STORY: "Wronful conviction lawsuit changed at last minute to drop Nova Scotia crown," published by Canadian Press on April 10, 2014.
GIST: "On Wednesday, former Crown attorney Charles Haliburton testified that Barton had pleaded guilty to the charge just as his trial was about to begin on Jan. 14, 1970. Barton, now 64, maintains he did not plead guilty.........On Wednesday, former Crown attorney Charles Haliburton testified that Barton had pleaded guilty to the charge just as his trial was about to begin on Jan. 14, 1970. Barton, now 64, maintains he did not plead guilty. Haliburton told the court that aside from the notation on his file about the guilty plea, there is no record of the court proceedings that led to Barton's conviction. Haliburton, a retired provincial Supreme Court judge, cited documents he retrieved from an old storage room in Digby, saying he had written the following note on one of them: "Guilty plea on trial." Aside from the notation on his file and documents from a preliminary hearing, Haliburton said there is no record of the court proceedings that led to Barton's conviction. He said a large cache of records were destroyed about 15 years ago when records at the Digby County courthouse were moved to Halifax.
Dunlop asked Haliburton why he decided to charge Barton with having sex with a minor, even though the complainant's statement to police indicated that she had been violently raped, an assertion Haliburton did not dispute. "It was the one (charge) that had a real prospect of conviction," Haliburton said. "It's the one that (Barton) admitted to" in his statement to police. Earlier in the trial, Barton told the court that the statement attributed to him was a fabrication. In it, Barton is quoted as saying he had consensual sex with a 14-year-old girl at her home in Jordantown in 1969, but he testified Monday that he never spoke to any officers.........Outside court on Wednesday, Dunlop was asked if it was possible that Barton's lawyer at the time had advised his client to plead guilty before trial in a bid to get a reduced sentence. "That clearly would have been a possibility, but it would be just guessing now to say that that happened," he said.
The entire story can be found at:
  http://www.vancouversun.com/news/national/Wrongful+conviction+lawsuit+changed+last+minute+drop+Nova/9723366/story.html

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 
  Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
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The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
 
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
 
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Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.