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	Familiar Face Retakes the Stand at Inquiry By Trevor Pritchard Standard Freeholder May 13, 2008 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1025826 A familiar face returned to the stand at the Cornwall Public Inquiry Monday to correct testimony he gave last month about police discipline files. Staff Sgt. Garry Derochie was one of three Cornwall Police Service witnesses who breezed through the witness stand Monday afternoon. A 32-year veteran of the city force, Derochie spent 10 days testifying in February, March, and April. Before that, he and another officer, Sgt. Robert Burnie, had been assigned to go through the files of more than two dozen potential CPS witnesses and determine if any of them had faced formal discipline that would be relevant to the inquiry's mandate. Derochie testified on April 2 there were no documents showing any of the people on the witness list had been officially disciplined. But he said yesterday that he and Burnie - who also briefly testified Monday - later discovered they had missed a box of files on Robert Trottier, a former sergeant. Trottier was convicted on Police Service Act charges in 1997 and demoted to fourth-class constable, Derochie said. "We just overlooked it," he testified. Derochie told Dallas Lee, an attorney for The Victims Group, that Trottier's demotion had to do with a falsified notebook entry, and that his demotion to fourth-class constable showed how serious the matter was. "That's way at the bottom of the scale," he said. "You're starting (back at) day one as a police officer." After Derochie and Burnie cleared up the matter, a third witness, Sgt. Brian Snyder, began his examination-in-chief. Snyder, who joined the force in 1979, handled investigations into two convicted abusers: former school teacher Marcel Lalonde and park custodian Earl Landry, Jr. He also was briefly involved in the David Silmser investigation, and testified that lead investigator Heidi Sebalj asked him to do a "statement analysis" of Silmser's abuse allegations against Rev. Charles MacDonald and probation officer Ken Seguin. Silmser had gone to police in December 1992 and asked them to investigate MacDonald, who had allegedly abused him while he was an altar boy. He later accepted a $32,000 settlement from the Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic Diocese in exchange for dropping the charges. Snyder recalled telling Sebalj there were parts of Silmser's statement that seemed true, but also "problems" that he encouraged her to delve into. "It's not just, 'It's truthful or it's not truthful,'" Snyder said. "It's a little bit more than that." Neither Seguin - who committed suicide in November 1993 - nor MacDonald were ever convicted on any sexual abuse charges. Snyder is expected to testify further about the Lalonde and Landry, Jr. investigations when the inquiry resumes this morning. Contact: tpritchard@standard-freeholder.com
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