Transcript

Disturbing police videotapes show an investigation gone terribly wrong

2014

Overview

Even at a birthday there will be tensions, and one guest at this party could sometimes be a trouble magnet. Mikey Spence, in the yellow ball cap, had a brief run-in with other guests that night, but he didn't seem to know just how much trouble he was in. And then he went outside, at about 4 a.m. As the party wound down inside, in this parking lot, Mikey Spence would be confronted by armed men, chased down and shot. The killers' flight was caught in this security video. There were witnesses - hardly witnesses at all, they were so vague. One of them described the main shooter as a large, bald and very black man. [Eric Morgan] wasn't even close to the first description of the shooter, but he's become the target of an extraordinary homicide investigation. Another metro murder, the motive, as often is the case, obscure or trivial. But this one would take on particular significance because it exposed astonishing misconduct in a homicide investigation. Misconduct rooted in a common place investigative process used and increasingly abused by police services all over North America for decades. Morgan was an unlikely murder suspect, an entertainment promoter who had decided to promote a birthday party for himself. He and his friend, [BRIAN COX], were handing out birthday cake, near the end of it. At 4:06:17 and at 4:06:52. At the time that you say Eric Morgan is standing beside you, he is actually in one of those cars, and he's calling you to tell you what's just happened. And he's (bleeping) off 'cause he was just involved in murdering someone. And he's calling you... Brian Cox should have been his star. But he'd been flipped by the police, became a witness for the prosecution, then flipped again in court when he explained how he'd been hammered by the police. Sasha Allison, an eyewitness for the crown at the first trial had also recanted her strange acknowledgement that Morgan was the shooter. In effect, the prosecution had no case and so they offered to accept a guilty plea to manslaughter. Morgan's sentence would amount to the time he'd already spent in jail. [Jim Fleming] was tormented. His client would plead guilty and go home. But what he considered grave police misconduct would never be addressed.

• Publisher: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• Subject: BRIAN COX / CHARLES RUBIN / CHRIS GILES / DET. DANIEL JOHNSTONE / DR. TIM MOORE / ELAINE MORRISON / ERIC 'ACTION' MORGAN / JIM FLEMING / JOSEPH P. BUCKLEY III / LINDEN MACINTYRE / SASHA ALLISON / THOMAS DOHERTY