Uncover - S6 "Satanic Panic" E3: ‘You got to be friggin’ kidding me’

Episode Date: February 9, 2020

As the number of suspects continues to grow, rumours of an underground Satanic cult whose members include police officers have taken root. Saskatoon Police Officer John Popowich finds himself facing ���the worst things that a human being can be accused of.” For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/uncover/uncover-season-6-satanic-panic-transcripts-listen-1.5437487

When was the last time you said, hmm, I never thought about it that way? The Current aims to give you that moment every single day. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and our award-winning team brings you stories and conversations to expand your worldview. Sometimes they connect to the news of the day, sometimes to the issues of our time. And you'll hear all kinds of people on The Current, from best-selling authors to the prime minister to maybe your neighbor. Find us wherever you get your podcasts now,

including YouTube. I'll talk to you soon. This is a CBC podcast. It's probably early 92, you know, chatter around the hallways at the office and police station. You heard about all these weird and wonderful things going on in Martinsville. In 1992, John Popovich is a couple of decades into his career as a police officer in Saskatoon.

The job runs in his blood. He's a cop from a family of cops. And like just about everyone else, he's heard rumblings about the big investigation going on in a small town just north of the city. You heard, you know, this, that, and the other thing was happening. And then I heard one of our so-called experts was part of the investigation. Believe it or not, that gave me chills. He's talking about Rod Moore, a fellow corporal with the Saskatoon Police, the one who was assisting Claudia Bryden with the investigation.

I had no respect for the member, didn't like him. All of a sudden, a family is arrested, and then this investigation took a, I don't know what the word is, a way of its own. Corporal Moore got involved, and all of a sudden, there's a whole bunch of people are being identified as part of this investigation and then there's things coming out about some building on a highway out of town there was kids drinking blood. There was sacrifices.

Just weird things. And I say weird. 1992, that was weird. Never heard of that crap. And one day, John's curiosity gets the better of him. I was in patrol at the time, back and forth, taking calls. And one day, I asked the investigator, Rod Moore, how things were going out there. Little did I know that was going to bite me in the butt later on.

I know that was going to bite me in the butt later on. Not long ago, John did an interview for the CBC radio program Out in the Open. The tape of John you'll hear in this episode comes from that conversation. Because I had showed interest in the case, I became a suspect. Just like that, John goes from enforcing the law to feeling its full weight. I wasn't called in. I was interrogated. I was hammered from one wall to the other.

The polygraph operator used his, every technique he had learned and was successful with to try and break me. But when you're not guilty of anything, never did anything, I mean, what are you going to say? Because I know what this system could do, how it can be manipulated to, you know, to make you look guilty. In Martinsville, Saskatchewan, there are allegations

that as many as 30 children at a daycare center may have been systematically abused. Charges were also laid against two former Martinsville police chiefs and a suspended police officer from the town's force. An unidentified juvenile was also charged. On Friday, there were more charges, this time against two more police officers. Although the charges against the accused didn't mention Satanism, rumors were rampant that it was the work of a Satanic cult. I do remember hearing this concept of children don't lie, and as a child finding that bizarre, like, yes we can. It's like a bad dream.

I've never been more scared in my life. We had a duty to protect the public. It was almost to the point where it was unbelievable. I'm Lisa Bryn-Rundle, and this is Uncover, Satanic Panic, Episode 3. You gotta be friggin' kidding me. It may not have helped that John showed interest in the case, but he officially became a suspect when one of the kids from the daycare picked him out from photos of 300 local police officers.

The child said he'd seen John at Ron and Linda Sterling's house. Two other children identified John out of an eight-person photo array, and they indicated John was one of the cops who abused them. Just flabbergasted. Like, you gotta be friggin' kidding me. Like, what are you talking about? I know nothing about that. You know, I got a wife, I got two kids, I love my job, I'm part of the community. I coach ball, I go to church. Like, I'm a normal guy. John's interrogation was videotaped, and fragments of it appear on an old TV documentary.

What is it, man? There's something going on there. Not with me, the regimentary. Okay, well, then you know. You would have known. I scanned it. Fuck off. Fuck off. I'm not threatening you. The perspective seems to be from a camera mounted in a corner of the tiny interrogation room.

And it's aimed squarely at John. He must be scheduled to work that day because he's wearing his uniform. And in the fleeting images, you see so many emotions jolt through him. He's calm. There's nothing I can do to change your mind. You think it's there. It's not there. Then, angry. You know what I feel like doing right now? I'm so fucking mad.

I'm going to pop you one, okay? I can understand. Yeah, I'm going to pop you one. Fearful. Are you cool? No, I'm just scared. Terry, I'm scared popular one. Fearful. Are you cool? No, I'm just scared. Terry, I'm scared. Okay, okay.

Panicked. I'm not threatening you. I'm telling you. Don't you threaten me. And don't tell me that I'm involved in Martin's death. God, Terry, I gotta... You okay? No, I'm not.

My... Terry! I'm gonna lose my two kids. Terry. I'm gonna lose my two kids. Terry, I'm going to lose my two kids. Man, that was the worst day of my life. I'm accused of the worst things that a human being can be accused of with these satanic cult things overriding everything. I had no idea what the hell was going on.

Just absolutely nothing. Had no idea. You know, in the minute, I'm sitting there in the room getting grilled. And what the hell's happening? And at one time, I'm sitting there and thinking to myself, have I blacked out for a complete year? Like, is there a year I can't account for in my life? And then I said, no, no, there's no way.

I just couldn't. There's no way you can survive like that. It was bad. It was bad. It was bad. Somebody's hitting you over the head with all this stuff, and those are the worst charges. I mean, if they said you killed 10 people, you know.

But this stuff here, man, everybody's looking for a pedophile, and you know what they're going to do to him. John is grilled, but no charges are laid. Yet. So he leaves. I didn't go right home. I coached ball. My kids were young. And I went to one of the fire halls where my good friend was working that night.

I sat and talked to him. He gave me a hug, and he said, you're welcome in our house anytime. I went home and explained things to my wife and my daughters, and I had to explain the next morning to my mother. John follows along with the rest of the country as Travis, Linda, and Ron Sterling are arrested. You want to get out of my yard right now?

Back off. Then the young offender and three Martinsville police officers, followed by a local RCMP constable. They join the hundreds of people across the continent who'd been in the same place for the same reasons, accused of crimes they didn't commit, in a climate where the absence of hard proof

no longer seemed to matter. And then, on June 5th, 1992, it's John's turn. There's a photo of John from that day peering out of the back of a police cruiser, and there's something new in his expression. It's just hard to read. Maybe defiance mixed with resignation.

The photo ran big on the front page of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. Dan Zekreski's paper. You know, you want that to be your dad? You know, John Popowich looking out through the grill of a police car? Like his world is blown up. People look at that and I think he's on page one because he's guilty. Everyone's said he's guilty.

This morning, they went into court in chains. Eight adults, one young offender, accused of about 170 charges, all stemming from the alleged sexual abuse of young children. The court was overflowing. Spectators from Martinsville and Saskatoon gasped at the allegations, booed at the defense lawyers. Late this afternoon, more than half of the accused walked out, free on bail.

While John's out on bail, others remain in custody, including Ron and Linda Sterling and their son, Travis. The anger against them is so strong that justice officials move Ron and Travis from Saskatoon, sending them two hours south to Regina. Linda is sent to a correctional centre an hour and a half north. And those who've been let out on bail, they've been told to stay away from Martinsville. For both the accused and the victims' families, the past two days have been an ordeal in themselves. But there's still a lot more to go.

It'll likely be fall before there's a preliminary hearing, before the judge decides whether there's enough evidence to even hold a trial. But before 1992 is out, prosecutors decide to forego all preliminary hearings and go straight to trial. It's a rarely made move, but they say it's to minimize the trauma to the children. The first of the trials is set for March of 93. Until then, all anyone can do is wait. But waiting is its own kind of torture. People are just looking at you. My neighbours are looking at me.

Scared to go anyplace. Just petrified. John's community turns against him. Mostly, he avoids leaving the house. And when he does, things like this happen. I took my kids one evening to a restaurant. A good friend of mine owned it. And I sat down with the girls and the owner, you know, give everybody a hug. The guy walked up to me, looked at me,

slit his throat with his finger. I tell you, I was scared. Not for me, not for me, for my two kids. Everything about John's life changes. Who he is in the world and who he is at home. From an old interview. You'd sit there and watch TV in the afternoon or at night. And you'd turn the Venetians right down so nobody could see you.

And I was so scared of people watching or listening that the girls weren't even allowed to sit on my knee to watch TV like we normally did. They weren't even, like, I wouldn't even allow them to sit on the same couch as me. I was scared. His wife is hassled at work. So she finally had to get to dump her name tag. His daughter is targeted at school. You know, my daughter, my oldest daughter, took a beating in school.

I mean, a beating. Ended up in the hospital because her dad was a pedophile. She was 12 at the time. His kids are also questioned about whether they've been victims of abuse from their father. For John, dealing with all that is hard enough. But it's the responses coming from closer to home that cut the deepest. I started with my own family. We're made up, in my family, we're made up of policemen.

And if you're charged, you're guilty. and if you're charged, you're guilty. So you try and, you know, rifle and chisel that through somebody's head who's been indoctrinated with the police mentality, pretty tough to handle. Other guys I worked with that I shot in competition with, you know, shared a beer and lots of laughs, lots of crying, wouldn't talk to me. They were scared that if they were seen associating with me, they'd go down too. As the community and the accused wait,

Crown prosecutors prepare for the upcoming trials. Meanwhile, a task force headed up by the RCMP has taken over the investigation. Staff Sergeant Rick Pearson is in charge. We come along as a task force and we're going to organize the material and we're going to move the investigation forward. But at the end of the day, we start to see flaws of what doesn't seem to hold any water. And we start to question it and analyze it and start to investigate backwards and try and twist and turn what we are looking at to say, well, what do we really have here? The task force is meant to continue the work started by Claudia Bryden and Rod Moore,

looking into more people, more police officers who've been identified by the children. These are suspects above and beyond the nine already charged. But the task force ends up reinvestigating the whole case. They conduct an extensive search of the so-called Devil Church, where most of the abuse was meant to have taken place. When we looked at all the information we had, we started to have our doubts about whether or not children actually had been taken to this location. Some things did not seem right.

They find no physical evidence. No hair, or blood blood or semen. Nothing that connects the location with any of the victims or any of the accused. We had some names given to us as potential suspects that hadn't yet been pursued in this investigation and this was some of the new work that we were going to pursue. When we talked to these people we realized that something's not right. That some of the identifications just were wrong. At long last the investigation comes to a close. No further charges will be laid, and the remaining suspects are cleared. Pearson writes to prosecutors and tells them,

After dealing with the suspects, it's obvious that some errors in identity have been made by the children. Is it possible the children have made errors with the identities of some of those charged? These and other holes in the case leave Rick Pearson with grave doubts about the charges against the nine accused that are rapidly proceeding to trial. He urges prosecutors to re-examine parts of the case. Nevertheless, the Crown proceeds as planned.

After all, they have hours and hours of the children's interviews on video. The children and their families are prepared to testify. And Claudia will too. And they've got an angry public, hungry for justice. They've also got a plan for how to explain the utter lack of physical evidence to the jury. And it boils down to this. Who would know better how to destroy evidence than a cop? It's 1993, and another spring finally approaches.

People are glad the trials have finally begun, so they can get on with their lives. The Young Offenders Trial, a young woman whose name remains protected by a publication ban, is up first. She faces 10 charges, including sexual assault, assault, unlawful confinement, and threatening to use a gun while committing sexual assault. When news of the arrest first broke last summer,

residents of Martinsville packed the courtroom and jeered as some of the accused were granted bail. Today, barely anyone showed up. The only evidence against her comes from the testimony of two young boys. They're 9 and 11 at the time of the trial. Finally, this case with the lurid details,

the one steeped in satanic rumors, is going to be tested in court, a place governed by reason and fact, and where the legal standard of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt must be met. No one is watching more closely for that than John. If this first case fails to meet that bar, then maybe the rest of the cases would crumble too.

The trial runs over two months. The children testify, repeating the gruesome details. The testimony wraps, and finally, a verdict. The Young Offenders Act says we can't show you the face of the accused. She was 18 at the time of the offences. Her family and friends made sure she was not identified in public. The judge found her guilty on seven charges dealing with the sexual assault of two boys. Guilty. Convicted on seven out of ten charges.

guilty, convicted on seven out of ten charges. According to the next day's Star Phoenix, at least one set of Martinsville parents smile as the judge delivers the verdict. And the young woman leaves the courtroom stunned and sobbing. Her father addresses the waiting crowd, and he says, one of these days, the kids are going to start telling the truth,

and people will realize what's going on here. The young offender is sentenced to two years. The judge said no amount of rationalization can mitigate the awful behavior. The accused cried and trembled in court while the judge read his sentence. The judge says a severe sentence will send a message to all adults who might violate their position of trust over children. The Crown agrees. We feel that Judge Lavoie took into account all of the appropriate circumstances and that his sentence is within the range of appropriate sentences. For the young woman and her family,

the convictions are devastating. After all, she's innocent, wrongly convicted. But for the prosecutors, it's a good place to be as they head into the second trial. John's. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons,

but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs. And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. Nearly a year after his arrest, John walks into the provincial courthouse in downtown Saskatoon.

Knowing there's a good chance he'll never be free again. The crimes he's accused of are stomach-turning. The prosecution will argue that he repeatedly abducted children from a daycare in order to physically and sexually assault them, forced children, often at gunpoint, to submit to and or perform anal sex, oral sex, and sexual intercourse with himself, other adults, and with each other. Administered a stupefying drug, locked kids in a freezer, and took blood from them. Forced an axe handle into the anus of a child. an axe handle into the anus of a child. I remember those charges being read in court,

and man, I don't even want to hear that. It's not me. I never did it. The trial is set to last five or six weeks. No jury, just a judge, and nearly 40 witnesses to call. Once again, the trial hinges on the testimony of the children. This week, an RCMP officer testified that he couldn't find a single adult witness who saw Popowich in Martinsville or at a farm shed nearby where some of the offenses allegedly occurred. John has lost the support of some friends and family, but not all.

I had a young kid brother of mine who lived in Yellowknife. Just an ordinary guy working for a living. He drove 26 hours non-stop to come to my trial. His kids and wife stick by him too. It's a frightening experience to go through. John's wife, Norma, in a 1993 interview. And have no doubt in your mind ever and to just know that you have a husband who's innocent. And when you're walking in to commence trial, making a decision on the rest of your

lives, it's going to be a flip of a coin. And that's really frightening when you know that you're dealing with an innocent man. As the trial begins, John and Norma decide not to restrict their daughter's access to coverage of the trial. There wasn't a discussion on John's innocence or not. It was a matter of we let them read testimonies, we let them read graphic descriptions of what the children had alleged had been done,

and it became a good communication thing with us. It was never an issue of could Daddy have done this. It just wasn't in question. I think my biggest hurt as a mom was John sitting down with our daughter, who's now 14, and discussing with her about legally changing her name

so she wouldn't have to go through the embarrassment in school and high school. And it was him offering it to her or her going to campouts or work with groups of children. And she was using my maiden name as her last name. And it's a shame when you have to, it's really a sad situation when you have to be, don't want to be intimidated or be ashamed of something when it's all to do with an innocent man.

The support of his family will become more and more important. John begins to fray as the trial wears on. The police investigator who interviewed the boys themselves said they identified Popovich. One became anxious and turned red when he was shown a picture of Popovich. The other said, that's the guy, with tears in his eyes. Testimony from child witnesses is crucial in this trial and in all the other Martinsville cases. That's why the judge has ordered special measures for the children. Screens to keep them from seeing the accused.

Closed-circuit TV to keep the public in a separate room. All meant to make the children more forthcoming and their parents less fearful. The children should not have to be tortured a second time around to have to put these people away. From behind the screen, he hears the children give their horrifying accounts. Small voices describing things as one Martensville parent put it. No five-year-old and three-year-old should ever have to know.

He sits and listens as the prosecution implies that the lack of physical evidence can be seen as just more proof that cops that John had committed these crimes. Then, it's the defense's turn.

John's lawyer requests a live lineup. The child witnesses are asked to identify the man who had hurt them. The identifications made by the children had all been done by photo array, but the kids have never done so in person. Sixteen days into the trial, exactly one year from the day he'd been arrested, a special Saturday sitting is held. 22 men in suits sit in silence on two courtroom benches. The three children are brought in one at a time and allowed to spend as much time as they need looking at the lineup. The first child said, I think that's him. I remember his face and the memories. I remember the way he looks. The second child looked at the men for about four

minutes, then picked out two of them. The third child said, I don't see him. I don't see him here. Crown Prosecutor Bruce Bauer asked him to take one last look. The child said, I think I sort of recognized the guy in the purple tie. Nobody picks John Popowich. They wanted to do a lineup, so they did. At the back of the courthouse, suit and tie. My kid brother, the one from Yellowknife, had arrived for that. He's a big boy with the long long flowing blonde locks, sharp dresser. He was picked out.

And the judge said, why did you pick out number seven? I like his tie. I even had a giggle inside. Like, you picked a guy out because you like his tie. You know, separate lineups, I wasn't picked out. Each lineup, somebody else was picked out. I wasn't picked out. During the second and third lineup, I went to the bathroom and I had a panic attack.

went to the bathroom, and I had a panic attack. If you've ever had a panic attack, you can probably feel that terrible feeling in your body right now. Chest tightening, throat constricting. You might be shaking or sweating. It can really feel like you're dying. The anxiety, the panic just takes over. And John collapses. Nobody would help me.

Nobody would help me, including a couple of current members of police forces. I went down and they wouldn't help me. That tells you something about society. A few days later, the judge addresses the court, but he speaks directly to John. You have, unfortunately, been mistakenly identified. While I'm sure it will be of little comfort to you, I must say to you, and more particularly to the general public, that this is not an uncommon occurrence within the criminal justice system. The rest of us should realize that this can happen to any one of us. And then the judge, or his decision, that I'm an innocent man, shouldn't happen, you

know, what happened to me should never happen to anybody. And that my former employer should see fit to reinstate me immediately and make me whole. John was free. For now. How are you today, John? About 110%. This was a good day for John Popovich.

He came to court with his family to hear the Crown say it was no longer interested in prosecuting him. Journalist Dan Sekreski hears the news from his colleagues. But I was in the newsroom, and when they came back, it was just like, you had a dance and the music stops. And all of a sudden, you look around, and they brought the house lights up, and you're taking a look around at everybody. And everybody's almost afraid to look at each other. Because y'all knew which way the story was suddenly going then, not what went wrong with the kids. It was what went wrong with all of this. with all of this.

Despite the judge's emphatic support of John's innocence, for Claudia, it's a disappointment. Well, without the identification that was run through court, without that being successful, I guess that was just the end of the line. You know, you can't move it forward, I guess, at that point. But in terms of not identifying, no, they didn't. The children were unable to, in the traditional sense, say that's the person.

And it was unfortunate, but it was an unusual situation. It's the only example that I'm aware of where a live lineup was used in a court, in a criminal proceeding. The prosecutors had stayed the charges, essentially put them on hold, leaving the door open to try John again. And they still insist that their initial decision to prosecute him was the right one. We ran the evidence, we did our jobs, and we feel that with respect to this particular case, we acted appropriately today. It's been a year of hell. Popwich disagrees.

His family calls it a witch hunt. What's been done to me and my family, nobody's going to repair. Never. I'm mad. But tomorrow morning, Mr. Bodnar and I are going to go back to my place of employment, they're going to get my badge, and I'm going back to work. He hasn't really sunk in yet.

But he's eagerly waiting for his first shift this weekend. He says he'll be ready to go back to his beat in the city police's jail. My next step is go pick my kids up and take them for lunch. And get my shirts cleaned and my uniforms pressed and back to work Saturday morning at 7. In just over a year, he'd gone from cop to accused to cop again. And I wasn't going to let anybody run me out of town. I was cleared by the system that I worked for. I went back to work and I went on a parade. That's where everybody stands at attention, listens to you. Staff Sergeant, read out the daily news. And if Lux could kill, I'd have been dead by about 30 bullets.

Like, what the hell is he doing here? Too bad. I got my job back. I was given my gun, my badge, went back to work. Yeah, you can look at me all you want. I didn't do nothing. It's shocking to me that John stuck around. Clearly defiance won out. This is home. You know, my mom and dad are buried here. I got some good friends here. I'm here.

But John wasn't the same, according to Dan anyway. I saw John change over the course of this story. He became, an odd thing to say, but a softer, gentler man, much more forgiving of people's failings, I think, because he'd seen what happens, and yet very opinionated in other ways. Because I knew police at the time, and I remember asking them about John, and they were, you know, he wouldn't want to get on his wrong side, but that just wasn't in his wheelhouse. Like, torturing kids? Like, no. By summer 1993, John starts down the long road of trying to put his life back together.

But the Martinsville nightmare isn't over yet. There are five more trials yet to come. The Martinsville trials will be continuing over the next two years. The victims, several children who say they were sexually abused, at a daycare in Martensville will have to testify over and over again. The big one is up next. The Sterlings came to court to hear the reading of the charges. They had to stand for 25 minutes as they heard 60 charges read out to them. The charges include trying to suffocate a child,

threatening some with a gun, and sexually assaulting up to 15 boys and girls in their care. Ron, Linda, and Travis Sterling will be tried together. They pleaded not guilty to all the charges. And it will be months before there are any more answers to be had. The jury won't start hearing evidence until September. In the meantime, the judge must decide what kind of evidence the public will get to hear. Lawyers for the media and the Sterlings want the trial held in open court.

Crown lawyers want the proceedings kept secret forever. Next, on Satanic Panic. In his charge to the jury, the judge commented on several inconsistencies in the children's testimony, things the children say they remember that could not possibly be true. Once I was involved in the task force and I was able to see some of the interviews. I was horrified. The children told nothing, and when they said nothing happened, that wasn't enough. Uncover Satanic Panic is written and produced by me, Lisa Rundle, and Alina Ghosh.

Mixing and sound design by Evan Kelly. Chris Oak is our story editor. Emily Connell is our digital producer. Evan Agard is our video producer. Original music by Olivia Pasquarelli. Tanya Springer is the senior producer of CBC Podcasts. Arif Noorani is our executive producer. Special thanks to Mitchell Stewart, CBC TV's The Fifth Estate,

Pia Chattopadhyay, and CBC Radio's Out in the Open. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, all at CBC Podcasts. Or email us at uncover at cbc.ca. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.