The Mayerthorpe Story

by Robert Knuckle

  •Mr. Cheeseman was little more than a bystander with knowledge of the danger to the police posed by Roszko.

  •It is my view that Mr. Hennessey reaches the highest rung possible for a party to murder who did not participate in formulating a plan to murder, was not present, and was not the shooter.

  •Mr. Hennessey appears to have been motivated exclusively by self-interest. The fact that he was fearful of Roszko reinforces the conclusion that he either knew or was willfully blind to the threat Roszko posed to others.

  The reaction to Judge Macklin’s sentences was mixed, to say the least.

  The media referred to the sentences as “harsh.”

  Crown prosecutor David Labrenz was quoted as saying, “The message sent today is that crimes of this type involving police officers have to be denounced, deterred, specifically and generally.”

  The families of the slain policemen appeared to be satisfied with the judge’s decision.

  Colleen Myrol spoke to Ryan Cormier of the Edmonton Journal and said, “Whatever the number of years in this sentence, the truth as we see it, for Dennis and Shawn, is that they have a life sentence.

  “They caused all of us emotional pain and hardship, and for the rest of their lives, they will be branded by all of Canada as having been part of this horrific crime.”

  However, she did express some empathy for the families of the offenders. “We feel sadness; there are other families at stake, here. There are two children whose father has been sent to prison, and their uncle. You have to think of that also.”

  Don Schiemann said, “I’ve often been critical of our justice system. It often seems broken and ineffective. There are times when it works, and today it worked.”

  People from various communities reacted in diverse ways. Many from the Mayerthorpe region were glad that the prolonged and tragic saga was over. Some residents of the Barrhead area felt the two men were treated too severely. That division of opinion appeared to be sustained throughout Alberta and even across the country.

  Corporal Wayne Oakes, who had followed the criminal proceedings carefully from beginning to end, said, “Judge Macklin was thorough. For each of the accused, he addressed the facts individually. Both of them and their lawyers agreed to the statement of facts that was read into the record and they signed it.”

  Christine Hennessey told the Barrhead Leader that while she didn’t argue her husband’s innocence and acknowledged his involvement with Roszko, she did think their severe sentences were unjustified. She had hoped that when her husband and brother pleaded guilty to manslaughter, both of them would receive lighter sentences.

  The Hennesseys were outraged and devastated. Barry Hennessey had hoped the boys would be home by Christmas. Sandy Hennessey, Shawn’s mother, told the same newspaper, “I’m devastated by the outcome of what happened in court today. Part of me feels like I’m numb. I’m totally numb. Another part of me feels like this is just a bad nightmare that continues to go on and on.”

  When she was asked what she had expected the sentence to be, Sandy replied, “Certainly not fifteen years. I had expected all along that it would probably be in the single digits … like five years, six years. I was really, really, shocked.”

  Barry Hennessey was outraged at the sentence and vowed to do everything in his power to get the boys out of prison.

  Sandy agreed with her irrepressible husband.

  “Now we start working on counting down to getting him out.”

  Those who opposed them were equally determined to ensure that justice would be done.

  10 | Fair or Unfair

  IT WASN’T LONG AFTER SENTENCING that the Hennesseys found two lawyers that agreed to appeal the severity of their punishments.

  Hersh Wolch, a renowned trial lawyer from Calgary, offered to act for Shawn Hennessey. Peter Royal, an equally high-profile barrister from Edmonton, agreed to represent Dennis Cheeseman.

  Wolch had established a stellar reputation across Canada. His successes in the criminal courts were numerous, but he was best known for helping to overturn two notorious wrongful convictions. One of those cases involved David Milgaard of Saskatchewan, who was released from prison after serving twenty-three years for a murder he didn’t commit. Wolch had also served on the legal team that helped clear Steven Truscott of charges that he raped and murdered a young girl in Ontario in 1959.

  Initially, the legal team intended to appeal the boys’ sentences, but more recently, they have decided to forego that action and appeal their guilty pleas so they can proceed to trial.

  Wolch told the Canadian Press, “I really question the conviction and I question the outcome.”

  However, in the field of criminal law, it is commonly held that the appeal of a guilty plea is a legal manoeuvre that is rarely used and seldom successful.

  In a telephone interview, Wolch told the author, “To appeal a guilty plea is tough … not impossible, but difficult.”

  As of this writing, no date has been set for the appeal.

  Elsewhere, the public reaction to the Hennessey and Cheeseman sentences has been divided.

  There was a great deal of support for them in Barrhead, where the general consensus among the residents held that the punishment meted out by the court was too severe and vindictive.

  The manager of a Barrhead restaurant maintains the two men were innocent. “They didn’t know what Roszko was going to do.”

  A receptionist at a Barrhead motel claims that Hennessey was a nice, quiet, dedicated family man … and a hard worker. “The conviction was bogus,” she says. “They never should have gone down for it. They were guilty by association.”

  People in that community thought of Hennessey and Cheeseman as two guys with a bad friend who were at the wrong place at the wrong time. The boys were guilty only of making a series of bad choices that led them to Roszko’s farm.

  Mayerthorpe residents did not agree with that assessment. Generally they felt the court had done its job and meted out sentences appropriate to their crime.

  Former mayor Albert Schalm says there were many people in Mayerthorpe who were hoping Hennessey and Cheeseman would get a stiff sentence.

  A writer for the Mayerthorpe Freelancer conducted an informal survey in the town’s business section and, although many of those surveyed did not want to be identified publicly, most of them said they agreed with the sentences.

  One woman in one of the grocery stores said, “They deserved what they got. They’ll have a long time in jail to consider the consequences of their actions.”

  Another person commented, “I think that the two men were sentenced fairly by the court, but I feel badly for their families. There are parents, wives, and children involved. They have to go on living with the knowledge that their kinfolk participated in one of the worst crimes in Canadian history.”

  A worker in a restaurant where the four dead Mounties had been regular customers said she feels sad. “We need to move on, but I still miss them. They were nice guys.”

  Mayerthorpe’s Rev. Arnold Lotholz told the author that Hennessey and Cheeseman were definitely involved in some way. “They certainly bear some guilt.”

  Anthony Gordon’s widow, Kim, says that with the appeal still pending, everything is still not over. “As far as their sentences … justice has been somewhat served. It’s hard to listen to them [the families] whining about their children are not going to see them for a long time. Because of their actions, my two children will never see Anthony. He [Shawn] should have thought of his children first … before getting himself involved.”

  Anjila Steeves, Brock Myrol’s fiancé, told the writer: “No amount of time is ever enough. These were people’s lives they were playing with. My lifetime with Brock is gone. I didn’t want any of this to happen. It’s too hard on families, but there have to be consequences for doing what they did, or what is going to deter people from doing the same thing in the future?”

  Kelly Johnston says, “The sentences are appropriate. They didn’
t phone and they ruined countless other people’s lives. They had the ability to save somebody’s life and chose not to. They should be penalized … and face the consequences.

  “I think they both should have received equal sentences. He [Cheeseman] suggested phoning, but suggesting and doing are two different things.”

  In a letter to the editor in the Edmonton Journal dated January 24, 2009, a man from Red Deer wrote:

  I praise the RCMP for their hard work and dedication in investigating the senseless massacre of four young Mounties on March 3, 2005 near Mayerthorpe.

  Shame on Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman for their cowardly role in allowing James Roszko to commit his murderous rampage.

  These men deserve the maximum penalty for their crime, and hopefully will use that time to atone for their actions.

  Name withheld by the author.

  On February 9, 2009, Joe McLaughlin, the managing editor of the Red Deer Advocate, wrote in part:

  After the Mounties were murdered, Hennessey and Cheeseman didn’t act like they were innocent of any wrongdoing.

  They lied about their whereabouts and activities. They denied assisting Roszko after police identified the rifle that Hennessey had given to Roszko as belonging to his grandfather.

  It took 28 months and a $2-million police investigation before Hennessey and Cheeseman would admit the truth.

  Now facing lengthy jail terms, they have a different version of the truth. Shocked by the severity of the sentences, they claim they were wrongfully convicted and plan to appeal.

  Hennessey’s family blames his lawyer for misleading them into guilty pleas; they expected him to be home with them in time for Christmas

  That would have been an affront to justice and to the families of the slain Mounties.

  Even in Barrhead, not everyone was sympathetic to Hennessey and Cheeseman.

  An editorial in the Barrhead Leader dated January 27, 2009 said that Hennessey’s and Cheeseman’s guilty plea was an admission by them that they had aided and abetted James Roszko, and any further speculation in that regard should be “laid to rest.” The reality is that these two men will go to jail based “purely on their own admission of guilt.”

  A letter to the editor in that same issue reads as follows:

  Dear Editor,

  I wonder if the Hennessey/Cheeseman families and all their supporters are still proud of them? It’s really too bad they did not have the guts to maintain their innocence and go to trial where they would have received a life sentence like they deserve.

  Name withheld by the author.

  One week later, in that same newspaper, a relative of Shawn Hennessey wrote a response to that letter:

  Dear Editor,

  Mr. (name withheld) you need not wonder any longer — the Hennessey/Cheeseman families are still very proud of our boys. I cannot speak for all their supporters, but if all the people who have stopped me in the streets and all the phone calls I have received from across the province are any indication, there are still many out there.

  I wish you had introduced yourself to us at the courthouse as I assume you must have attended court daily and heard both sides in order to make such a judgmental statement. It is people like you with your lynch mob mentality, combined with legal advice that stopped these boys from coming forward sooner.

  I can only hope and pray that you never find yourself in the position of having an armed man show up at your door, waving a gun in your face, making demands and threatening your family because I fear your family would lose.

  Name withheld.

  The editorial in this issue said:

  “Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman are not going to prison for anything they’ve done. They are behind bars for what they didn’t do.”

  It goes on to say that the two men didn’t “pull any triggers … didn’t know the size of the police contingent on Roszko’s property … and couldn’t have possibly known five men would die the following morning. But they didn’t make the phone call.”

  The article concludes with the statement that “both Hennessey and Cheeseman can be relatively certain had they made even the smallest effort to signal the threat posed by Roszko they wouldn’t have been sentenced to a combined 27 years in prison last Friday.”

  In an interview with Shawn’s mother, Sandy, in that issue of the Barrhead Leader, she is asked the question: “When you look back, is there something that you would have done or not done?”

  Sandy Hennessey: “Well, I wish we had spoken out a lot sooner. But we were told by counsel not to speak. Don’t speak to the press. So we’re going by what Shawn’s attorneys had told us. And yeah, I really regret that.”

  Question: “People want to know if Shawn was innocent, why did he plead guilty?”

  Sandy Hennessey: “He pled guilty because he wanted the quickest way to get out from underneath all this. And he thought that by pleading guilty at this point, this was [saving time] going to court, waiting till spring, going through all that process you know, and he just thought it would speed up the process. Certainly not expecting fifteen years by any stretch of the imagination.”

  Both Sandy and Barry Hennessey were very involved with their son’s case and supportive of him throughout the course of his legal problems. Barry was more publicly prominent and certainly much more vocal than his wife.

  It appears that both of them were responsible or at least integrally involved with the formulation and circulation of an Internet newsletter under the banner The Friends and Family of Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman.

  After the sentencing, it included an update that read:

  Today’s events [the sentencing] changed our lives forever. Shawn and Dennis agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter because they were told that it would be the quickest route home to their families. Their choice was tough. They were also told that going against a very powerful machine with unlimited resources on first degree murder could possibly result in 4 X first degree murder charges which could result in 4 X 25 year sentences. Which may possibly mean that they could be behind bars for the rest of their natural lives. It appeared that the only option they had was to plead guilty to manslaughter and take that chance of receiving a lesser sentence so that they could come home to their families within the next couple of years. The choice they made was not easy for them to admit guilt to something they disagreed with.

  Then as the 12 year and 15 year sentences were handed out we were all in total shock. Strange though as it was noted [sic] that day by the crown [sic] that they had insufficient evidence for a first degree murder conviction at trial.

  All we ask is that the justice system look at this and give the boys the chance at a fair trial with all the evidence out in the open.

  A “Free Shawn and Dennis” petition was also circulated. It stated:

  In regards to Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman

  We are asking that the Minister of Justice please release Shawn Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman immediately from prison. These two men are presently serving 15 and 12 years for crimes they had no idea were going to happen. March 3, 2005 four police officers lost their lives in Mayerthorpe. The 2 men that are in prison had zero idea what James Roszko was about to do. He did the killings 10 hours after the boys dropped him off at his mother’s house. Shawn has never to this day said he heard this madman say he was going to hurt anyone. It took a several million dollar (Mr. Big Sting) to get a false confession from Dennis Cheeseman. These boys only walked in a courtroom to plea [sic] guilty to a manslaughter charge (even though they knew they were inocent [sic]) they would face life sentences for capital murder. They were told the crown would possibly give them the minimum sentence which could have them home within a year if they agreed to the agreed statement of facts and plea [sic] guilty of manslaughter. Later it was said by the crown that they had insufficient evidence against them on capital murder charges to get a conviction. Their council [sic] should of gone to trial, and all we all ask is these 2 boys get a fair
day in court. Please release them and set a trial date. They now have lawyers they have faith in and that believe in them. Don’t let this matter get any further out of control than it already is. Please release them immediately.

  The petition asks the reader to submit a name and an e-mail address, and then to answer yes or no to two questions:

  Do you think they should get a chance at a trial?

  Should they be released until a trial date can be set?

  In a column on the same page beside the petition, there was a list of comments that included the following items:

  •“Barry Hennessey told the CBC News that the two men shouldn’t have entered guilty pleas.”

  •“I know the position he [Shawn] was in was very tough. I respect his decision … that decision was very difficult for him and I have to think I might have made the same decision,” Hennessey said.

  •“Nobody agreed with him whatsoever. I don’t know a person who agreed with what happened to him, doing what he did. No friends, no family, nobody agreed to it.”

  •“Obviously, we had run out of money and we didn’t know what way to turn … we spent every cent we had to try to help him through and he seen the pressure, and when the money was gone, it seemed like we didn’t have much more chance,” Hennessey said.

  •“The choices were [to] roll the dice [and] do 25 years times four, or take a chance on telling people what everybody wants hear: that you’re guilty of something you didn’t do and take a chance on … maybe coming home in two to three years to raise your family.”

  •“Shawn has never spoke to anybody about this but yet he’s sentenced to 15 years.” Hennessey said, “Nobody wanted to listen to Shawn’s story. Shawn tried to tell exactly what happened in that house and how it all took place and nobody wants to listen to him.”

  •“His [Shawn’s] heart is broke, as well as the rest of our hearts are broke for everything that happened in Mayerthorpe,” Barry Hennessey, father of Shawn Hennessey, said.

  Many of the above comments speak to Barry Hennessey’s dogged determined to free his son from prison. In this regard he is steadfast, relentless, intractable, and ultimately irrepressible for the love and devotion he has demonstrated for Shawn. During the course of Shawn’s legal problems he has been fearless in his defence.