Inspecteur Clouseau et L'Affaire de Somerville

Yes, politics. Where greed wears the mask of morality.
- Jacques Clouseau, Imspecteur de Police


I can’t say I’m overly surprised by the growing interest in the Somerville threats and I think this is actually good for our community as we head into a provincial and municipal elections.  As voters, we can clearly see who isn’t worthy to be entrusted with our vote.

Newmarket has seen too many of the wrong sort of politicians playing underhanded games to discredit an opponent for their own ends.  Those people need to be exposed.

Let me be upfront with my bias – I think the Somerville threat allegation is a hoax.  I believe this because no evidence compels me to believe otherwise. 

I have stated before that I would especially like some proof that police were actually called.  Proof could come in the form of a York Regional Police incident number or the badge number of the police officer that took the complaint.  Despite having challenged others on numerous occasions to produce this evidence, nobody is forthcoming with this very basic information. 

Others claim to have first hand knowledge of a criminal investigation. 

Most notably, the blogger Gordon Prentice posted last evening claiming to have a letter from the York Regional Police saying that the investigation is closed. 

And secondly, Stephen Somerville was asked about the police investigation and is quoted in the Era as saying:

We took this to the police, they had the crown attorney look at it and it's kind of a grey area.  They say it's not enough to press charges.

Does any of this jive with police protocol for criminal investigations? 

I had an incredibly enlightening email exchange with a reader, (who asked not to be named in my blog and I respect a person’s right to privacy). 

While admitting to no first hand knowledge of this specific matter, this person impressed me with credentials that demonstrate that the email writer knows how York Region Police conduct criminal investigations. 

The email writer contacted me to say if Somerville made a complaint to the police, the writer believes only two possible scenarios could have played out. 

1)      The officer who received the complaint could decide that no further action was required on the file if the officer believed that there was no evidence of an offence.

2)      If the officer believed that an offence may have been committed, the police would begin an investigation which would have included interviews of the complainant and the person alleged to have made the threat (if known).  If evidence supports a finding that there was indeed an offence committed, the police would lay charges as appropriate. 

Darryl Wolk, the decoy candidate for Regional Council, continues to insist that the Somerville threat allegation is verifiable (despite that he continues to ignore requests to provide evidence to support his position) and that the police got it wrong when they closed their case.  He insists that Councillor Maddie Di Muccio made a threat to Somerville targeting his family, allegedly at a clandestine meeting with Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees on Valentines Day.  Somerville dropped out of the PC nomination race 5 days later as a result. 

But when asked directly whether she was contacted by the police in this matter, Di Muccio was very quick to reply, “No, never,” via Twitter.  Ward 3 Councillor Jane Twinney has so far refused to comment on whether police contacted her about the alleged threat to the Somerville family. 

The email writer emphatically states, that unlike television shows like “Law and Order”, the police in York Region are professionals who conduct thorough investigations.  The email writer believes that there may not have been any conversation with a Crown Attorney (as Somerville claims), unless the investigation was completed.  It is extremely rare for a police office to consult a Crown Attorney unless charges are imminent.  Unlike the DA’s you see on TV, our Crown Attorneys are simply too busy and it is highly improbable for a Crown Attorney to have been contacted in the manner as Somerville says.

So when the email writer contends that Somerville’s statements about the Crown are highly unlikely, logically, we are right to infer that it is equally unlikely that there would have been an actual police investigation, (and the fact that the police never contacted Di Muccio would support this finding). 

If Prentice’s letter is real, which presupposes that Somerville actually went to the police, (an event that I see no reason to accept at this point), then the only plausible deduction is that the police immediately dismissed Somerville's complaint believing that no offence was committed.  This deduction comes from the fact that there is no evidence that anyone connected to the matter was interviewed by the police. 

Wolk desperately wants people believing that there is something untoward in the fact that Di Muccio isn’t commenting on his allegations.  My email writer states that Wolk is probably wrong on that point.  The writer believes it is likely that she has received legal advice to remain mum in preparation for legal action against those making these false allegations, (a list that presumably would include Wolk). 

As fascinating as this entire episode has been, I believe we have reached a dead end in terms of things to write about in regards to the Somerville threat allegation.  Unless new evidence is presented, I would suggest that readers treat this matter as a hoax.  The perpetrators of the hoax, including Somerville, Wolk and others, may bark on about the authenticity of their claim but I haven’t seen any compelling evidence that backs up what they are saying. 

There is a reason why MPP Frank Klees has tossed these two charlatans to the curbside.  There are reasons why Jane Twinney and Maddie Di Muccio are remaining silent on this matter.  And most importantly, there are reasons why the York Regional Police have allegedly closed their file on this case. 

Perhaps there is something for us to learn from their examples.  Unless there is new evidence, we need to move on and leave Somerville and Wolk behind to ponder their own short-lived, disgraced political careers.