by Glenn Taylor
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Oct 24/97) - An Inuvik man who has served more than four years in prison for sexual assault has been released, after DNA evidence revealed he was innocent of at least one of three charges.

"After what I've been through, it still sends chills through my spine," said Herman Kaglik. "I was sent away by the word of one person. How many guys in the system are there under the same circumstances?"

Kaglik was convicted of sexual assault in 1992, and sentenced to four years in prison. He faced a second trial in 1994, after his alleged victim from the first trial recalled two previous sexual assaults. He was again convicted on those charges, and six more years were added to his sentence.

Kaglik maintained his innocence through both trials, and through nearly four and a half years in prison at Alberta's Drumheller and Bowden federal penitentiary

Yellowknife lawyer Valdis Foldats was assigned to Kaglik's case last year. He immediately ordered DNA testing of a pair of panties used as evidence against Kaglik in the first trial.

"The results did not match a sample of blood purportedly given by my client," Foldats wrote in an April 7 letter to the court. "This is a dramatic piece of evidence."

The court agreed, and acquitted Kaglik last week of the charge from the first trial. The Crown is free to pursue a retrial on the second set of charges, but that's unlikely given this damaging new evidence.

"We haven't made a decision (to retry) yet," said Crown prosecutor Louise Charbonneau. "That's being reviewed."

Kaglik's story is a chilling example of a man stubbornly clinging to his innocence. Kaglik said he was told by the National Parole Board that he could have been released from prison as early as April of 1995, if he'd admit to the crime.

"They told me to admit my guilt, then they'd put me through a couple of programs, and I could be with my family," said Kaglik.

"But how do you feel remorse when you're not guilty?" he asked. "They hung it over my head."

Kaglik said he felt caught by a justice system intent on believing the victim, but not the accused. "There's two sides to every coin, but they chose to listen to just one side of the coin," he said.

He pointed to the prosecution's argument used with great effect in the first trial -- the victim had no reason to lie. "The complainant has no stake here," argued the prosecution. "She's not going to be acquitted or sentenced."

Kaglik said he was "confident all through both trials that we'd win. I was told not to worry, things were going our way." When the jury pronounced him guilty, he was "totally surprised for the first couple of days.... After the smoke cleared, I was sent to a federal pen on basically no evidence. I felt angry, mad, depressed, hopeless, helpless, you name it."

Life in prison

Life in a federal penitentiary was true hard time, recalled Kaglik. At Drumheller, Kaglik said he had to learn to be tough.

"It's a violent place. What you see in the movies doesn't do it any justice. You either adapt or get swallowed up in the quagmire of being the low guy on the totem pole." Kaglik banded together with other inmates, and together they watched each other's backs.

Kaglik said his feelings these days are a mixture of anger and depression. "I had to go through this, but my family had to face the humiliation of the charges." He said his children heard from others that "their dad was no good." Some kids were told not to hang out with his children any more, "because their dad is a rapist ... it was hard."

Kaglik's family later moved to Red Deer to be closer to him in prison. That made it easier, he said. The family joined a church, and Kaglik said it is his family's love for each other -- and its belief in God -- that helped them through it all.

When he was released in April pending last week's hearing, Kaglik said the anger that had built inside him over the years began to melt away, replaced by a feeling that "there is hope after all."

Kaglik is now considering writing a book about his story, which he says in some ways has a happy ending. "We're a very close family, we always have been," said Kaglik. "The good thing about this trip through the system is that it drove us closer together."

Courtroom chronology

1992 trial

Alleged victim told the court Kaglik asked to use her phone on March 21, 1992. She told the court Kaglik pushed her into the bedroom, slapped her, broke her glasses and forced her to have sex with him.

Defence for Kaglik argued the case came down to one person's word against another.

Kaglik pleaded innocent, but the prosecution argued the victim had no reason to lie. "The complainant has no stake here -- she's not going to be acquitted or sentenced."

Jury of nine men and three women deliberated for four hours before rendering its decision.

Kaglik was sentenced to four years for sexual assault.

1994 trial

Alleged victim claimed that after visits with a psychiatrist, she recalled two previous sexual assaults committed by Kaglik.

In the first, she claimed Kaglik asked her to go with him to see some furniture in a trailer. She said he would not let her leave, and then sexually assaulted her in the trailer.

In the second case, the woman said she was sleeping on her couch when Kaglik entered her home. She said he slapped her a few times, and then sexually assaulted her.

Kaglik pleaded innocent again. The prosecution said Kaglik would never solve his "continuing pattern" of sexual assault unless he admitted he had a problem.

A jury of 11 found Kaglik guilty. He was sentenced to an additional six years.