RCMP officer acquitted

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The RCMP officer accused of lying under oath at a special inquiry into the Wilson Nepoose murder conviction has been acquitted.

Justice Allan Wachowich rejected defence claims that Red Deer RCMP sergeant Don Zazaluk was suffering a temporary mental disturbance brought on by the stress of the Nepoose investigation.

But Wachowich ruled that since the officer did not intend to mislead the inquiry because he admitted he lied.

Zazaluk was charged with perjury after he testified that he did not alter police documents relating to the Nepoose investigation before the federal inquiry into the 1987 conviction.

Zazaluk later admitted he crossed out the words "slime ball" and "yeah" written in the margin of a police report on Nepoose. The reports were later entered as evidence at the Nepoose inquiry.

Defence lawyer Chris Evans described Zazaluk as a troubled man who was taken by surprise when first asked to testify about the altered documents. He said Zazaluk was a "good cop" who made a mistake and then admitted the mistake.

Nepoose served more than five years in prison on a second-degree murder charge stemming from the death of Marie Rose Desjarlais. He was freed last December after an appeal overruled his original conviction based on reversed testimony from a key witness.

Crown lawyers refused to hold a second trial saying there was no longer enough evidence to win a conviction.