The Ontario Ombudsman held a press conference yesterday to publicly slap around the provincial legal aid system for the million-dollar trial of Richard Wills, a (now ex-) cop who murdered his mistress and had his defence paid for by the province. André Marin, the ombudsman, got off some choice zingers about the Wills case, saying that Legal Aid Ontario “completely abdicated” its duty to keep the lid on the defence’s “obscene costs.” It is, Marin said, a “story about waste.”
Wills, a millionaire (a millionaire cop — are we in the wrong line of work or something?), owned six homes at the time of the murder, but soon shuffled his assets over to his estranged wife, pleaded poverty, latched on to the legal aid teat, and held on for dear life. By the time he reached the end of what Marin called a “preposterous defence” involving an accidental fall down the stairs, the good people of Ontario had ponied up $1,105,063.42 in defence costs, including the services of 13 lawyers in total.
The Ombudsman’s 84 page report on the whole fiasco goes into great detail about the various failures of the system, and sets out some recommendations for change, including the ability for the government to recoup costs from wealthy defendants who obscure their assets in order to claim legal aid. Marin said in the press conference that Legal Aid Ontario has taken his recommendations under advisement and changes will be coming.