Toni Grann admitted in court Thursday that her Sex Offender Registry records may appear deceitful, but insisted that deception was never her intent.
Grann, 45, is facing four charges of falsifying records between 2005 and 2010 in connection with her role as local registrar of the Ontario Sex Offender Registry. On Thursday she took the stand for a second day in a Thunder Bay courtroom in her defence.
Grann faced intense questioning from Crown attorney Mark Huneault as he walked the court through several cases where Grann admitted she had re-registered sex offenders without speaking to them or even meeting them face-to-face.
Huneault was trying to establish that Grann changed information in the registrations on everything from a person’s hair length to weight so that she could lower what he calls “bad numbers.”
The bad numbers he spoke of referred to cases when the offender is non-compliant with re-registering with police on an annual basis or when they change an address.
Grann insists that the Crown’s allegations are inaccurate, and that it was just sloppy paperwork on her part.
“That’s not sloppy paperwork. That’s lying,” Huneault said.
“For you,” Grann said. “For me it’s sloppy paperwork.”
Because of a publication ban some details in the record, including the names of offenders, cannot be released.
In one instance, Huneault told the court, a man who read his description on his registration said the details were so out of date that it was probably taken from a description of him as a young offender.
In another case, the registration filled out by Grann says the man provided his address to her at a place he was not allowed to live in as part of his bail conditions.
Huneault told her that a man admitting to police that he was breaking a bail condition would be unusual.
“That would be quite an extraordinary occurrence,” he said.
Huneault asked if the man had ever been to the police station to re-register and whether he had told her where he lived.
“Right now I have no idea if he was in front of me,” Grann said.
Huneault went on to dispute what he called Grann’s crux of her defense, that she couldn’t enter information about an offender without having to start a whole new registration on them.
He provided her with a registration from 2006 in which Grann did update the information on a person without having to start a new registration.
Grann said she didn’t remember doing that.
“That’s news to me,” she said.
“Well you did it,” Humeault said.
Humeault then said he spoke with officers at OPP headquarters in Orillia who told him they had taught Grann how to update information.
“This is boggling my mind right now I have to say,” Grann said.
The questioning became emotional for Grann, and at times she would begin to sob or cry, rock back and forth or look up to the ceiling as Humeault aggressively hurled questions at her.
“I did not do this because I wanted to make numbers,” she said.
Grann will be re-examined by her defence lawyer Clay Powell Friday morning before dates are discussed for closing submissions.
Follow Jamie Smith on Twitter: @JsmithReporting
