Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Monday, April 23, 2007

SNOWDRIFT - Three Lutsel K'e men left a Yellowknife courthouse as free men on April 18 after rape convictions against them were overturned.

The three - Raymond Marlowe and brothers Antoine and Noel Michel - were convicted in 2005 and each sentenced to three years imprisonment in connection with an alleged gang rape of a 14-year-old girl at a Lutsel K'e party in 1975.

The NWT Court of Appeal, which heard the appeal and delivered its decision on April 18, ordered that the men not be tried again.

"They finally feel they got justice," said Marlowe's lawyer, Hugh Latimer.

The lawyer said the three men had an overwhelming sense of relief and happiness upon hearing the appeal court's decision.

The men were tried twice on the charges, which were laid in 2002. A 2004 trial ended in a hung jury.

Latimer noted the aboriginal men were being called "The Lutsel K'e three."

"Their attitude was they were political prisoners of the white establishment," he said, adding that they felt their trial should have been among their peers in Lutsel K'e or Fort Resolution, not the "white enclave" of Yellowknife.

Latimer said the appeal court - consisting of two judges from Alberta and another from B.C. - zeroed in on inconsistencies in the complainant's testimony.

"At the heart of the matter was a woman who could not be believed, but was believed by the jury," he said, noting the trial judge did not make enough of inconsistencies in the complainant's testimony when instructing the jury.

In 1975, Marlowe was 15, Noel Michel was 16 and Antoine Michel was 22.

After being sentenced in 2005, Marlowe served nine months before being freed on bail while awaiting appeal. The Michel brothers were in jail until released last week.

Crown attorney Maureen McGuire said the appeal court's decision brings the matter to a close.

"This is the end of the line for this case," she said.

McGuire said the appeal court noted problems with the trial judge's charge to the jury.

For example, it found Justice Virginia Schuler didn't properly instruct jury members when she told them not to draw any conclusions from the fact that two women at the 1975 party did not want to talk to police and were not called to testify by the Crown.

"They were inadequately instructed on how they should consider the absence of evidence," McGuire said, adding that another witness had mentioned the two women.

She also noted the appeal court found the trial judge didn't sufficiently highlight the inconsistencies between the testimony of the complainant and another witness.