'Mistaken identity': Judge finds ex-Edmonton police employee not guilty of sexually abusing teen
The case centred on a youth who lived in a group home who claimed to have been sexually abused by a man he met online.
After two trials — including one that collapsed when the Crown prosecutor decided he no longer believed his own theory of the case — a former Edmonton police employee accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy has been found not guilty.
Court of King’s Bench Justice Kent Teskey on Thursday delivered his verdict acquitting 34-year-old Yasin Cetin, a former civilian employee with the Edmonton Police Service’s equity and inclusion branch who was charged last year with child luring and sexual assault.
In a rare directed verdict, Teskey found the prosecution had not put forward adequate evidence to prove Cetin was the man who sexually abused the 14-year-old victim in December 2023. He also found numerous problems with the police investigation, including the lack of a photo lineup process at the time of the complaint.
Defence lawyer Zachary Al-Khatib said Cetin is relieved to have been found not guilty. He was nonetheless “disappointed” the Crown chose to prosecute a problematic case against his client not just once, but twice.
“I think what we have here is a demonstration of the risks of human confirmation bias and error when it comes to identification cases,” he said, calling the case one of “mistaken identity.”
Dec. 2023 assault
The case centred on a youth who lived in a group home who claimed to have been sexually abused by a man he met online. The two arranged to meet and engaged in sex acts in a vehicle in early December 2023. While in the vehicle, the teen recorded a video of the suspect during a sex act.
Prosecutor David Gault claimed there was strong circumstantial evidence Cetin was the man who abused the teen. He pointed to a selfie taken from one of the youth’s devices that appeared to show the accused. The suspect also told the teen he was 31 — Cetin’s age at the time — and that he lived across the street from the teen’s former foster home, near where Cetin owns a property.
A phone seized from Cetin had access to an email address that was similar to a Snapchat handle used to communicate with the victim, Gault added.
Teskey said at most, the Crown had shown some evidence that Cetin may have messaged the teen from that account. However, the account was different from the one used to discuss the meetup, and did not include any sexual content.
The video the teen took during the sexual encounter was also too poor quality to make any conclusions about the identity of the suspect, the judge said. A still from that video, which partially showed the suspect’s face, was brightened and run through facial recognition software that compared it to multiple photo databases, including images of Cetin. It did not return a match.
Teskey took particular issue with a photo identification process in which prosecutors showed the teen just one photo of a man investigators believed was the suspect.
“It carries every danger that the photo lineup process is designed to avoid,” he said.
Al-Khatib asked Teskey for a directed verdict, rather than presenting his own case, arguing there was no evidence to prove Cetin was the man who abused the teen.
While the defence did not call evidence, Al-Khatib said Cetin nonetheless had an alibi for the night in question, including receipts, group chat texts and photos showing he was at a dinner with friends when the sex offences against the teen occurred.
Al-Khatib acknowledged police found a selfie that appears to show Cetin on the teen’s computer, but said there was no evidence it wasn’t a profile photo taken from a public social media account.
Cetin’s first trial, also prosecuted by Gault, fell apart in May after two days of evidence. At the time, Gault told Teskey he had received new information that led him to believe Cetin was not the man behind the Snapchat accounts, and asked the court to declare a mistrial. Al-Khatib said the mistrial was declared after he shared the alibi information, which led the Crown to seek a new trial with a different offence date.
Al-Khatib said Cetin is still struggling to rebuild his life after a very public accusation, including a police media release with his photo.
“The consequences of this prosecution have been devastating for my client,” he said. “I think getting an acquittal in court is the first step towards rebuilding his life, but it’s far from the last.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify details about a photo entered as an exhibit. The youth victim was shown a single photo by a prosecutor, not police.
Judge rejects 'dangerous offender' label for Simcoe County child rapist
Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst issued her ruling earlier this week, stating she was not satisfied that Michael Ferguson, who is about to turn 52, met the criteria for the dangerous offender application that would have come attached with an indefinite prison term.
Instead, Fuerst declared him a long-term offender that would subject Ferguson to a 10-year supervision period when he is released from prison after serving a 16-year sentence that was imposed at the same hearing.
Ferguson appeared to pay close attention throughout but otherwise showed little emotion either during the hearing, or when Fuerst pronounced sentence.
He had pleaded guilty to six counts — four sexual assaults against pre-teen children as young as one, and two child pornography counts. The offences occurred primarily in and around Simcoe County and he was investigated and charged by the OPP’s Nottawasaga detachment.
Court heard evidence that some of the crimes also took place in a Toronto suburb.
Any information that could identify Ferguson’s victims is covered by a publication ban.
Ferguson has been in custody for about nine years stemming from a sexual assault conviction against a young child in the U.S. Those crimes were not part of Fuerst’s sentence, but they were used to assess his offending in the dangerous offender application.
Court heard that Ferguson had lived in the U.S. more than 20 years ago, but fled back to Canada when he learned he was wanted by authorities there.
He eventually returned to the U.S. and was arrested. He pleaded guilty to rape and was sentenced to 15 years, with most of it suspended. He served about four years and was departed back to Canada in 2021, where an investigation was already underway into historical sex crimes dating to the 1990s.
Tuesday’s 90-minute judgement was the ninth session in Fuerst’s courtroom, stretching back more than two years.
Court heard that investigators in Canada were able to uncover thousands of digital files of child pornography on devices used by Ferguson, along with DVDs. Included in that evidence was a camera traced back to him and images depicting a man with a tattoo marked “Evil” on his forearm.
Ferguson has such a tattoo, court heard.
A doctor and various correction officials were consulted during the dangerous offender application.
Dr. Philip Klassen labelled Ferguson a pedophile who was a medium risk to re-offend and a medium level offender. Klassen also reported on Ferguson’s tendency to deny the extent of his crimes and mislead those treating him.
Critically, Klassen also found that Ferguson could benefit from sex offender treatment.
Defence counsel Daniel Brodsky acknowledged his client’s serious depravity but expressed hope Ferguson could be treated to lessen the risk for when he is eventually released.
According to Klassen’s report, Ferguson told him he “would not object” to sex offender treatment. Court heard that Ferguson did not receive any sort of treatment while incarcerated — either in Canada or the U.S.
Since being returned to Canada, Ferguson has been held in provincial jails that tend to have less programs available for inmates. Now sentenced to a lengthy term in prison, Ferguson will be housed federally within its more expansive programming.
To that point, Brodsky said that Ferguson has been incarcerated for almost a decade and has almost that much time remaining on his sentence, plus the 10 years of monitoring that will follow when he leaves prison.
Crown attorney Cameron Peters acknowledged surprise at Fuerst’s judgement and repeated his belief that the Crown mounted a solid case in its dangerous offender application.
With credit for pre-sentence custody, Ferguson has about eight-and-a-half years left to serve of his 16-year sentence. He will be eligible for statutory release in a little more than five-and-a-half years, when he will be 57.
Ferguson’s relatively young age when he becomes eligible for parole is notable because — and the tendency was cited in Fuerst’s extensive judgement — that pedophilia is a life-long condition; pedophiles do not to lose their motivation to abuse children with age to the same extent sexual offenders who victimize adults do as they grew older.
