A New Allegation Disrupts a Coroner's Inquest
A coroner's inquest into the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet was scrambling to find a way forward after the Toronto woman's mother made a new allegation against police officers during her testimony. The mother said, “I saw them pushing Regis towards the balcony. That's all I saw, but I saw that myself.”
Her comments prompted lawyers for several parties to raise concerns about previously undisclosed evidence. One of the province's police watchdogs later cleared the officers of wrongdoing in the fatal fall, which it said happened as she was trying to move from her apartment's balcony to a neighbour's.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The watchdog's clearance should temper the charge in the room: an allegation at an inquest is not a finding of wrongdoing.
The fact that evidence was previously undisclosed does not make the quoted account false; the inquest still has to hear it.
The officers gave a different sequence: they testified Korchinski-Paquet moved quickly to the balcony after she was asked to speak to a paramedic. That competing account is also part of what the inquest has to weigh.