Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Mounties always get their (wo)man!

Good Day Readers:

Ever notice the British Columbia RCMP now seem to have enough .... ups for the rest of the Force? Well, this next one is no exception and has a little bit of everything. Hope the officers at least had the presence of mind to give the Florida Judge the right hat!

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk



Judge slept with Mountie: Convict
Money-launderer levels charge against those involved in his prosecution

By Keith Fraser
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Former Corporal. Bill Majcher is alleged to have been involved with Judge Ursula Ungaro, who presided over the criminal trial of Vancouver lawyer Martin Chambers. (Photograph by Wayne Leidenfrost/PNG Files/The Province)

A former Vancouver lawyer serving a 15-year jail term in the U.S. for money-laundering the proceeds of crime claims that one of the Mount-ies who investigated him had an affair with the Miami trial judge.

Then-Corporal. Bill Majcher is alleged to have been involved with Judge Ursula Ungaro, who presided over the criminal trial of Vancouver lawyer Martin Chambers, according to documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court.

A petition filed in court says that Michael Benages, the judge's husband, and his ex-wife, Judge Ungaro, had dinner with two RCMP officers, one of them Majcher, at a restaurant in September or October 2003.

Benages describes Majcher as speaking about his undercover work on the Chambers case, with the trial being discussed in the presence of the judge, prior to sentencing, says the petition.

In addition, the RCMP officers gave a boxed Canadian RCMP hat to the judge, (emphasis ours) it says.

Benages and the two RCMP officers had another dinner at a Miami restaurant, says the document.

"Michael Benages also describes a second impropriety, that his ex-wife, the sentencing judge of the petitioner, admitted adultery with Corporal.Majcher."

The document says that Majcher, who has since retired and is now working in Hong Kong in the finance field, was covertly tape-recorded by a private investigator.

"Mr. Majcher said that [the affair] did not occur until after the trial when he went back to Miami to give the judge an RCMP hat."

The petition names the Attorney-General of Canada as the respondent and seeks any memos, reports, records of attendance or any other documentation that puts a date on the dinners in Miami.

Chambers is also seeking to apply for a re-sentencing in the U S.and to have his conviction set aside if disclosed records indicate that the alleged affair began before or during the trial.

In December 2003, Ungaro sentenced Chambers to a 15-year, eight-month jail sentence after a jury convicted him of money-laundering proceeds of crime.

Majcher is a colourful figure. In late 2003, he was appointed inspector in charge of the newly formed RCMP Integrated Market Enforcement Team in Vancouver.

While an RCMP inspector, he ran a losing campaign for the federal Conservative nomination in Richmond and had allegedly associated with a man whom he had previously caught in a money-laundering scheme.

RCMP internal affairs investigated him for other, unspecified matters and Majcher was suspended with pay in July 2005. After reaching a settlement in 2007, he retired.

The office of the Attorney-General of Canada could not be reached. The allegations are unproven and the response to the allegations in the petition has not yet been filed.

kfraser@theprovince.com
twitter.com/keithrfraser

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