by Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 16/98) - Romica Adiaconitei lives in constant misery and despair.

He has no permanent residence, he struggles to survive financially, he has lost his family and he can't seem to pick up the pieces of his life and start over again.

Five years ago, Adiaconitei had everything -- a beautiful home in the town of Norman Wells, a booming renovations business going into its third year of operation and a wife and three children.

But on Dec. 12, 1992, everything changed and Adiaconitei's life fell apart.

His step-daughter, Danielle, then eight years old, accused him of touching her in a sexual way.

Adiaconitei denied that he touched her with sexual intent and escorted Danielle and her mother, Michele, to the community nursing station to prove his innocence.

"No, never I did touch her like that. I told them it's not like that," insisted Adiaconitei, who said he had instead pinched her upper groin area in a playful manner.

The results of the physical examination revealed that Danielle's genitals were irritated and that her hymen was partially ruptured. Subsequent test results showed that Danielle suffered extensively from urinary infections but the initial evidence, coupled with Danielle's statement to the RCMP, led to an investigation.

Adiaconitei was charged with sexual interference the next day and released on an undertaking that required him to move out of his home and have no contact with Michele or his children until social services could assess Danielle and her family life.

"There I was, like a dog on the street with no clothes or food or place to live, no family," said Adiaconitei.

Stripped of his family and his home and charged with a sex crime he vows he didn't commit, Adiaconitei's business and health began to fail and he felt like he was being persecuted.

The undertaking was eventually changed to allow Adiaconitei to visit his family as long as Danielle was not present.

The investigation continued and social services appointed a case worker to assess Danielle. It was to this worker that Michele expressed some concern that Danielle might be lying about the disclosure of abuse.

"We went home (from the nursing station) and we were really upset and Danielle was running around the house, laughing and playing, really giddy from all the attention she was getting," said Michele, who felt that Danielle may have exaggerated the situation to get Adiaconitei out of her life.

"Danielle wanted to be with her real father, she was almost infatuated with him and her real father was getting married and she didn't want Romi to be part of her life. She saw the movie (The Boys of St. Vincent), he touched her and she said 'Yep, he touched my peepee.'"

Michele said her concerns were ignored by social services and she felt that Danielle was being manipulated by the social worker in order to get Adiaconitei convicted of the charge.

"Once I saw Danielle was being brainwashed and her story was getting bigger and bigger and I said maybe we need to look at this in a different way.... Danielle was so manipulated by social services by the end of the trial, it was impossible to know the truth."

Michele continued to refuse to cooperate with the case worker and on Jan. 11, 1993 Danielle was taken from her home under section 14 of the Child Welfare Act. Thirty-five days later, after an assessment by the social worker, Danielle admitted to her mother that she lied in her original statement to the RCMP.

Despite the new evidence, Adiaconitei was ordered to stand trial on charges of sexual assault and sexual interference.

He was formally acquitted Oct. 15, 1993, but he feels that the legal and social systems unfairly victimized him and caused the breakup of his marriage.

"I lost the house, lost the business, lost the family and now, I'm just surviving. I don't understand how they can do that," said Adiaconitei.

"I want my life back, to get on my feet again. I want them to pay for the damages for what I lost."

He says he tried to re-establish himself in British Columbia, where his children now live, but after a run-in with the RCMP, who let him know they were aware of his past, he moved back to Yellowknife.

He is now trying to sue the attorney general of Canada and the commissioner of the NWT for more than $500,000, claiming negligent prosecution.

He cannot proceed however, until he pays the legal costs that have been incurred so far and he has been denied legal aid.

"I just want my rights like every other person. I understand what they did they had to do, but the question remains, what about us? I want them covering exactly the expenses of the losses that I had. I want them to pay my damages for what I lost. I don't want this to happen to anyone else, their life destroyed, maybe in the jail for nothing. This is something that hurts me very, very bad," said Adiaconitei.

"Because of that, I'm not anymore with my wife, my kids, my house. I don't have anything to lose anymore. It doesn't matter."