Jury decides women are not guilty
Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 12/01) - It took nine hours of deliberation but a jury has acquitted two women of defrauding and stealing about $50,000 from the Dene Nation.
The accused, Helen Edjericon and Ethel Liske, burst into tears when the jury came back with the not guilty verdict late Thursday.
Immediately after the verdict Ethel Liske hugged her lawyer Tom Lloyd and a sobbing Edjericon hugged her husband, Yellowknives Dene Chief Richard Edjericon whose tear-stained cheeks burned red in the dim court room light.
"I'm relieved," said Edjericon's daughter Pearl.
Edjericon and Liske did not answer questions from the media, deferring to their lawyers.
Lloyd refused to comment.
"Everyone feels it was just and fair," said Helen Edjericon's lawyer Peter Fugalsand.
Crown prosecutor Mark Scrivens said an appeal is not being planned.
The three-day trial featured a cast of prominent Dene Nation members, including Deh Cho Grand Chief Michael Nadli and Lutsel K'e Chief Felix Lockhart and shed light onto the organization's financial practices.
They were found innocent of breach of trust after Justice Ted Richard deemed they didn't classify as public officials and threw that charge out.
Liske was executive director and Edjericon was financial officer for the Dene Nation when the duo gave themselves advances by signing their own checks for a combined amount of about $50,000 for at least five years ending in 1999.
The crux of the trial fell on whether Edjericon and Liske believed they had the authority to sign their own cheques and whether they both knew what they were doing was wrong.
The defence argued that authorizing advances was common practice in the Dene Nation even though their policy forbade it.
Lloyd, citing prior testimony from Margaret Gorman, an employee of the Dene Nation, said advances were constantly doled out.
He also said Liske believed she had the authority to authorize advances.
The Crown argued both women knew what they were doing was wrong. Scrivens told the jury Liske and Edjericon signed dozens of cheques to their names as advances.
"No one who works for an organization can think they're given a blank cheque," he said.
Earlier in the proceedings Scrivens asked Liske if she should have asked Dene Nation president Chief Bill Erasmus for permission to take out the advances.
Liske said yes.
Scrivens asked Edjericon a similar question when she took the stand. Edjericon answered she didn't feel what she was doing was wrong because "everyone was doing it."
Erasmus admitted during his testimony that he took out an advance to cover an income tax problem. He also said Liske did not have the authority to authorize advances.
