Randal's Case Passed Like the Proverbial Buck
Police investigation into 'strap marks' lasted all of two days
By Christie Blatchford
Originally published in the National Post, January 23, 2002
TORONTO — For all that criminal trials are complex and oft-lengthy affairs, at bottom they are usually pretty simple. Up for grabs is the same old question: Did the accused do the alleged deed, or did he not?
So it is at the ongoing trial of Tony and Marcia Dooley, who are accused of second-degree murder in the death of the little guy who was respectively their seven-year-old son and stepson, Randal Dooley. This, really, is all that concerns the jurors.
But sometimes issues arise in the course of a trial that are of larger societal interest, and this is just what has happened in this case.
Here, evidence already before the court has raised serious questions about how two organizations, the Toronto Police and the Children's Aid Society of Toronto (CAS), handled Randal's case when the little boy was still very much alive.
In short, that evidence is as follows:
On April 14, 1998, Randal's Grade 1 teacher, Gloria Robson, discovered criss-cross welts on his arms and back that she believed were fresh whip marks.
As was then a teacher's statutory obligation, she took the boy to her vice-principal, David Davidge, who in turn fulfilled his legal obligation and called the CAS to make a report of suspected child abuse. Within 20 minutes, Mr. Davidge said, CAS worker Michelle Pickett phoned back to say that this was a case for the police, not the Children's Aid. Mr. Davidge said no CAS worker ever showed up at the school, nor, he said, did he ever hear from the agency again until after Randal was dead.
Indeed, apparently alerted by the CAS, a police officer arrived at the school that same day, but Randal already had been allowed to go home. This officer went to the Dooley apartment in search of him, banged on the door, but could get no one to answer, and promptly went to his superior to ask that detectives be assigned to investigate what he believed was a ''very, very serious'' matter.
So far, so good, because the following day, two detectives were indeed assigned the file.
The jurors heard from one of them yesterday, Constable Janet Hall.
Her evidence was that she and her partner interviewed Marcia Dooley, who attributed Randal's injuries to a game of "lickalick"—purportedly a tag-like game where children hit one another with belts—he had played in a park with a 10-year-old cousin on April 13.
They asked to speak to Randal privately, Const. Hall said, but were refused by Mrs. Dooley, who said Randal was shy. So they spoke to Randal with Mrs. Dooley right there, and Randal, who was then just six, essentially confirmed his stepmother's story.
Const. Hall also actually saw the boy's injuries, which she described as "strap marks" on his back and one of his upper arms.
While at the Dooley apartment, Mrs. Dooley received a phone call, and Const. Hall was invited to speak to a woman caller identified as Mrs. Dooley's sister "Sharon," who also confirmed the stepmother's version of events.
Later, the detectives interviewed Randal's brother at school. Teego, as he is known, was then seven years old, and he recited essentially the same story, though it was different enough in the details that the next day, Const. Hall interviewed one other person, a friend of Mrs. Dooley's.
That, Const. Hall agreed, was the end of the investigation.
The officers did not interview Randal's teacher, who discovered the welts and who might have told them how she had noticed Randal appeared intimidated by his stepmother, and of another injury—a mark on the boy's face—that had concerned her sufficiently she had reported it to her principal in January.
Neither does it appear the officers interviewed Mr. Davidge, who might have told them that in his opinion, Randal was outright frightened by his stepmother, and that he was the farthest thing from shy when he was at school.
In addition, it appears the officers made little effort to track down the mysterious cousin the stepmother was blaming for the injuries, and for whom Mrs. Dooley had no phone number, last name or address.
They concluded, Const. Hall said, they did not have grounds to lay a criminal charge. They did no further investigative work, though, she said, the next day, her partner phoned the CAS.
Though Const. Hall's testimony came only yesterday, the evidence—from Mrs. Robson and Mr. Davidge—about the CAS decision not to get involved with Randal has already received widespread attention in the media.
Yesterday, the CAS issued a press release headlined, "Children's Aid Society of Toronto Speaks Out About Dooley Case" in which its executive director, Bruce Rivers, defended the agency and purported to detail the "action" the CAS took.
An emissary from the CAS was even dispatched to the courthouse, where, during a break, she handed out copies of the release to reporters there, prompting the judge, Mr. Justice Eugene Ewaschuk, to later caution the jurors that "the CAS may issue a public statement that may or may not be self-serving" and to remind them they shouldn't be reading about the case in the papers.
Mr. Rivers said in the release that the CAS determined "a cousin had caused the marks on Randal," the explanations coming from both Randal and his stepmother; that this cousin was "over the age of 12 and not in care-taking role," and that the injuries to Randal were deemed to be the result of "a peer assault."
Referral to police of such a peer assault, Mr. Rivers said, was customary at the time, and "still is." He appeared to place the onus upon the police to report to the CAS "if concerns about abuse or neglect" come to light in their investigation. Yet according to Const. Hall's evidence yesterday, that police investigation can be fairly described as both brief and cursory.
And there you have it.
On April 14, this little boy was covered in whip or belt marks, and both the police and the CAS knew it.
In about half an hour, the CAS pronounced it a case of "peer assault"; in less than two days, the police determined they couldn't lay criminal charges.
On Sept. 25, Randal Dooley—covered with welts and bruises, 14 of his ribs broken and his liver lacerated—was found dead in his brother's bunk bed, as cold in death as he had been in life the proverbial hot potato.
