“I am suffering from a mental illness.”
He says it quietly. Hands spread apart on the metal table at which he sits, slouching. Eyes not meeting those of two Ontario Parole Board members.
“I have been diagnosed with depression,” he says. “I believe that I've had that malady for some time. I need treatment to get my head straight.”
The veteran cop who stole nearly $60,000 in drug money, then breached his house arrest by playing golf, says the end of his 35-year career was steeped in depression.
“I didn't feel very good about being a police officer. I didn't feel good about the police service. I did what I did because I felt I'd never accomplished anything in my career. Everything stayed the same ... With all the investigations, all the drug work, everything I put my family through ... And, even though it was morally wrong, I took the law into my own hands.
“I was ill. Right now, sitting here, I'm admitting that. I never did before.”
He couldn't admit it, he says.
“As all policemen know, you don't admit weakness.”
He is on medication and suffers from anxiety attacks.
“I was a hard-nosed police officer,” Wills says softly. “I was a tough guy.”
Well if the holy than tho' b.s didn't work grab a slice of mock humble pie, hell worked for Jim Baker, for some. Thank god the parole board members aren't named Dewey, Soakam and Howe. Now, as he pleads with the parole board to release him from jail so he can seek psychiatric help — “Sir, I'm willing to go back to house arrest or wear a bracelet or whatever ...” — it seems like this could be the first glimpse of what was really behind Wills' bizarre behaviour these past few years.
This guys got a set, or he's psychotic. That I won't do it again crap didn't work with my third grade English teacher after missing yet another assignment.
While the board members acknowledge that Wills, 57, needs mental health care, they're not willing to let him out for it. After deliberating less than an hour, they reject his bid for freedom. His self-written release plan, they say, does not set out adequate steps to deal with his psychiatric issues, even though Wills insists it is his top priority.
Beyond that, well — they just don't trust him. After all, the reason he is in the Central North Correctional Centre is because he flagrantly disregarded a judge's sentencing conditions.
“Despite your professional knowledge, you breached those conditions not once but twice and perhaps three times,” the board said.
In February, Wills pleaded guilty to stealing while in charge of the vice and drug unit. Between 1998 and 2006 he had a city accountant cut cheques on an account for seized drug money. Wills told the accountant the court had ordered money be returned to the accused. He then endorsed cheques to himself and deposited them in a bank account he shared with his wife, Doreen.
In exclusive interviews with me after his arrest, Wills made himself out to be Robin Hood,
claiming he anonymously donated the stolen money to charities that help drug victims. He said he did so because he was frustrated with a broken justice system. Yet there has never been one iota of evidence he gave the money to charity.
Then, when his high-priced lawyer John Rosen (Little John to his friends) won him a conditional sentence, Wills blew the whole sweet deal by playing golf. (Out with OJ, Tiger?) That earned him six months behind bars.
But even on Tuesday during the parole hearing that was automatically scheduled after he'd served one-third of his sentence, Wills stuck to his story that playing golf is a “necessity of life” that would lower his cholesterol level. (Now he can take up Pilates, because it will take a lot of time in the downward dog position to convince anyone he should be free)
Even if the board bought that, he was unable to explain why he played golf for nearly three hours when he was only allowed two hours each week for the necessities of life.
Or why his wife — who ought to have known he wasn't to play golf — played with him.(Ava Braun, idea of stand by your man)
When police came to arrest him for playing golf, they saw him trimming hedges, another breach of his house arrest.
Twice the board referenced a possible third breach, of which Wills was never convicted. Though it was never detailed at the hearing, at least one off-duty Hamilton officer is certain he saw Wills and Doreen attending a movie during his period of house arrest.(Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, perhaps?)
Doreen was not at the parole hearing.
Wills says he was attending the Salvation Army Church while on house arrest (which he was allowed to do) and found “it's provided a lot of comfort.” Prior to that, he hadn't been to church in 20 years.(Please stop sullying the name of a great organization with your presence)
While in segregation, where he has been put for his own protection because he is a former cop, Wills has been reading the Bible and a book on depression.(I think I need to borrow that book, now)
“It says depression is like an iceberg,” Wills said.
“One-third of it can be seen above the water, but two-thirds is below the surface.”(Barf, please give this guy a book on how to use Analogies, which reminds me of a top list sight I came across on the worst Analogies collected by high school teachers. One sticks out when I think of Mr. Wills,
His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
Two thirds has another significance for Wills. He will now remain in jail until he has served two-thirds of his sentence. That will be in October. Then he can go shopping for new underpants, like a free man.
Later,
Kenaz
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