The Wrong Man in the Right Place

After the speech, Sophonow hovered in a corner, alone. Finally, a young woman approached and asked to shake his hand. “I think you’re very brave and very strong,” she said, adding that she was a crown prosecutor. Sean Trowski, a detective for five years and one of the conference organizers, felt that Sophonow’s unsettling message had gotten through: “I think it’s a very important lesson for every single guy in this room to think about.”

Sophonow said he is thinking of becoming a regular on the police lecture circuit. He spoke to a convention of crown prosecutors in Whistler last summer and also addressed an rcmp training session in Chilliwack. “I hope they take to heart what I have to say and remember what happens to real people because of tunnel vision,” he said.

In 2001, Sophonow was awarded $2.6 million in compensation from the city of Winnipeg and the provincial and federal governments. He used the money to buy a 9,000-square-foot heritage home in New Westminster, which he is restoring brick by brick. “I’m still on the basement in rebuilding my life,” he said. “I tried to let it go, but you really can’t. You really can’t. The anger is still there. I’m not over it.”