the balaclava. "Look at this DNA test very cautiously," she told the jury, noting that the forensic exam- iner in the McArthur case had made a "serious error" in test- ing in another criminal case. Wasser said that police took 12 hairs from her client's head, but when the envelope was opened at the Forensic Centre, it contained just one white hair. "What happened to those (head hair) samples?" she asked. "Framing Mitchiel McArthur was not an impossi- ble mission to accomplish when (the police) contro! everything and there is nobody else watch- ing what they do," she said.