 James Cedar, was caught lurking on a surveillance cam installed in a St. Catharines home. (Screen capture/Sun Media)
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ST. CATHARINES -- While Tory opposition critics reload for another shot tomorrow at grilling Attorney General Chris Bentley during Question Period over the punting of this city's now-infamous Peeping Tom case, it has been learned that lurker James Cedar has peeped before.
Some six months prior to being caught on an infrared security camera, entering his next-door neighbours' backyard and then masturbating as he peered into various windows, Cedar was caught -- "on his knees" -- eye level to a low hole in the door of the staff change room at the Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet at St. Catharines' Linwell Plaza where he was working in the kitchen.
Inside the room was a female high school student about to start her shift, and changing into her work clothes.
Sources indicate Cedar was not fired at the time because the only witness who could corroborate the incident refused to do so because he was good friends with Cedar.
He has since been fired for theft.
Cedar, meanwhile, was fired from the Linwell KFC approximately two weeks after the peeping incident for punching a hole in the wall with his fist.
"He had anger issues," said a staffer.
Reached at her home, and speaking to the Sun with her father's permission, the young girl who caught Cedar in the act said she "had a bad feeling" about using the combination washroom-change room because of the hole in the door.
"It's a feeling I can't describe," she said. "We used to stuff toilet paper in the hole for privacy when we changed from our school clothes into our uniform but, once in awhile, I could hear shuffling outside the door.
"I had my suspicions who it was, but . . ."
The girl, now 18, and a student in her final year at a nearby high school, remembers vividly the day she caught James Cedar in the act.
"Instead of putting toilet paper in the hole, I stuffed it with a (commercial) paper towel that would make a scraping noise if someone tried to pull it out," she said.
"When I heard it rustling, I opened the door real fast, and there he was -- on his knees, his face even with the hole in the door," she said.
"I shouted at him, 'Oh my God, what are you doing?'
"And he said he was just playing a joke, but I knew differently, and it really creeped me out."
There were two assistant managers working at the Linwell KFC at the time -- Renee Armstrong, now at the KFC on Lundy's Lane in Niagara Falls, and Rob Jones, who remains at the Linwell outlet.
Both were approached, face-to-face, for comment.
Both refused to speak on the record.
What was confirmed, however, through informal conversation with these managers as well as correspondence with others in the know, was that the peeping "incident" did indeed happen, that James Cedar's friend at the Linwell KFC refused to corroborate the "incident," thereby negating Cedar being fired on the spot, and that both Cedar and his friend were both eventually terminated.
The hole in the door, caused by an accident and not by intention, has apparently since been repaired.
Calls to the Cedar house -- which has a telephone privacy feature prohibiting blocked phone numbers -- went either unanswered or unreturned.
At the end of September, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty admitted to "dropping the ball" for the Crown's failure to notify St. Catharines mother Patricia Marshall and her two daughters that a criminal harassment charge was being withdrawn against their Peeping Tom neighbour, identified as the aforementioned James Cedar.
In what could only be described as a secret deal -- the victims didn't know about it, and the cops didn't know about it -- Niagara North Crown Attorney Wally Essert quietly withdrew a criminal harassment charge against Cedar, who had been caught, on tape, masturbating outside his neighbours' bedroom and bathroom windows.
On Feb. 8, Niagara Regional Police issued a press release -- which led to a brief item in this newspaper, and others -- regarding the criminal harassment arrest of then 18-year-old James William Cedar after a homeowner in the north end of this city "noted evidence of an intruder entering the back yard and looking into the windows of the residence."
It was not the first time. Repeated tracks in the snow had provided the initial clues that something was amiss.
But all was circumstantial.
However, within 24 hours of installing an infrared camera provided by a friend, complete with a monitor and an audio recording system, Patricia Marshall suddenly had slam-dunk proof that her family's privacy had been violated.
From the monitor in her home office, she spotted someone in the backyard late at night and, according to the police report, "continued to observe live footage, recorded on video, of a suspect peeping into several rear windows of the residence and beginning to masturbate."
Excerpts of that video, which ran on the CHCH News in Hamilton, on this newspaper's website, and later on CTV Toronto and City-TV, has also found life on YouTube.
On the night of his arrest, and only minutes after Patricia Marshall called 911, James Cedar admitted to police to frequent forays into the Marshalls' back yard under the cloak of darkness, peering though partially closed blinds, seeing all three woman in various states of undress at various times, and then pleasuring himself.
Yet James Cedar, whose family retained the service of St. Catharines lawyer George Walker -- most famous for "deal with the devil" plea arrangement for schoolgirl murderer Karla Homolka, wife of serial killer Paul Bernardo -- had the charge against him withdrawn, with no advance warning to the police or the Marshall family, and with no explanation given to the court.
Tomorrow, at Queen's Park, Tory deputy opposition leader Christine Elliott and Tory attorney-general critic Ted Chudleigh are expected to take another run at the government, and the AG, for its handling of the case.
There was rumour for a time that the case was being reviewed for the possible relaying of charges against Cedar by Tyler Shuster, the senior Crown for Niagara South, the judicial district adjacent to Wally Essert's turf.
But a face-to-face interview with Shuster in his office at the Welland courthouse put an end to that rumour.
Shuster, in fact, indicated he has had no contact with the Ontario attorney general's office over the Cedar matter, and referred any further questions to the Brendan Crawley, head of the AG's communication branch.
"The Crown does not lay charges or confirm whether police have sought legal advice," Crawley said in response. "Only police can conduct investigations and lay criminal charges.
"The Crown also cannot 're-open' a case where there is no outstanding charge. Questions about police investigations should be directed to police."
A number of calls were placed to Niagara Regional Police Det. Tim Vince, purportedly in whose hands the Cedar file has been placed for re-assessment.
None was returned.
While evidence of a previous peeping incident may change the tact of tomorrow's Question Period at Queen's Park, Halton MPP Ted Chudleigh indicated the focus of his questioning will be on the A-G's response to a letter written by Jody McIntosh, a friend of Patricia Marshall's, who was critical of government's "lack of action."
In that letter, John Ayre, assistant deputy attorney general, claimed the assigned Crown -- Wally Essert -- "withdrew the case because, in his view, there was no reasonable prospect of conviction."
This, to Chudleigh, is a bit of a stretch.
"There is videotape evidence. There is a confession. What more does the Crown need?" he asked. "The police did their job, and they did it well."
In his letter to McIntosh, of which the Sun has a copy, Ayre cites how the "delivery of justice is a top priority of this ministry," and then he proceeds to talk of the government's introduction of $8.2 million in new funding to ensure the protection of women who are the victims of abuse.
But, what stirred Chudleigh's ire, is a typo in Ayre's letter which indicates the government is providing "$190 annually" towards violence-against-women services.
"So what is it?" asked Chudleigh. "Is it $190,000? It is $190 million? Or is it really $190?
"This is a serious issue. How can they send out a letter like that -- with that typo?"
MARK.BONOKOSKI@SUNMEDIA.CA OR 416-947-2445
