ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Scheduled to start Monday, the trial of a Mount Pearl man accused of murdering a woman and leaving her body in a field has been postponed indefinitely, as the province’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is investigated by police.
Steve Bragg sat in the dock in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Thursday afternoon as the prosecutors in his murder trial requested the postponement, explaining they had recently been alerted to a serious problem with evidence contamination at the medical examiner’s office. Though the issue doesn’t relate to Bragg’s case, it has implications for it — and a number of others.
Prosecutor Lisa Stead explained she and fellow Crown prosecutor Paul Thistle had received a report from the RNC on Dec. 31 indicating an issue with cross-contamination of DNA samples collected at the office of the medical examiner (OCME), which is responsible for, among other things, conducting autopsies and collecting samples of tissue and fluid which are later forensically tested.
Stead did not reveal any specifics, other than to say the two samples related to two individuals and different cases; charges have been laid in one of them, but not the other, she said.
The Telegram has learned the DNA belonged to two men who died by homicide in different areas of the province, six months apart. When the DNA of one of the men was tested by experts at the RCMP’s national forensic lab in Ottawa, it was discovered to match the profile of the other man, who had died months earlier.
The two cases are unrelated and neither has yet to be concluded legally. The province's current chief medical examiner is Dr. Nash Denic, who took the place of Dr. Simon Avis when he retired in March of last year. The cross-contamination occurred before Denic took over the position.
“Given that there’s another look being taken at some evidence that was processed at the OCME, I think it’s in the interest of justice that this complete before this matter proceeds to trial."
-Lisa Stead
A review of the OCME in 2017 - conducted after the brain of an infant was lost by the office, resulting in the dismissal of a murder charge against the baby’s father — called it “an accident waiting to happen.” A report written by Nova Scotia medical examiner Dr. Matthew Bowes concluded there were many problems with this province’s OCME: too few staff; overworked staff, including Avis, whose workload was described as heavy and unsustainable; inadequate equipment and an out-of-date record system.
Boxes, files and supplies were filling every open space, Bowes wrote, making it difficult for staff to move around. He noted a lack of formal policies and procedures.
In its 2018 budget the province announced new spending to the tune of $563,000 for the OCME, in an effort to address the issues raised by Bowes. Total funding for the OCME at that time was around $1.5 million.
As a result of the discovery, the RNC has launched an investigation into the OCME, and is reviewing the criminal files of cases in which evidence collected by that office over the past three years. Bragg’s is one of them.
“Given that there’s another look being taken at some evidence that was processed at the OCME, I think it’s in the interest of justice that this complete before this matter proceeds to trial,”
Stead told Justice Donald Burrage.
Bragg, 37, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in connection with the Nov. 11, 2017 death of 36-year-old Victoria Head, a Placentia native and mother of one child. He is being represented by Bob Buckingham and co-counsel Robert Hoskins.
Head’s body was located by a field near O’Brien’s Farm Road, in the centre of St. John’s. The next day, police issued a missing-person appeal for Bragg, who was located a day after that. He was first charged with second-degree murder, but the charge was upgraded when police unearthed new evidence in the case.
Jury selection for Bragg’s trial was scheduled to begin on Monday, with the trial starting immediately thereafter and lasting six weeks.
The second-degree murder trial of 37-year-old Philip Butler – accused of having killed his brother, George Allan Butler, at home in Upper Gullies during the May 24, 2018 long weekend - is also scheduled to begin this month, starting Jan. 27 and expected to last two weeks. The trial is reportedly going ahead as planned.
Butler’s case also falls within the time frame of the police investigation into the OCME.
— With files from Rosie Mullaley
Twitter: @tara_bradbury
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