Police ethics hearings to begin Wednesday in conjugal-violence case - Montreal Gazette

Montreal police will present their new five-year plan to tackle conjugal violence Tuesday, the day before five members of the force appear before the police ethics tribunal to explain why they didn't respond to a woman's desperate calls for help before she was slain by her spouse.

The hearings before the tribunal, expected to last 13 days, will also overlap with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Sunday, Nov. 25.

Maria Altagracia Dorval, who had been living in a classic domestic violence situation, called the police a few times to report threats from her estranged husband, Edens Kenol, and the last time, on Oct. 11, 2010, no one from the force looked into her complaint.

Six days later, Dorval, 28, sent her three young children to her cousin's house, then went out to celebrate her birthday. When she arrived home at 3 a.m., it's alleged, Kenol was waiting inside her Montreal North apartment, knife in hand.

Kenol, 36, has been charged with first-degree murder and his trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 23.

After Quebec's minister of public security at the time ordered that the police ethics commission look into what went wrong, commissioner Claude Simard concluded in August 2011 that three officers and two detectives failed Dorval and her children.

He found that Constables Danny Chicoine, Eric Sabourin and Estelle Motta were negligent on Oct. 11, 2010, when it came to responding to Dorval's complaints to police, to protecting her and her children, verifying the seriousness of threats against her and doing a thorough investigation.

Det.-Lt. Marcel Thifault is cited for not verifying the seriousness of the threats when the case came across his desk on Oct. 12, 2010 and before passing it on to an investigator, and between Oct. 12 and Oct. 18, violating Dorval's and her children's rights to security.

Det.-Sgt. Geneviève Leclerc is cited for not investigating the case as soon as it came across her desk on Oct. 13, 2010, and for violating Dorval's and her children's right to security.

As a result, all five will appear before the police ethics committee, which acts as a tribunal to ensure that the Quebec police code of ethics is upheld. It can impose sanctions on officers found to have breached the code.

After the public outcry over Dorval's death, members of the force were given a memo titled Preventing Spousal Homicide, which provides a list of questions officers should ask the victim and a list of symptoms to note in the suspect in order to better assess the risk of violence. A recent separation, impulsive behaviour and a history of drug and alcohol abuse should all raise red flags.

Commander Vincent Richer, police spokesman on the issue of conjugal violence, said the force is evaluating the impact of the checklist but said so far it seems to be making a difference.

Manon Monastesse, director of the Fédération des ressources d'hébergement pour femmes violentées et en difficulté du Québec, an association of housing for abused women, said that since producing a guide in 2004 to prevent homicides, her organization has been asking to play a role in training the police.