Man charged in Mountie killings gets bail

One of two men from Barrhead, Alta., charged in connection with the 2005 killings of four RCMP officers was granted bail Monday.

A Court of Queen's Bench Justice handed down the decision in Edmonton in the case of Shawn Hennessey, 28.

Hennessey faces four counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of constables Brock Myrol, Peter Schiemann, Anthony Gordon and Leo Johnston on March 3, 2005, at a farm near Mayerthorpe, Alta.

The Mounties were shot by a single gunman, James Roszko, who then killed himself.

Under his bail conditions, Hennessey can live on his acreage in Barrhead and can hold a job. He must observe a curfew between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

His family is putting up $500,000 in property as bail, and Hennessey himself is posting an additional $25,000.

Details of the bail hearing, held in late March, can't be reported because they are covered by a publication ban.

Hennessey and Dennis Cheeseman, 23, were arrested in July 2007 and accused of aiding and abetting Roszko, even though police said neither suspect pulled the trigger or was even at the scene of the shooting when the officers were killed.

Both have been in custody since their arrest. Cheeseman is still in jail.

A preliminary hearing for the pair is set for May in Stony Plain, just west of Edmonton.

A CBC documentary, aired in February, raised questions about whether the investigation into the Mayerthorpe police killings, including the arrests of the two men, is aimed at distracting attention from allegations of negligence within the force.

Bad Day at Barrhead, a documentary by The Fifth Estate, examines the years following the shooting deaths.

People who know Hennessey and Cheeseman were stunned by their arrests, said The Fifth Estate's Linden MacIntyre. Dozens of people, including two former RCMP officers, wrote character references for the two.