Explosive testimony at the second-degree murder trial of Dennis Oland with a retired city police officer testifying he was encouraged to lie by then-Inspector Glen McCloskey of the Saint John police about McCloskey being in the Far End Corporation office with the body of Richard Oland on July 7, 2011.
Retired Staff Sergeant Michael King saying that sometime either before or during the preliminary inquiry he was in McCloskey’s office and McCloskey brought up the Oland investigation. The Inspector telling King he didn’t have to “tell them” that McCloskey was in the room that day. King testifying “that’s when I told them that I’d never lied on the stand in 32 years and I wasn’t about to start and didn’t care if it was a murder or traffic ticket I was telling the truth.”
King says he told several police officers including lead investigator in the Richard Oland case Constable Stephen Davidson that Inspector McCloskey wanted him to lie. King says, “that’s not the word he used but that’s the word that I used.” He says that after telling Davidson, he told King “that could be career ending.”
McCloskey was promoted to Deputy Chief of the Saint John Police in January of this year. According to defence lawyer Alan Gold McCloskey is going to be the next witness.
Michael King was with the Saint John police from 1982 until his retirement in April of this year. He says that the retirement was amicable.
The trial resumes on Wednesday at 9:30am at the Saint John law courts.
CHSJ Reporter Laura Lyall is covering the trial and live tweeting from the courtroom to her Twitter page, as well as the CHSJ News and Wave News Twitter pages.
