# data[].attributes.body
A young Baltovich seen in the eyes of the media as a crazed murder, fearful that Elizabeth will leave him.

# data[].attributes.body
A brief introduction about the life of a wrongfully convicted man. From being accused in 1990, sentenced to life in prison, his release, and finally being found not guilty. A span of 18 years. 18 long years to prove his innocence.

# data[].attributes.body
This image is of Robert Baltovich and his girlfriend Elizabeth Bain, whom he was wronfully convicted of murdering.

# data[].attributes.body
Joseph Neuberger sets the scene as Robert Baltovich is about to head back into court for his re-trial. He explains what the defendant will do to prove Baltovich's innocence by shifting over to Paul Bernardo the Scarbourough Rapist.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Joseph Neuberger appears on Global Evening News, December 2, 2004 to discuss the pending re-trial of Robert Baltovich for the murder of Elizabeth Bain and the expected focus on Paul Bernardo as the likely suspect.

# data[].attributes.body
This image is of Robert Baltovich as he demands for an apology from the courts and announces he is suing for his wrongful conviction.

# data[].attributes.body
Baltovich seeks compensation and an apology for his wrongful convicting by filing a lawsuit worth 13 million. He still has not received any compensation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An Ontario man who spent eight years in prison convicted of murdering his girlfriend before being acquitted is suing Ontario's attorney general and police.

In seeking $13-million in general and punitive damages, Robert Baltovich claims his arrest, prosecution and conviction in the death of University of Toronto student Elizabeth Bain were essentially malicious.

"(They) were the result of the reckless, bad faith, negligent and intentional acts and omissions of the defendants," the suit alleges.

"Baltovich has suffered loss of liberty, humiliation and disgrace; he has also suffered a loss of income; he is entitled to substantial damages."

The claims, also on behalf of Mr. Baltovich's father James, have not been proven in court and those named have not had any chance to defend themselves.

Ms. Bain, 22, vanished in June 1990, and although her body was never found, Mr. Baltovich was convicted of killing her in 1992 based on circumstantial evidence.

He was sentenced to life without parole for 17 years.

The prosecution argued he was jealous because he believed Ms. Bain was about to break off the relationship.

Mr. Baltovich was released on bail eight years after his 1992 conviction pending an appeal.

The Ontario Court of Appeal, which heard his lawyers suggest among other things that Ms. Bain's murderer was really notorious sex-killer Paul Bernardo, ordered a new trial in 2004.

The Appeal Court was harsh in criticizing the judge in the trial, Justice John O'Driscoll, calling his charge to the jury "unfair and unbalanced."

"It also contained significant errors of law that were prejudicial to the appellant," the tribunal wrote.

On the first day of the retrial in 2008, the prosecution announced it would call no evidence, and Mr. Baltovich was acquitted by the jury.

In January, Attorney-General Chris Bentley announced the province would not compensate Mr. Baltovich, calling it inappropriate.

Mr. Baltovich had been found not guilty "as a result of the steps that the justice system has taken," Mr. Bentley said.

In an interview Friday, Mr. Baltovich's lawyer, Harvey Strosberg, of Windsor, Ont., said the case cried out for compensation because "justice was not dispensed" and Mr. Baltovich was wrongfully convicted.

"The system failed this man; our society failed this man," Mr. Strosberg said.

"The government and the defendants can come to (compensation) voluntarily or we'll let a judge decide."

Also named in the lawsuit are the two lead Toronto police officers who investigated the original case, Brian Raybould and Steven Reesor, and the original defence lawyers, William Gatward, who is now in the U.K., and Michael Engel.

Mr. Baltovich, 44, maintains the officers as well as the two prosecutors in the case had "substantial evidence" that he was not guilty but failed to disclose the material to the defence at his first trial.

The statement of claim alleges the two officers were guilty of tunnel vision.

They "rushed to judgment" by presuming Mr. Baltovich had murdered Ms. Bain.

"There is reason to believe that Bernardo was Elizabeth's killer," the suit claims.

Mr. Bernardo subsequently denied any involvement in Ms. Bain's killing.

Prosecutors then failed to provide evidence that "supported his innocence," the claim alleges.

Despite Mr. Baltovich's insistence he was innocent, his two defence lawyers failed to review all evidence that could substantiate his position, the suit says.

Mr. Baltovich did not immediately return a call Friday seeking comment.

None of those named in the suit, which was filed in Ontario Superior Court in Windsor, were immediately available to comment either.

A spokesman for the Toronto Police Service said Friday they had not yet been served with the statement of claim.

In 2008, Mr. Strosberg settled the wrongful-conviction claim of James Driskell for more than $4-million. Mr. Driskell was wrongfully convicted of murder in Manitoba and spent 13 years in prison.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Baltovich sues for $13-million in wrongful conviction for murder of Elizabeth Bain

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An Ontario man who spent eight years in prison convicted of murdering his girlfriend before being acquitted is suing Ontario's attorney general and police. In seeking $13-million in general and punitive damages, Robert Baltovich claims his arrest, prosecution and conviction in the death of University of Toronto student Elizabeth Bain were essentially malicious.

# data[].attributes.body
Flawed forensic evidence was a big factor for Baltovich's conviction. It was revealed later in 2004 that crucial evidence which had the potential to prove his innocence was withheld from court and the forensic evidence on file was not a match.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Many observers were left scratching their heads when Crown attorney Philip Kotanen announced, to the complete surprise of the jury he'd recently helped select, that there was "no reasonable prospect of a conviction" in the case against Robert Baltovich.

Mr. Kotanen cited the "cumulative effect" of unspecified "new evidence" and some pretrial decisions rendered by Mr. Justice David McCombs, but the truth is the tenuous circumstantial case against Mr. Baltovich had begun to seriously unravel not long after his controversial conviction in 1992.

The first official sign the Crown's case was in trouble wouldn't come for another eight years, in March, 2000, when the Ontario Court of Appeal took the highly unusual step of releasing Mr. Baltovich, then a man who'd spent nearly a decade behind bars for the murder of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bain, on bail pending the hearing of his appeal.

The Crown was dealt another blow nearly five years later when the Court of Appeal overturned Mr. Baltovich's conviction and ordered a new trial. The appeal court's decision was resoundingly critical of the judge who'd presided over Mr. Baltovich's first trial, Mr. Justice John O'Driscoll, for the way he'd dramatically steered the case in the Crown's favour. But the appeal also revealed there were plenty of other troubling aspects to this case.

There were no eyewitnesses to the actual crime. No forensic evidence connected Mr. Baltovich to Ms. Bain's disappearance. Mr. Baltovich's supposed motive for killing his girlfriend - jealousy - was murky at best. Finally, his window of opportunity to commit the crime was so minuscule that the Crown was forced to hatch a theory of the crime that stretched the limits of believability.

The bottom line is that no one has ever clearly understood precisely when Ms. Bain disappeared, how she disappeared, from where she disappeared, or why she disappeared.

The Toronto police force's homicide squad was called in when Ms. Bain's car was found in Scarborough three days after her mother last saw her on June 19, 1990. Within a few minutes of being told that a small amount of blood had been found in the rear foot well of the car, Detective Sergeant Steve Reesor, one of the lead homicide investigators assigned to the case, ordered Mr. Baltovich be put under immediate surveillance. The reason? A detective at the scene where the car was found said Mr. Baltovich had been acting strange, though he couldn't say how.

From that moment on, the police never considered another suspect, even the Scarborough rapist, whose previous attack, a vicious assault that occurred just three weeks prior to Ms. Bain's disappearance, had culminated in the now-famous composite sketch of the alleged rapist. Instead, police investigators spent five months pursuing Mr. Baltovich - at the exclusion of all else. They wiretapped his home and car and even convinced a friend to wear a body pack while engaging him in a series of lengthy conversations about the case.

Over the course of the 12 years it took for Mr. Baltovich's appeal to be heard, a steady stream of witness statements provided to police during their original investigation began to emerge, statements that were in some cases devastating to the Crown's original theory. For reasons that have never been adequately explained, these statements were never disclosed to Mr. Baltovich's counsel prior to his first trial.

Mr. Baltovich's lawyers also made a series of compelling arguments at the appeal that the investigators' unstinting belief in his guilt had contaminated a number of witnesses. This included members of Ms. Bain's family, who, according to documents and evidence filed by Mr. Baltovich's defence team, inexplicably changed their recollections in a few key areas in such a way they better suited the police theory of the crime.

Even as these gaps in the Crown's case were widening, those most responsible for Mr. Baltovich's conviction began to dig in their heels. While working on my 1998 book about the case, No Claim to Mercy, I interviewed Steve Reesor's partner on the Baltovich investigation, Brian Raybould, who told me, "If we had capital punishment, I'd take [Baltovich]out against a wall and shoot him and not feel bad about it."

Mr. Raybould is now the head of Toronto's homicide squad. Det. Sgt. Reesor went on to become the youngest deputy chief in the history of the Toronto police force. The Crown attorney who successfully prosecuted Mr. Baltovich at his first trial, John McMahon, is now a judge of the Ontario Superior Court.

When asked yesterday why it has taken so long for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney-General to concede defeat, Mr. Baltovich's lead attorney, James Lockyer, alluded to the stubbornness of the Crown. Mr. Lockyer also called for a public inquiry into the case. "This kind of prosecution has got to stop," he said. "We need to get at the root of how it is that the attorney-general's office continues to prosecute these cases remorselessly year after year. They should have seen through a case like this a long time ago."
Derek Finkle is the author of No Claim to Mercy: The Controversial Case for Murder Against Robert Baltovich.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many observers were left scratching their heads when Crown attorney Philip Kotanen announced, to the complete surprise of the jury he'd recently helped select, that there was "no reasonable prospect of a conviction" in the case against Robert Baltovich.

# data[].attributes.body
A 16 year battle for his innocence is over as Baltovich is found not guilty in 2008 at his re-trial.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bain, a 22-year-old student at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, was last seen on the afternoon of June 19, 1990, after telling her mother she was going to the campus tennis courts.

Baltovich, who always maintained his innocence, was charged with her murder in November 1990.

Robert Baltovich speaks outside a Toronto courthouse on April 22, 2008, after his acquittal in the 1990 killing of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bain. (RENE JOHNSTON / TORONTO STAR)

Three days later, her bloodstained car was found two blocks from the campus.

At the Bain family home in Scarborough this morning, Elizabeth Bain's parents, Ricardo and Julita, asked to be left alone as they grieved.

"Please leave us alone for today," Ricardo Bain told reporters from the front yard before retreating inside the house. "This is not a good moment."

Julita Bain said that despite the court's decision, the family still believes Baltovich is guilty.

"We believe that he did it. That doesn't change."

"We're not vengeful people - all we wanted to have is justice for Elizabeth," Julita said. "I'm sure she'll get that sometime, if not here, then up there," she added, gesturing to the heavens.

Asked what would come next for the family, Julita Bain replied: "Life's got to go on, I guess - just like the past 18 years."

"If you look at any of the wrongful convictions that have happened in Canada, it always starts with something small and it gets bigger and bigger," added Lockyer, who is known for his work with the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted. "Ultimately, all of these cases seem to die the same way."

"I believe that was in 1992. It's now 2008 and he finally got his day in court today."

At Queen's Park, Attorney General Chris Bentley said prosecutors did the right thing in the Baltovich case.

"The crown took the appropriate course, which was to quickly reassess the strength of the case, the prospects for it ... and reached the determination that resulted today in a finding of not guilty," Bentley told reporters.

"Mr. Baltovich needed and deserved the verdict of not guilty in light of the assessment, in light of the facts, the law and the evidence," Bentley added.

"I hope that he will now be able to get on with the rest of his life with this matter behind him."

Bentley said any compensation for Baltovich would have to be a matter of future discussion.

"I will leave that issue to Mr. Baltovich, his counsel and others for another day."

Bentley sent his sympathies to Bain's relatives, who have no closure in the case.

"This is a tragedy for the Bain family ... it does not end today for them."
With files from Rob Ferguson and Paola Lorrigio
Text of Crown attorney Philip Kotanen's statement to the court this morning:
"Accordingly, the Crown will not call any evidence in this matter. The murder of Elizabeth Bain was a horrendous and tragic event that has had a devastating impact on the lives of her family and friends. I can assure the family and the public that this decision has only been taken following a careful and exhaustive review of the evidence as it currently exists. However, as I have stated, the Crown cannot proceed where there is no reasonable prospect of conviction. Thank you for the opportunity to place these comments on the record."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Baltovich acquitted of murder | The Star

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bain, a 22-year-old student at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, was last seen on the afternoon of June 19, 1990, after telling her mother she was going to the campus tennis courts. Baltovich, who always maintained his innocence, was charged with her murder in November 1990.

# data[].attributes.body
Paul Bernardo is questioned about the murder of Elizabeth Bain and if he knew about the case. His answer his chilling.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Paul Bernardo, Did you kill Elizabeth Bain?"