Non-Suspect Witnesses

Coercive interrogations of non-suspect witnesses is a topic that is yet to be fully examined and researched.

How do interrogations affect non-suspect witnesses?

Why would a non-suspect witnesses provide a false accusation?

What happens when a non-suspect witness is 110% confident in their known facts of an incident, yet after hours of being interrogated by law enforcement, they turn a complete 180 degrees and declare something they know not to be true?

Notice, I used the word "interrogated" not "interviewed".

When law enforcement have their sites on a particular suspect, some will do anything to get a confession or eye-witness testimony to secure their grounds for arrest.

Non-suspect witnesses are then backed against a wall and interrogated as if they were suspects - including being "interviewed" for hours upon hours with no breaks and being deprived of food and water.

Over the next four years following the murder, five suspects were charged with either first degree murder or accessory to murder. The Crown later withdrew some of the charges and the remaining were discharged by the Court for lack of evidence.

In June 2010, almost four years after the murder and no suspect to hold accountable, law enforcement turned their sites on Eric Morgan.

The article provides two credible eye-witnesses that place Morgan inside the nightclub when the shooting took place.

Sasha Allison was outside in a car when the shooting took place. For a brief moment under poor lighting Allison was able to get a visual of the shooter(s).

• In May 2009, Allison was interviewed by investigators. In an open-ended, non-coercive interview she stated that she saw the shooter(s) but did not know who they were.
• A year later, in June 2010, Allison was interviewed again. This time investigators used the REID Technique to assist in their "interrogation". At first, Allison confidently stated that Morgan could not possibly be the shooter. The investigators used maximization and minimization techniques on Allison - strongly accusing her of lying or withholding information. This technique also "sympathized" with her that if she were lying or withholding information it would be "morally justifiable". After an additional hour of this, in a coercive-implied manner, the investigator once more prompted Allison as to who the shooter was that she saw outside. In a "tentative, questioning tone" Allison said "Action?". The very next day, Morgan was charged for the murder.

"Given the psychological knowledge about memory and social influence, it seems likely that the use of the REID Technique did not jog Sasha’s memory, but rather persuaded her into providing the testimony that conformed to the detective’s theory – that Morgan was involved in the murder"

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To defend himself in the investigation, Morgan named Brian Cox as his alibi witness.

Brian Cox, a close friend of Morgan, confidently and aggressively asserts that he and Morgan were together inside the club passing out birthday cake when the shooting took place.

• In 2010, Cox was re-interviewed by investigators. After enduring the REID Technique for 8 hours - staying consistent with facts he knew to be true four years after the incident - once he was threatened with charges as an accessory to murder, Cox changed his story.
• After four years of declaring his unwavering statement that he was handing out birthday cake with Morgan at the time of the shooting, he recants his story. Defeated, Cox now "remembers" that he was NOT standing next to Morgan when he heard of the shooting incident.

Sheena Quenga