Karla Homolka

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Karla Leanne Homolka
Born	May 4, 1970 (1970-05-04) (age 38) Port Credit, Ontario, Canada
Penalty	12 years imprisonment
Status	unconditionally released[1]
Occupation	veterinary assistant
Spouse	1. Paul Bernardo divorced 2. Thierry Bordelais
Parents	Karel and Dorothy Homolka
Children	one boy with Bordelais

Karla Leanne Homolka, also known as Karla Leanne Teale, (born May 4, 1970 in Port Credit, Ontario, Canada), is a Canadian serial killer who attracted worldwide media attention when she was convicted of manslaughter in the rape-murders of two teenaged girls; her husband, Paul Bernardo, was convicted of their murders and admitted having raped numerous women. Homolka and Bernardo also were responsible for the rape and death of her sister Tammy Homolka.^[2] In return for her confession and testimony against her husband, she was given a plea bargain whereby she escaped the maximum penalty for her crimes. She pled guilty to manslaughter and served 12 years in prison. She now lives in an undisclosed location in the Antilles with her son and her current husband, Thierry Bordelais.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Homolka meets Bernardo 3 Tammy Homolka 4 "Jane Doe" 5 Leslie Mahaffy 6 Kristen French 7 Other possible victims 8 Aftermath 8.1 The net closes 8.2 The publication ban 8.3 Plea bargain controversy and videotapes 9 Prison 10 Post-prison 11 Movie 12 In popular culture 13 References 13.1 Further information 14 External links

[edit] Early life

Homolka is the eldest of three daughters (the others being Lori, b. 1971, and Tammy, b. 1975, deceased) of Karel and Dorothy Homolka. The Homolka family, which is of Czech heritage on the father's side, soon moved to St. Catharines, Ontario. After an uneventful childhood Homolka attended Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School and began working part-time in a pet shop at a nearby mall. The job led to her attendance at a convention in Toronto in October 1987, where she met Paul Bernardo. After receiving her grade 12 diploma in 1989, she was hired as a veterinary assistant by Thorold Veterinary Clinic, which asked her to leave after she was suspected of stealing drugs. She then found a similar job at the Martindale Animal Clinic, rather than attend university, despite being accepted by both York University and the University of Toronto.

[edit] Homolka meets Bernardo

On October 17, 1987, Homolka, then 17, met 23-year-old Bernardo at a Scarborough restaurant. Later in the evening they engaged in sex for several hours while their friends were watching a movie in the same room. Bernardo proposed to Homolka on December 24, 1989; Homolka called it "the most romantic moment of her life". Their relationship ended in 1993, when Homolka divorced Bernardo and began testifying against him.

[edit] Tammy Homolka

During summer 1990, Bernardo became obsessed with Tammy Homolka, peeping into her window and entering her room to masturbate while she slept.^[3] In July Bernardo took Tammy Homolka across the border for more beer for a Homolka party; while there, Bernardo later told his fiancee, "they got drunk and began making out".^[4] Homolka knew that in all the time he was going out with her, Bernardo was seeing other women and committing rapes, but their trip across the border left her "outraged and humiliated"^[5]. Bernardo had told her that if she really loved him she would let him deflower her sister. Homolka agreed, seeing "an opportunity to minimize risk, take control, and keep it all in the family"^[6] She also aided him in breaking her sister's window blinds, crushing Valium with which to spike the drinks for her sister and her friends, and planned Tammy's rape as she was planning her wedding^[7].

Six months before their wedding in 1991, Homolka stole the anesthetic agent Halothane from the Martindale Clinic. On December 23, 1990, Homolka and Bernardo administered sleeping pills to her 15-year-old sister in a rum-and-eggnog drink. Tammy lost consciousness; Homolka and Bernardo undressed her and Homolka applied a Halothane-soaked cloth to her sister's nose and mouth.

Homolka wanted to "give Tammy's virginity to Bernardo for Christmas" as, according to Homolka, Bernardo had always been upset that she was not a virgin when they met. With her parents sleeping upstairs, the pair filmed themselves as they raped Tammy in the basement. Tammy shortly began to vomit while still unconscious. The pair tried unsuccessfully to revive her. Before calling 911 they hid the evidence, redressed Tammy, who had a chemical burn on her face, and moved her into her basement bedroom. A few hours later Tammy was pronounced dead at St. Catharines General Hospital without having regained consciousness. Despite the pair's questionable behaviour - vacuuming and washing laundry in the middle of the night^[8], despite the presence of a "huge, bright raspberry-colored burn that extended from the left side of Tammy's mouth all the way down her chin onto her neck"^[9], Niagara Regional Police accepted the pair's version of events. The official cause of Tammy Homolka's death was accidental - choking on her vomit after consumption of alcohol. The pair subsequently filmed themselves with Karla wearing Tammy's clothing and pretending to be Tammy. They also moved out of the Homolka house to let her parents deal with their grief.

[edit] "Jane Doe"

On June 7, 1991, Homolka invited 15-year-old "Jane Doe" for a "girls' night out" at their rented Port Dalhousie house. Homolka had befriended "Jane Doe" two years earlier, when Homolka still worked at the pet shop. "Jane Doe" idolized her as an older sister. After an evening of shopping and dining, Homolka took "Jane Doe" to her Bayview Avenue house and began to ply her with alcohol laced with Halcion.

After "Jane Doe" lost consciousness Homolka called Bernardo to tell him his surprise wedding gift was ready. They undressed "Jane Doe", who was a virgin, and Bernardo videotaped Homolka as she raped the girl before Bernardo raped and sodomized her. The next morning "Jane Doe" was sick and vomited but thought it was because she had drunk alcohol for the first time. She did not realize she had been raped. She was invited back to Port Dalhousie in August, this time to "spend the night". She stopped breathing after she was drugged and Bernardo had begun to rape her. Homolka called 911 for help but called back a few minutes later to say that "everything is all right"; the emergency crew was recalled without follow-up. "Jane Doe" visited the couple once more, on Dec. 22, 1992. This time the pair pressured her to have sex with Bernardo; she became upset and left.

[edit] Leslie Mahaffy

On June 15, 1991, two weeks before his wedding, Bernardo — while stealing license plates to aid in a cigarette smuggling scheme he had devised — met Leslie Mahaffy, who was standing at the door of her Burlington home. She had been locked out after repeatedly testing her parents, and had been unable to find another place to stay. The two spoke for some time and went back to Bernardo's car for a cigarette, at which point he forced her into the car and drove her to his house, 53 kilometres away. There, Homolka and Bernardo held Leslie Mahaffey hostage for 24 hours, repeatedly sexually assaulting her. They recorded the assaults on videotape, including one scene in which Homolka pretties herself for the camera before raping the girl. Eventually, they killed her.

Homolka claimed later that Bernardo had strangled the heavily-drugged Leslie Mahaffey with an electrical cord. Bernardo said that she died while he was out of the room, that Homolka had killed her with an overdose of Halcion. Homolka, according to Bernardo, said Leslie Mahaffey's blindfold had slipped off and she would be able to identify them. They put her body into the basement until they could decide how to get rid of it.

The following day Mr. and Mrs. Homolka and Lori visited for Father's Day dinner. After they left, the pair decided to cut up Leslie Mahaffey's body and dispose of it in cement blocks. Bernardo dismembered the body with a circular saw in a makeshift plastic tent in the basement. The body parts then were encased in cement and dumped in Lake Gibson.

On June 29, a couple canoeing on the lake at the edge of St. Catharines found the badly prepared cement blocks, one of which had split open to reveal its contents. At about the same time, Homolka and Bernardo were married in a lavish ceremony, riding together in a horse-drawn carriage at Niagara-on-the-Lake.

[edit] Kristen French

On Good Friday, April 16, 1992, Homolka and Bernardo drove into a St. Catharines church parking lot. They had spotted Kristen French, a popular, street-proofed honour student who was not completely unknown to them as she had seen them and their dog and knew where they lived. Homolka stepped out of the car with a map, pretending to be lost, and asking for help from the 15-year-old. Bernardo forced her into the car at knife point. There were several witnesses, who did not realize what they were seeing. A piece of the map, one of Kristen French's shoes and some of her hair were later found at the crime scene.

Homolka and Bernardo took French to Port Dalhousie, where for three days they sexually assaulted, abused, and tortured her. Because the pair were to spend Easter dinner with her parents, Kristen French's murder had to take place before they left; each gave an account blaming the other. Homolka claimed that Bernardo strangled her for precisely seven minutes while she watched.^[10] Bernardo claimed that Homolka had beaten Kristen French with a mallet as she tried to escape, and she was strangled on a noose tied around her neck secured to a hope chest. Homolka immediately left to blow dry her hair. After returning from the Easter dinner, Bernardo and Homolka cut off her hair and washed the body before dumping it in a ditch in Burlington less than a kilometre from Leslie Mahaffy's burial place. Kristen French's body was found on April 30, 1992.

From the outset Kristen French's disappearance was treated as a criminal matter. Unlike Leslie Mahaffy, she did not have disagreements at home and had a dog that required scheduled walks and feeding; when she did not arrive on time her parents immediately contacted police. The witnesses recalled what they thought was a Camaro - Bernardo's car was a gold Nissan. A full-scale search ensued, with anyone driving a Camaro under suspicion until cleared by investigators.

[edit] Other possible victims

In addition to the confirmed murders of Tammy Lyn Homolka, Leslie Erin Mahaffy and Kristen Dawn French suspicions remain about other possible victims or intended victims of Bernardo and/or Homolka. These include Terri Anderson, Elizabeth Bain and several others and are dealt with in the article on Paul Bernardo.

[edit] Aftermath

Homolka and Bernardo had been questioned by police several times - in connection with the Scarborough Rapist investigation, Tammy Lyn Homolka's death, Bernardo's stalking of Sydney Kershen and the Patrich sisters (covered in the Paul Bernardo article) - before the death of Kristen French. Shortly after the discovery of her body, Bernardo's long-time friend Van Smirnis, speaking to a family acquaintance who was an Ontario Provincial Police officer, suggested that Bernardo would "make a good suspect in the Kristen French murder" and cited among other factors the time Bernardo raped a girl in his basement while Homolka was upstairs. The officer filed a report and on May 12, 1992, a NRP sergeant and constable interviewed Bernardo briefly. The officers decided that he was an unlikely suspect though Bernardo admitted having been questioned in connection with the Scarborough rapes.

Three days later the Green Ribbon Task Force was created to investigate the murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French; meanwhile the couple applied to have their names changed legally from Bernardo and Homolka to Teale, which was "taken from the name of a fictional serial killer in the 1988 movie Criminal Law". At the end of May, John Motile, an acquaintance of Smirnis and Bernardo, also reported Bernardo as a possible murder suspect.

In December, 1992, the Centre of Forensic Sciences finally began testing DNA samples provided by Bernardo three years earlier. In Port Dalhousie, "Jane Doe" declined to have sex with Bernardo and left for the last time.

On Dec. 27, 1992, Bernardo severely beat Homolka with a flashlight on the limbs, head and face. Claiming that she had been in an automobile accident, the severely bruised Homolka returned to work on Jan. 4, 1993. Her skeptical co-workers called Homolka's parents who assumed they were 'rescuing' her the following day by physically removing her from the house. Homolka went back in, frantically searching for something. Her parents took her to St. Catharines General Hospital where her injuries were documented and she gave a statement to NRP, claiming she had been a battered spouse, and filed charges against Bernardo. He was arrested but later released on his own recognizance. A friend who found Bernardo's suicide note intervened. Homolka moved in with relatives in Brampton.

[edit] The net closes

Twenty-six months after the sample had been submitted, Toronto police were informed that Bernardo's DNA matched that of the Scarborough Rapist and immediately placed him under 24-hour surveillance.

Metro Toronto Sexual Assault Squad investigators interviewed Homolka on Feb. 9, 1993. Despite telling her their suspicions about Bernardo, Homolka concentrated on his alleged abuse of her. Later that night she told her aunt and uncle her husband was the Scarborough Rapist, that they were involved in the rapes and murders of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, and that the rapes were recorded on video tape. NRP, meanwhile, re-opened the investigation into Tammy Lyn Homolka's death.

On Feb. 11, 1993, Homolka met with Niagara Falls lawyer George Walker who sought full immunity from St Catharines's Crown Attorney Ray Houlahan in exchange for her cooperation. Homolka was placed under 24-hour surveillance.

The couple's name change was approved Feb. 13, 1993. The next day George Walker met with Murray Segal, Director of the Crown Criminal Law Office. Walker told Segal of videotapes of the rapes and Segal advised Walker that, considering Homolka's involvement in the crimes, full immunity was not a possibility.

Metro Sexual Assault Squad and Green Ribbon Task Force detectives arrested Bernardo on numerous charges on Feb. 17, 1993, and obtained search warrants. Because Bernardo's link to the murders was weak, however, the warrant contained limitations. No evidence that was not expected and documented in the warrant was permitted to be removed from the premises. All video tapes the police found had to be viewed in the house. Damage to the house had to be kept to a minimum; police could not tear down walls looking for the videotapes. The search of the house, including updated warrants, lasted 71 days and the only tape found by the police had a short segment depicting Homolka performing oral sex on "Jane Doe".

On May 5, 1993, Walker was informed that the government was offering Homolka a 12-year sentence plea bargain that she had one week to accept. If she declined, the government would charge her with two counts of first degree murder, one count of second degree murder and other crimes. Walker accepted the offer and Homolka later agreed to it. On May 14, 1993, the plea agreement between Homolka and the Crown was finalized and she began giving her induced statements to police investigators.

On June 27, 1993, Homolka was feted with a "going away" pool party at her parents' house.^[11]

[edit] The publication ban

Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, adopted in 1982, upholds "freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press." Yet, citing the need to protect Bernardo's right to a fair trial, a publication ban was imposed on Homolka's preliminary inquiry. The court order expressly permitted the publication of only "whether a conviction was registered, but not the plea." The ban has always been presented as being necessary to preserve Bernardo's right to a fair trial.^[12] A later memo from the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General indicates that "it was really to protect the families."^{[citation needed]}

The Crown had applied for the ban imposed on July 5, 1993, by Mr. Justice Francis Kovacs of the Ontario Court (General Division). Homolka, through her lawyers, supported the ban whereas Bernardo's lawyers argued that he would be prejudiced by the ban since Homolka previously had been portrayed as his victim. Four media outlets and one author also opposed the application. Some lawyers argued that rumours could be doing more damage to the future trial process than the publication of the actual evidence.^[13]

The Internet, however, negated the ban. American journalists cited the First Amendment in editorials and published details of Homolka's testimony, which were widely distributed by many "electronic ban-breakers", primarily on the alt.fan.karla-homolka^[14] Usenet newsgroup. Information and rumours spread across myriad electronic networks available to anyone with a computer and a modem in Canada. Moreover, many of the Internet rumours went beyond the known details of the case. Newsweek magazine's December 6, 1993, edition, for example, "reprinted without permission" as the correspondent proudly stated, reported: "Another account said that, to keep them from escaping, both girls were hobble[d] by their abductors, who used veterinary surgical instruments to sever tendons in their legs."^[15] Some of the rumours were stolen from other serial killers and attributed to Homolka and Bernardo.[citation needed].

Newspapers in Buffalo, Detroit, Washington, New York and even Britain, together with border radio and television stations, reported details gleaned from sources at Homolka's trial. The Fox Television show "A Current Affair" aired two programs on the crimes. Canadians bootlegged copies of The Buffalo Evening News across the border, prompting orders to NRP to arrest all those with more than one copy at the border. Extra copies were confiscated. Copies of other newspapers, including The New York Times, were either turned back at the border or were not accepted by distributors in Ontario.^[16] Gordon Domm, a retired police officer who defied the publication ban by distributing details from the foreign media, was charged and convicted on two counts of contempt of court.^[17]

Homolka's trial lasted mere minutes.

[edit] Plea bargain controversy and videotapes

Jamie Cameron, Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall noted that "at the time of the Homolka trial, three features of the case worried and concerned the public. First, little was known about the sexual captivity and offences the victims endured before being murdered, except that their treatment was rumoured to be sadistic, horrific, and unimaginable." Little was known about the respective roles Homolka and Bernardo played in committing those offences and then killing their victims. And by spring, 1993, it was clear that the Crown's case against Bernardo depended on Homolka's evidence. "In simple terms, to secure a conviction against him, her story had to be believed. Yet on no view of the facts then known could she be exculpated; by casting her as a victim of his predatory behaviour, her responsibility for the crimes that were committed could be diminished and her credibility as a witness preserved. "^[18]

The search warrants granted to the Green Ribbon and Scarborough Rapist Task Forces on February 19, 1993, were limited in the extent to which they could locate and remove evidence: no damage could be done to the house interior in the search for evidence and videotapes had to be viewed in the house. On February 21, 1993, police found a tape in which a short segment depicted Bernardo, Homolka and an unnamed American prostitute having oral sex with an unconscious, unidentified young woman believed at first to have been Kristen French. The unidentified girl would later be called "Jane Doe" after the discovery of the full tapes, in which she was revealed to be a minor. Her identity remains covered by the publication ban.

The authorities soon concluded that they had no prima facie case against the couple; discussions with Homolka's lawyer therefore proceeded on the assumption that Homolka could provide the information they required - for a price. Moreover, Walker pressed the case for Homolka's having been "abused" though Segal countered that no amount of abuse could account for her participation in the murders. The province was being governed by the New Democratic Party, which also played a part. "The ideology of feminism pervaded this party and its female Attorney-General Marion Boyd."^{[citation needed]} The strongly feminist Boyd, who was not a lawyer, had been given responsibilities "for Women's Issues on September 11, 1991, and [had] launched a high-profile campaign against domestic abuse in the same year".^[19] Homolka's assertions that she was a "battered spouse" played to Boyd's sensibilities. Prior to the plea bargain's being finalized Walker had his client assessed by two psychiatrists and a clinical psychologist, who concluded that Homolka's mental state was "comparable to that of a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp". This furthered the Crown's belief that she was a "compliant victim", the justification of which came largely from an FBI document titled "Compliant Victims of the Sexual Sadist" which is much disputed.

The search warrants expired on April 30, 1993. On May 6, 1993, Bernardo instructed his lawyers, Ken Murray and Carolyn MacDonald in writing to enter the house and remove, but not to watch, six eight-millimetre videotapes hidden behind a pot light in the bathroom. These tapes raised a firestorm when their existence became known, as they contained the videotaped rapes and torture of Tammy Homolka, Jane Doe, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French and proved beyond any doubt that Homolka, far from having been any sort of victim, was a willing and active participant in the crimes.

Homolka led police through the house on May 17, 1993, leading them to find pertinent DNA evidence as well as a receipt for the excess cement which tied Bernardo to Leslie Mahaffy's murder.

Homolka's trial took place on June 28, 1993. Whether unprecedented or not, the trial judge's orders on the open court issues were, at the least, extraordinary. The only details from her trial and sentence hearing that could be reported were the contents of the indictment, whether there was a joint submission as to sentence, whether a conviction was registered but not the plea, the sentence imposed, and a few other unrevealing aspects of the Court's reasons. In addition, the non-publication order applied to the transcript of the trial proceedings. As to access, beyond the families of the accused and the victims and court personnel, only the Canadian press were allowed into the courtroom; the public at large and the foreign press were specifically excluded by order under s.486(1) of the Criminal Code . Moreover, those admitted to the proceedings were told there could be "no publication of the circumstances of the deaths of any persons referred to during the trial." On the strength of a previous trial^[20] the judge ordered the publication ban to protect Bernardo's right to a fair trial, yet Bernardo was prepared to waive his rights. The order was "perhaps, from the point of view of public knowledge, the most unfortunate moment in Ontario history for the imposition of such a ban," according to Frank Davey.^[21] It reinforced the public's beliefs that Homolka did not receive just punishment for her crimes.

On May 18, 1993, Homolka was arraigned on two counts of manslaughter. Bernardo was charged with two counts each of kidnapping, unlawful confinement, aggravated sexual assault and first degree murder as well as one of dismemberment. Coincidentally that day Bernardo's lawyer first watched the tapes. Murray decided to hold onto the tapes and use them to impeach Homolka on the stand during Bernardo's trial. Neither Murray nor MacDonald were deeply experienced criminal lawyers and it was only over time that their ethical dilemma showed itself also to be a potentially criminal matter, for they were withholding evidence. By October, 1993, he and his law partners had studied over 4,000 documents from the Crown. Murray has said he was willing to hand over the tapes to the Crown if they had let him cross examine Homolka in the anticipated preliminary hearing.^[22] The hearing was never held.

Murray said the videotapes showed Homolka sexually assaulting four female victims, having sex with a female prostitute in Atlantic City, and at another point, drugging an unconscious victim.^[23]

During the summer of 1994, Murray had become concerned about serious ethical problems that had arisen in connection with the tapes and his continued representation of Bernardo. He consulted his own lawyer, Austin Cooper, who asked the Law Society of Upper Canada's professional-conduct committee for advice.

"The law society directed Murray in writing to seal the tapes in a package and turn them over to the judge presiding at Bernardo's trial. The law society further directed him to remove himself as Bernardo's counsel and to tell Bernardo what he had been instructed to do,[at which point Bernardo engaged the services of John Rosen, a well-known lawyers whose theatrics obscured a well-honed legal mind.]" Murray said in a statement released through Cooper in September 1995.^[24]

On September 12, 1994, Cooper attended Bernardo's trial and advised Mr. Justice Patrick LeSage of the Ontario Court's General Division, lawyer John Rosen, who replaced Murray as Bernardo's defence counsel, and the prosecutors about what the law society had directed Murray to do. Rosen argued that the tapes should have been turned over to the defence first. Murray handed the tapes, along with a detailed summary, to Rosen, who "kept the tapes for about two weeks and then decided to turn them over to the prosecution."

The revelation that a key piece of evidence had been kept from police for so long created a furore, especially when the public realized that Homolka, far from having been a "battered spouse" and "victim" of a brutish Bernardo, had been a willing partner; when the tapes were played in open court at Bernardo's trial it was obvious even to the audience that Homolka had clearly enjoyed herself in the process. (The tapes were not allowed to be shown to the spectators; only the audio portion was available to them.) Moreover, Bernardo has always claimed that, while he raped and tortured Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, it was Homolka who actually killed them.

After the videotapes had been found, rumors spread that Homolka was an active participant of the crimes. The public grew incensed as the full extent of Homolka's role in the case was finally exposed and the plea agreement now seemed unnecessary. However, as was provided in the plea bargain, Homolka had already disclosed sufficient information to the police and the crown found no ground to break the agreement and re-open the case.

It was later determined by both Bernardo's appeal judge, Michael Moldaver, and during a public inquiry by Mr. Justice Archie Campbell that she would have been convicted of two counts of first degree murder along with Bernardo had two of the videotapes been available at the time her plea bargain was struck.

As Anne McGillivray, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Manitoba, explained the continuing public antagonism against Homolka, "There was widespread belief that she had known where the videotapes were hidden, that she wilfully concealed the Jane Doe incidents and, most centrally, that her claims of being under Bernardo's control— a central tenet of the plea bargain—were spurious. Speculation was fed by a publicity ban on the plea bargain which stood until Bernardo's trial. Print and website sources imaged demonic duos, vampirism, Barbie and Ken perfect-couple perfectmurderers [sic], sexy "Killer Karla", the comic "Karla's Web" featuring Homolka's psy confessions. The gaze centres, always, on Homolka (italics added).... That [Bernardo] would be incarcerated for his mortal lifespan seemed a foregone conclusion. Homolka, in the popular view, should have taken her seat beside him in the prisoner's box and seat of ultimate evil.... Homolka promised full disclosure and testimony against Bernardo in return for reduced charges... and a joint sentencing recommendation. In so doing, she escaped central blame for the deaths."^[25]

In November, 1994, at the request of the Ontario Attorney-General, the OPP launched an investigation that culminated in charges being laid against Murray and MacDonald on January 24, 1997. The Law Society carried out its own investigation. On November 10, 2000, Murray was found not guilty by Mr. Justice Patrick Gravely, who pointed out the guidelines for lawyers who come into evidence aren't clear.

Prosecutors had an opportunity to "break the deal" and charge Homolka with additional crimes for a period of eight months between the finding of the tapes and the agreement not to charge her with additional crimes. The police were in possession of the tapes in September 1994, although the "deal" had been signed in 1993 they were still able to prosecute her for "Jane Doe", and for lies that they uncovered in her earlier testimony. Williams published memos where the Crown discussed these lies amongst themselves, indicating that the Crown was fully aware that Homolka had lied during her interviews with prosecutors.

Officials agreed not to prosecute Homolka for the "Jane Doe" incidents, and they chose not to break the deal with her on May 18, 1995. That decision was final.

Due to a profound and widely felt sense of public outrage at the fact that Homolka was only sentenced to 12 years for her part in the commission of horrific offences, the Attorney General of Ontario established an inquiry^[26]

The result of the inquiry was that the conduct of counsel on both sides was professional and responsible, and that the process surrounding the resolution agreement was unassailable:

"Distasteful as it always is to negotiate with an accomplice, the Crown had no alternative but to do so in this case. The Crown has a positive obligation to prosecute murderers." It is (...) often the "lesser of two evils" to deal with an accomplice rather than to be left in a situation where a violent and dangerous offender cannot be prosecuted.^[27]

The inquiry also concluded that the appropriate criminal sanction for Homolka’s involvement was in the range of ten to fifteen years imprisonment.^[28] Therefore, the sentence of 12 years was held to be adequate.

In respect of the prosecutor’s decision not to charge Homolka with murder after the videotapes were discovered, the inquiry held that it was not feasible for the prosecutor to charge Homolka.^[29] Such action would have violated the terms of the resolution agreement^[30] and is barred by the Criminal Code of Canada^[31] Homolka had not committed a fraud upon the Crown or the Court that sentenced her^[32] From the very beginning, she had advised the authorities that the videotapes existed but that she did not know where Bernardo had hidden them. Homolka made full, complete and truthful disclosure of all of the criminal activity in which she participated or of which she had knowledge^[33] She had lived up to her end of the resolution agreement^[34] Finally, the inquiry found that this was not one of those very rare cases where the prosecutor would be entitled to repudiate the resolution agreement. It stated that to set aside such arrangements so long after the fact was more likely to bring the administration of justice into disrepute than uphold it^[35]

But Justice Patrick Galligan's report also concluded that if the tapes had been recovered in 1993, the Crown never would have made a deal with Homolka.^[36]

In December 2001, Canadian authorities determined that there was no possible future use of the videotapes. The six videotapes depicting the torture and rape of Bernardo and Homolka's victims were destroyed. The disposition of the tapes of Homolka watching and commenting on the tapes remains sealed.

Although these tapes have been described as snuff films, this description is not strictly accurate. The videotapes do not show any deaths; they show violent crimes and the infliction of injuries that ultimately caused one death but no moment of death was pictured.

Some federal politicians attempted to reopen the plea agreement and throw more light on Boyd's personal involvement during the debate concerning Bill S-3, a proposed bill on plea bargaining.^[37]

[edit] Prison

After her 1995 testimony against Bernardo, when Homolka returned to Kingston Penitentiary, her mother started to suffer annual breakdowns between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The collapses were severe enough that she was hospitalized, sometimes for months at a time.^[38] Homolka was moved from Kingston in the summer of 1997 to Joliette Institution (a medium security prison in Joliette, Quebec, 80 km northeast of Montreal), a facility called "Club Fed" by its critics.^[39]

Homolka appeared to thrive in a highly structured prison environment . Several psychologists and psychiatrists examined her and agreed that she showed symptoms of spousal abuse, although some believe she dissimulated via coaching and books.

Prior to her imprisonment, Homolka had been evaluated by numerous psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health and court officials. Homolka, reported one, "remains something of a diagnostic mystery. Despite her ability to present herself very well, there is a moral vacuity in her which is difficult, if not impossible, to explain."^[40] As Homolka proceeded through the Canadian prison system there were frequent flashes that illuminated this perception.

In Joliette, Homolka had an affair with Lynda Veronneau, who was serving time for a series of armed robberies and who re-offended so she could be sent back to Joliette to be with Homolka, according to the Montreal Gazette.^[41] Her letters to Veronneau, wrote Christie Blatchford in her Globe and Mail column, were "in French and on the same sort of childish, puppy-dog-decorated paper she once wrote to her former husband. . .the same kind of girlish love notes she sent to him."^[42] Her language, Blatchford noted, was "equally juvenile"^[43]

While being evaluated in 2000, she told psychiatrist Robert Menzies that she did not consider the relationship to be homosexual as Veronneau " 'saw herself as a man and planned to undergo a sex operation in due course,' the psychiatrist wrote."^[44] Psychiatrist Louis Morisette, meanwhile, noted in his report that Homolka "was ashamed of the relationship and hid it from her parents and the experts who examined her. The psychiatrist mentions in his report that under the circumstances, the relationship was not abnormal."^[45] Again, it demonstrated Blatchford's observation that "what is particularly compelling — and telling — is how radically different are the faces she presents"^[46] to each audience. This is one of Homolka's most reviled characteristics, as witness the numerous comments in the media and out. Her former veterinary clinic co-worker and friend, Wendy Lutczyn, the Toronto Sun declared, "now believes Homolka's actions were those of a psychopath, not of an abused, controlled woman".^[47] Homolka, Lutczyn said, had promised "she would explain herself", yet though the women exchanged "a series of letters while Homolka was . . . waiting to testify at Bernardo's trial" and after she had completed her testimony, Homolka never did try to explain to Lutczyn "why she did what she did".

On January 11, 2008, the Canadian Press reported that letters written by Homolka to Lutczyn had been pulled from eBay, where they had reached $1,600 with a week to go. Lutczyn said she didn't want them any more.^[48]

In 2001, the parole board also referred to Homolka as a psychopath - a cold-blooded, manipulative offender who shows no remorse. Indeed, in a letter of apology to her family, she continued to blame Bernardo for all her misdeeds: "He wanted me to get sleeping pills from work . . . . threatened me and physically and emotionally abused me when I refused. . . . I tried so hard to save her,"^[49] when in fact her help had been to vacuum and launder away the evidence. And Tim Danson, attorney for the victims' families, has said that she has never apologized to them.

Homolka completed her high school diploma and took correspondence courses in sociology through nearby Queen's University^[50] which initially caused a media storm. But the concept of inmate education was eloquently defended by Eric Squair in The Varsity, University of Toronto's student newspaper.^[51] Homolka was required to pay all fees, as well as her personal needs, from her bi-weekly income of about $69,^[52] although, she told author Stephen Williams in a subsequent letter, "I did get some financial assistance".^[53] News of Homolka's self-improvement courses was greeted in the media with disdain: "Nothing has changed. Concepts of remorse, repentance, shame, responsibility and atonement have no place in the universe of Karla. Perhaps she simply lacks the moral gene," wrote another Globe columnist, Margaret Wente.^[54]

Dr. Graham Glancy, a forensic psychiatrist hired by Bernardo's chief defence lawyer, John Rosen, had offered an alternative theory to explain Homolka's behaviour, noted Williams in Invisible Darkness, his first book on the case. She appears to be a classic example of hybristophilia, an individual who is sexually aroused by a partner's violent sexual behaviour, Dr. Glancy suggested."^[55]

Williams, whose Invisible Darkness currently is in its 35th printing,^[56] later reversed his opinion about her and began corresponding with her. This formed the basis for his second book, Karla - Deal with the Devil. In her letters Homolka also disparaged a number of the professionals who had examined her and said she did not care "what conditions I would receive upon release. I would spend three hours a day standing on my head should that be required."^[57] In fact, upon her release Homolka vigorously fought a string of conditions imposed upon her by a court (see Post-Prison, below).

Homolka participated in every treatment program recommended by prison authorities, until she was asked to participate in a program that had been designed for male sex offenders. She refused, on the grounds that she was neither male nor a convicted sex offender.

During Homolka's release hearing (under section 810.2 of the Criminal Code), Dr. Morrisette said the then-35-year-old did not represent a threat to society.^[58]. Various hearings over the years have left a mixture of opinions. According to Candice Skrapec, "a fearless and much-sought-after criminal profiler", Homolka might herself be driven by a dangerous psychopathy -- malignant narcissism^[59] If she posed any kind of danger, said Dr. Hubert Van Gijseghem, a forensic psychologist for Correctional Services Canada, it lay in the ominous but not unlikely possibility of her linking up with another sexual sadist like Bernardo. "She is very attracted to this world of sexual psychopaths. It's not for nothing that she did what she did with Bernardo," he told the National Post after reviewing her file. A scheduled newspaper interview with Homolka was quashed by her lawyer.^[60] It was not just the facts of the case that shredded Homolka's cloak of victimization. Her demeanour on the witness stand had been at times "indifferent, haughty and irritable"^[61]

[edit] Post-prison

Where other inmates might apply for parole at the first opportunity, Homolka refrained from doing so. "Because she was deemed a risk to reoffend, she was denied statutory release two-thirds of the way through her sentence,"^[62] Maclean's Magazine reported in explaining that that had exempted Homolka from the parole restrictions meant to ease an offender's integration into mainstream society. In 2004 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation noted that "The National Parole Board has ruled that Karla Homolka must stay in prison for her full sentence, warning that she remains a risk to commit another violent crime."^[63] While the NPB noted that she had made some progress toward rehabilitation^[64] it expressed concern that Homolka had begun corresponding with a convicted murderer whom she had met when they were both being held in different parts of a prison handling unit in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Que. As a result it decided to keep her in prison.^[65] The Toronto Sun reported that Homolka had had sex in prison with "a male inmate she now wants to marry, a former cell pal says."^[66]

According to former inmate and Homolka confidante Chantel Meuneer, the Sun reported, Homolka and the inmate stripped at a flimsy fence, touched one another sexually and exchanged underwear. At the same time, Meuneer told the Sun, Homolka was still in a lesbian relationship with Lynda Verronneau, who had spent $3,000 on her at Victoria's Secret.^[67] The NPB reprimanded Homolka: "you have secretly undertaken an emotional relationship with another inmate, and evidence gathered seems to indicate that this relationship rapidly became sexual," the panel stated.^[68] "Meuneer said Dec. 6, 2001, only seven days before Homolka dumped Veronneau, she asked Homolka why she kept her lesbian lover hanging on when she was in love with the man. "'I don't let go right now because I want my clothes and I want my computer,'" Meuneer recalls Homolka saying, according to the Sun.^[69]

Meuneer, reported the paper, later began living with Veronneau.^[70] And Veronneau, together with writer Christiane Dejardins, wrote Lynda Véronneau: Dans L'Ombre de Karla, published in 2005 by Les Éditions Voix Parallèles.

Homolka gave her the incentive to finish her schooling, Veronneau said^[71] Veronneau, who saw herself as a man and was scheduled to undergo gender reassignment surgery, said Homolka "liked to be tied up, something that disturbed Veronneau, who was serving a sentence for robbery. She said one game seemed to simulate rape," the Post reported.^[72] This article, along with numerous others, whipped up public opinion as the date of Homolka's release neared. Homolka intended to settle in Alberta - one rumour went, causing an uproar in that province.^[73] Maclean's weighed in with a series of possible scenarios: "The most educated speculation has Homolka staying in Quebec, where language and cultural differences supposedly muted the media coverage of her case, and where she'll be less recognizable. Another rumour suggests she will flee overseas, restarting in a country where her case is unknown. Or sneak into the United States, using an illegal identity to cross the border and living out her life under a pseudonym."^[74]

Michael Bryant, Ontario's Attorney General fought to get Homolka on the agenda at a meeting of Canada's justice ministers. "He wants the federal government to expand the category of dangerous offenders to "catch those slipping between the cracks."^[75] "Bilingual and armed with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Queen's University, Homolka may choose to try to live a quiet life in Quebec, where her crimes are not as well known as they are in English-speaking Canada," reported CTV in May, 2005.^[76]

On June 2, 2005, the network said, "the Ontario Crown will ask a Quebec judge to impose conditions under Section 810 of Criminal Code on Homolka's release."^[77] "The French and Mahaffy families want even tighter restrictions on Homolka, including asking that she submit to electronic monitoring or yearly psychological and psychiatric assessment," CTV said. These conditions are not allowed under Section 810 because they cross the line between preventive justice versus punitive measures, but "that's why [Toronto lawyer Tim Danson, acting on their behalf] believes the families want the government to amend the Section."."^[78]

A two-day hearing was held before Judge Jean R. Beaulieu in June, 2005. He ruled that Karla Homolka, upon her release on July 4, 2005, would still pose a risk to the public-at-large. As a result, using section 810.2 of the Criminal Code, certain restrictions were placed on Homolka as a condition of her release:

1. She was to tell police her home address, work address and with whom she lives.
2. She was required to notify police as soon as any of the above changes.
3. She was likewise required to notify police of any change to her name.
4. If she planned to be away from her home for more than 48 hours, she had to give 72 hours' notice.
5. She could not contact Paul Bernardo, the families of Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French or that of the woman known as Jane Doe (see below), or any violent criminals.
6. She was forbidden from being with people under the age of 16 and from consuming drugs other than prescription medicine.
7. She was required to continue therapy and counseling.
8. She was required to provide police with a DNA sample.^[79]

There was a penalty of a maximum two-year prison term for violating such an order. While this reassured the public that Homolka would find it difficult to offend again, it was felt by the court that it might be beneficial to her as well, because public hostility and her high profile might endanger her upon release.^[80]

On June 10, 2005, Liberal senator Michel Biron declared that the conditions placed on Homolka were "totalitarian", according to an interview with CTV Newsnet.^[81] Conservative deputy leader Peter MacKay called this "moral support" for Homolka "repugnant", and other members of government called for Biron's resignation.^[82] Two weeks later, the Senator apologized for seemingly having spoken out for Homolka.^[83]

Homolka then filed a request in the Quebec Superior Court for a wide-ranging injunction aimed at preventing the press from reporting about her following her release.

While at Joliette Institution, Homolka received death threats and was transferred to Ste-Anne-des-Plaines prison north of Montreal.

On July 4, 2005, Homolka was released from Ste-Anne-des-Plaines prison. She granted her first interview to Radio-Canada television, speaking entirely in French.^[84] Homolka told interviewer Joyce Napier that she chose Radio Canada because she had found it to be less sensational than the English-language media. She said that she had likewise found Quebec to be more accepting of her than Ontario. She affirmed that she would be living within the province but refused to say where. She said she had paid her debt to society legally, but not emotionally or socially. She refused to speak about her alleged relationship with Jean-Paul Gerbet, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence at Ste-Anne-des-Plaines.^[85] During the interview, her solicitor, Sylvie Bordelais, sat beside Homolka; however, she did not speak. Homolka's mother was also present but off-screen, and was acknowledged by Homolka.^[86]

On July 5, national media reported that Homolka had relocated to the Island of Montreal. On August 21, the newspaper Le Courrier du Sud reported that she had been sighted in the South Shore community of Longueuil, across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal.[58]

The Société Elizabeth Fry du Québec offered its services to Homolka.^[87]

On November 30, 2005, Quebec Superior Court judge James Brunton lifted all restrictions imposed on Homolka, saying there was not enough evidence to justify them.^[88] On December 6, 2005, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld Brunton's decision.^[89] The Quebec Justice Department decided not to take the case to the Supreme Court, despite Ontario's urging.^[90]

On June 8, 2006, TVA reported that Homolka's request to have her name changed was rejected. She had attempted to change her name legally to Emily Chiara Tremblay (Tremblay being one of the most common surnames in Quebec).^[91]

On July 25, 2006, Global News reporters tracked down Homolka at a Montreal bus stop and videotaped her as they asked her questions to no reply.^[92]

On February 9, 2007, Sun Media reported that Homolka had given birth to a baby boy^[93] with new husband, Thierry Bordelais. Quebec Children's Aid said that despite Homolka's past, the new mother will not automatically be scrutinized. It was later reported that several nurses had refused to care for Homolka prior to her giving birth.^[94]

On December 14, 2007, CityNews reported that Homolka left Canada for the Antilles in the West Indies so her now one-year-old could lead a 'more normal life.'^[95]

[edit] Movie

In 2004 producers from Quantum Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based production company, announced the release of the movie Karla (with the working title Deadly), starring Laura Prepon as Homolka and Misha Collins as Bernardo. Since the announcement of the movie, Tim Danson – the attorney for the families of French and Mahaffy – was given a private screening of the film, and following this, announced that the families had no objection to the film being released. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has called for a boycott on the film. The film was released in Canada by Christal Films in the major markets of Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax.

[edit] In popular culture

Canadian readers and book reviewers were up in arms when, in 1997, Lynn Crosbie, Canadian poet, novelist and cultural critic, published Paul's Case, termed a 'theoretical fiction'. After systematically analyzing the couple's crimes it provided an examination of the cultural effects of the shocking revelations and controversy surrounding their trial^[96]

Episodes of Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Close to Home were inspired by the case, as well as an episode of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries called "Know Thine Enemy", aired in 2007. Due to the Canadian publication ban on details of the crimes that was in force at the time, the original Law & Order episode could not be shown on Canadian television.

Montreal musician Mario Pompetti's "Karla Homolka Polka"^[97] is widely available as a ringtone. Some sellers offer "Karla Homolka Loves Me" and "I Love Karla Homolka" t-shirts^[98].

[edit] References

[edit] Further information

The Toronto Star's archives list 3,547 articles about Homolka; extensive coverage of Bernardo's trial was printed in the Star, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Sun and Maclean's Magazine; there is further, broad coverage by the electronic media. Additionally, hundreds of blogs deal with Homolka and/or Bernardo and there are 56 videos on YouTube, including home movies, parodies and dramatizations.

Videos

• Produced 21 January 2008 by Radio-Canada.ca
• Produced 23 August 2007 by The Biography Channel
• Produced 23 August 2007 by The Biography Channel
• Produced 23 August 2007 by The Biography Channel
• Produced 13 February 2008 by Live Leak
• Produced 2 December 2007 by CTV.ca
• date not given Home Box Office
• efootage, date not given truveo.com
• Produced 8 January 2006 by MSN Video
• Produced 12 February 2005 by CTV.ca
• Produced 12 February 2005 by CTV.ca
• Produced 30 November 2005 by CTV.ca
• Produced 3 November 2005 by CTV.ca
• Produced October 24, 2005 by CTV.ca
• Produced 4 July 2005by BBC News
• how use of the Internet circumvented the publication ban well.com
• Dark Heart, Iron Hand. Documentary broadcast by MSNBC. Rebroadcast as an episode of the series MSNBC Investigates retitled "To Love and To Kill" May 31, 2002 ^[1] and September 4, 2007.^[2]

Movies

• Karla starring Laura Prepon and Misha Collins. Monterey Video (2007) No ISBN available. ASIN B000MNOXX0.

Articles

• Henshaw, Jim and eight other authors "Karla Curls: The Schoolgirl Killer" Helium.com
• Bass, Warren (May 1993) "SILENCE OF THE PRESS, Canada's Horrific Unreported Trial" Columbia Journalism Review
• [http://w2.eff.org/Censorship/Foreign_and_local/Canada/Homolka-Teale_case/
• American Review of Canadian Studies, Vol. 26, 1996 "Untangling Karla's Web: Post-National Arguments, Cross-Border Crimes, and the Investigation of Canadian Culture"
• Nanetta, Alexander (June 10, 2005). "Biron: Homolka treated in totalitarian style" National Post
• Ottawa Sun Cairns, Alan (May 22, 2005). "Karla's rapid descent into Darkness: How Homolka quickly fell under Bernardo's spell" (retrieval requires $10 payment)
• "Bernardo/Homolka Timeline" and related articles
• CBC News (May 31, 2005). "Karla Homolka back in court"
• CBC News (Sep 21, 2004). "Baltovich lawyers link case to Bernardo"
• "The Ken & Barbie of Murder & Mayhem" by Marilyn Bardsley, truTV Crime Library Serial Killers/Most Notorious
• (Sep. 19, 2004). "Robert Baltovich Lawyers implicate Bernardo in Elizabeth Bain Killing"
• Prison in Joliette is known as `Club Fed'- Toronto Star
• Report to the Attorney General of Ontario on Certain Matters relating to Karla Homolka AKA The Galligan Report (PDF in a .zip file - 11 megs)
• Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (December 2003). "The Case of Stephen Williams: Secret Publication Bans, Selective Prosecution and Prosecutorial Conflict of Interest."
• Gillis, Charlie (March. 21, 2005). "Karla Homolka, Girl Next Door". Maclean's, p. 35.
• Szklarski, Cassandra (June 2, 2005). "Won't greet Karla, Homolka family says" Globeandmail.com
• "Making A Monster" Lamey, Andy (November 2005) Toro Magazine

Books

• Burnside, Scott and Alan Cairns. Deadly Innocence. Grand Central Publishing, Warner Books edition (1995) ISBN 0446601543.
• Davey, Frank. Karla's Web. Viking Adult (1994) ISBN 0670861537.
• Klein, Shelley. The Most Evil Women in History. Michael O' Mara Books Limited (2003) ISBN 0760745560
• O'Neill, Brian. A Marriage Made For Murder. O'Neill Enterprises (1995) ISBN 0969977913.
• Pearson, Patricia. When She Was Bad: How And Why Women Get Away With MurderVintage Canada (1998) ISBN 0679309624
• Pron, Nick. Lethal Marriage: The Uncensored Truth Behind the Crimes of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. Seal Books (2005). ISBN 077042936X.
• Williams, Stephen. Invisible Darkness: The Strange Case Of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. New York: Bantam (1997) ISBN 055356854X.
• Williams, Stephen. Karla: A Pact with the Devil. Toronto: Cantos International, 2003 ISBN 2-89594-000-2 Subsequent edition: Seal Books. (2004) ISBN 0770429629.

[edit] External links

• EFF archives: Censorship - Homolka-Teale-Bernardo Case Media Ban & Wired Censorship
• www.karlathemovie.net A movie produced by Michael Sellars, due for release in 2006
• [1] Of necessity these letters are only half the story; Williams has not put his own letters on the net. Presumably they are mentioned, in part or whole, in his second book

Persondata
NAME	Homolka, Karla Leanne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Karla Leanne Teale
SHORT DESCRIPTION	serial killer
DATE OF BIRTH	May 4, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH	Port Credit, Ontario, Canada
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH