Peter Small
Courts Bureau
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/a...per-cleared-in-freezer-baby-case?bn=1#article
A judge has cleared a former stripper of the charge of letting her baby die after birth and storing the body in a freezer.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael Dambrot ruled Monday that there was insufficient evidence that the baby was born alive.
It was likely that 28-year-old Croatian-born former stripper and prostitute Ivana Levkovic had a miscarriage when the fetus was very small, the judge said.
The judge cleared her of failing to make provision for the delivery of her baby, thereby causing its death, and of disposing of its body to conceal its birth.
The judge preferred Levkovic’s evidence over that of her now-deceased pimp, Mark Hinds, who came into a police station in January 2005, dying of AIDS, and said he wanted to get something off his chest.
He gave police a long statement in which he claimed that Levkovic, whom he described as a girlfriend, gave birth on a toilet to a baby who appeared to be briefly alive, leaving it there until it stopped moving.
After a time, he put it inside a garbage bag and stored it for more than a year in a freezer compartment of their west-Toronto basement apartment’s fridge, he said in this statement.
A friend of Hinds’, Juan Cerdas, testified that in January 2005, at Hinds’ request, he disposed of the garbage bag containing the body by tossing it into Black Creek.
The judge said Hinds’ statement raised questions, and the Crown’s case was marred by the fact that he could not be cross-examined.
Hinds died in 2006 of AIDS-related ailments.
“His version cries out for cross-examination, cross-examination that cannot be,” Dambrot said.
All of the evidence is consistent with the possibility that it was a miscarriage and that the baby was born dead, he said.
Standing outside court beside her lawyer, Levkovic said she was relieved at the outcome and glad that the media spotlight would no longer be on her.
“It’s been hectic,” Levkovic said. “I’m relieved that everything is done and over with and the truth is finally out.”
Her lawyer, Michael Moon, praised Dambrot for his decision. There were several defects in the Crown’s case, notably the fact the dead pimp can’t be questioned, he said.
Levkovic was also acquitted in 2008 of a Peel police charge of concealing another, later alleged birth.
Courts Bureau
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/a...per-cleared-in-freezer-baby-case?bn=1#article
A judge has cleared a former stripper of the charge of letting her baby die after birth and storing the body in a freezer.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael Dambrot ruled Monday that there was insufficient evidence that the baby was born alive.
It was likely that 28-year-old Croatian-born former stripper and prostitute Ivana Levkovic had a miscarriage when the fetus was very small, the judge said.
The judge cleared her of failing to make provision for the delivery of her baby, thereby causing its death, and of disposing of its body to conceal its birth.
The judge preferred Levkovic’s evidence over that of her now-deceased pimp, Mark Hinds, who came into a police station in January 2005, dying of AIDS, and said he wanted to get something off his chest.
He gave police a long statement in which he claimed that Levkovic, whom he described as a girlfriend, gave birth on a toilet to a baby who appeared to be briefly alive, leaving it there until it stopped moving.
After a time, he put it inside a garbage bag and stored it for more than a year in a freezer compartment of their west-Toronto basement apartment’s fridge, he said in this statement.
A friend of Hinds’, Juan Cerdas, testified that in January 2005, at Hinds’ request, he disposed of the garbage bag containing the body by tossing it into Black Creek.
The judge said Hinds’ statement raised questions, and the Crown’s case was marred by the fact that he could not be cross-examined.
Hinds died in 2006 of AIDS-related ailments.
“His version cries out for cross-examination, cross-examination that cannot be,” Dambrot said.
All of the evidence is consistent with the possibility that it was a miscarriage and that the baby was born dead, he said.
Standing outside court beside her lawyer, Levkovic said she was relieved at the outcome and glad that the media spotlight would no longer be on her.
“It’s been hectic,” Levkovic said. “I’m relieved that everything is done and over with and the truth is finally out.”
Her lawyer, Michael Moon, praised Dambrot for his decision. There were several defects in the Crown’s case, notably the fact the dead pimp can’t be questioned, he said.
Levkovic was also acquitted in 2008 of a Peel police charge of concealing another, later alleged birth.
