Ostrowski's bail bid begins Monday

A bail hearing will begin Monday for a Winnipeg man who has spent 23 years in prison for ordering the murder of a police informant he has always claimed to have had nothing to do with.

Stanley Frank Ostrowski, a former cocaine dealer, was convicted with two other men in 1987 for killing Robert Nieman in September 1986.

Nieman, 22, was ambushed and shot three times in the face. Ostrowski was found guilty of ordering his execution, but has always maintained his innocence.

Now in his late 50s, Ostrowski and his bid for freedom were given a lift in September after a lawyer in charge of reviewing his case for the federal Justice Department said a "miscarriage of justice likely occurred."

His bail application is being made pending a full ministerial review of his case. Hearings begin at 10 a.m. and will continue through Tuesday.

Lawyers allege Ostrowski the victim of false evidence

The bail application will allow a key document casting doubt on Ostrowski's guilt and the fairness of his trial to be formally entered into the public record.

In a damning 225-page brief written by lawyers James Lockyer and Alan Libman of the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted (AIDWYC), police and Crown prosecutors are accused of offering a key prosecution witness a hush-hush deal in exchange for perjured testimony at Ostrowski's trial.

The sworn affidavit was filed in Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench on July 30.  

In the affidavit, AIDWYC said a police report obtained from Manitoba Justice in 2003 revealed that the witness, a Winnipeg man by the name of Matthew Lovelace, had initially identified another man, and not Nieman, to police as the target of the murder plot on the night of the killing.

A year after receiving the report, AIDWYC said it also learned undisclosed arrangements were made with Lovelace to dismiss his drug charges if he fingered Ostrowski in court as the mastermind of the plot to kill Nieman.

In his testimony at Ostrowski's trial, Lovelace completely denied any such arrangement was made.

However, AIDWYC said 18 months after Ostrowski's conviction, on Nov. 16, 1988, Lovelace was acquitted of drug charges by prosecutors during a 45-second hearing where no evidence was called to support their position.

The acquittal was entered despite the fact the Crown had a strong case against Lovelace that had dragged on for unknown reasons for more than two years after his arrest, AIDWYC alleges.

It wasn't until 2004 that AIDWYC was forwarded a file from the federal Crown's office that contained "explosive information" about Lovelace's drug case and how it allegedly links him to perjured testimony at Ostrowski's trial, the agency's affidavit said.

In it was a handwritten Crown memo from 1986 — prior to Ostrowski's trial — that states Lovelace's charges would be stayed if he "comes through with the goodies."

In a supporting affidavit also to be presented in court on Monday, Ostrowski's trial lawyer, Greg Brodsky, says Lovelace provided the only direct evidence of Ostrowski's guilt in Nieman's death.

"Matthew Lovelace provided all the missing links for the Crown's case against [Ostrowski]," AIDWYC wrote. "He and he alone gave [Ostrowski] motive: that [Ostrowski] believed Nieman had informed on him.

"The jury were bound to accept this evidence because they believed [wrongly] that Lovelace had told police this before the shooting happened. Lovelace's apparent pre-shooting prediction was enough in itself to seal [Ostrowski's] fate at trial. Mr. Brodsky had no credible answer to it," AIDWYC said.

Crown's current position on bail not known

Senior Crown attorney Zane Tessler will represent the province at Ostrowski's bail application on Monday.

It's not known yet if Manitoba Justice will oppose his release. If not, Ostrowski could be freed as soon as Tuesday afternoon.

The former hairdresser, currently housed at the Manitoba's minimum-security Rockwood Institution, will likely ask to live with his adult daughter in Winnipeg if he's granted bail.

Ostrowski's 15-year prison term for trafficking cocaine handed to him in 1991 (to be served concurrently with his life sentence for Nieman's murder,) expired years ago.

He has never applied for parole or participated in rehabilitative programming while in prison out of a belief it would taint his stated innocence in Neiman's killing, court documents said.

For Ostrowski's application for a ministerial review to succeed, the minister of justice must be satisfied there is a reasonable basis to conclude a miscarriage of justice likely occurred. If this requirement is met, the minister may grant one of two remedies: direction for a new trial or a referral of the matter to the Court of Appeal.

Prosecutor criticized

Ostrowski's case was prosecuted by former Manitoba Justice lawyer George Dangerfield.

Dangerfield was the high-ranking Crown attorney in charge of trying James Driskell, Thomas Sophonow and Kyle Unger.

All three men were found to be wrongfully convicted.

Unger's conviction for killing Manitoba teenager Brigitte Grenier was overturned in March, and he was formally cleared of all charges on Oct. 23.

The province has retained retired Ontario Justice Roger Salhany to review the Dangerfield prosecutions. His fist task will be to review Ostrowski's case, with an emphasis on the disclosure of evidence.