The Bettez family is suing the SQ and the Attorney General of Quebec for having ruined their reputation by associating Jonathan Bettez for years with the murder of Cédrika Provencher.
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Jonathan Bettez at the courthouse from Montreal, January 22, 2024.
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It was Monday morning that the civil suit opened at the Montreal courthouse by Jonathan Bettez and his parents against the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) and the attorney general who, according to them, ruined their lives and their reputation by publicly associating Jonathan Bettez with the disappearance of little Cédrika Provencher, in 2007.
La nine-year-old girl disappeared on July 31, 2007, in Trois-Rivières. All that was found was his bicycle, leaning on a fire hydrant. The remains of the little girl were found on December 11, 2015 in a wooded area located on the edge of Highway 40, in Saint-Maurice.
For more than 16 years, investigators searched for who kidnapped and killed Cédrika Provencher. According to the SQ, Jonathan Bettez, who at the time was driving a car similar to the one seen by witnesses near the scene of the disappearance, had refused to collaborate with investigators. He was also in Trois-Rivières at the time of the events, allege the police, who still consider Mr. Bettez as the main suspect in this case.
However, during this civil suit filed four years ago, Jonathan Bettez and his parents, who are demanding $10 million, intend to demonstrate that the investigators erred and that they made Jonathan Bettez a convenient suspect. The family accuses the police of having done everything to make the population believe that Jonathan Bettez was a pedophile and a murderer.
If it took so long for this trial to begin, it is because the SQ is particularly opposed to the publication of the evidence and elements that # x27;she has in her investigation file on the disappearance of Cédrika Provencher, the author of which is still being sought.
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But for the plaintiffs, it is precisely this information that will allow their son to be exonerated once and for all.
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L' lawyer for the Bettez family, Me Jessy Héroux, criticizes the Sûreté du Québec for knowingly ignoring evidence which exonerates his client.
The SQ refuses to provide us with information emanating from the investigation into the disappearance and murder of Cédrika Provencher. These are documents which are important for us because they will allow us to establish that there is no tangible evidence which allows us to link Jonathan to the disappearance of Cédrika Provencher, explained l' ;lawyer for the Bettez family, Me Jessy Héroux.
They [the documents] will also allow us to demonstrate that the SQ had exculpatory elements in the evidence that it ignored. These documents will also allow us to demonstrate all the determination shown towards Jonathan and his family.
A quote from Me Jessy Héroux, lawyer for the Bettez family
Recalling that his client never been accused of anything in connection with the disappearance of Cédrika Provencher, the lawyer asks why if the police were so convinced that he was the culprit they never accused him?
How does the SQ explain that after 25 infiltration scenarios, after we followed Jonathan night and day, searched his computers, searched his cell phones, monitored what he was on the Internet, that he was wiretapped, that they interrogated him for 14 hours, that they put pressure on his family and his friends… How do we explain that we didn't find any tangible evidence of it, he asked.
L' Another difficulty raised by the lawyer is the insistence of the SQ and the Attorney General that the trial should not be fully made public.
The SQ refuses to allow the procedures to be held completely publicly. We are asking for closed doors, we are asking for separate procedures, we are asking for publication bans, lamented Me Héroux.
There is a certain irony in the fact that we have now decided to limit the publicity of the debates and the public's access to information in a context where we know that the Sûreté du Québec itself publicized the affair, underlines the&# x27;lawyer who criticizes the police for leaking information to the media to associate Jonathan Bettez with the disappearance and murder of Cédrika Provencher.
< p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hnvfyV">For us, it's a little late to be discreet, quipped Me Héroux.
For them [the Bettez family], it is important that the procedures are public. It is important that we demonstrate transparency. Jonathan is going to testify at the trial and he can't wait to testify. He will answer questions from the judge and the lawyers. Not the police trying to trap him.
A quote from Me Jessy Héroux, lawyer for the Bettez family
According to Sûreté du Québec lawyers, Jonathan Bettez was never accused of anything in the case of the murder of Cédrika Provencher. When he was arrested in 2016, it was on charges related to child pornography and not the girl's murder. He cannot therefore claim that his right to the presumption of innocence was violated, the lawyers argue.
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It was Monday that the lawsuit filed by Jonathan Bettez and his parents against the Sûreté opened at the Montreal courthouse of Quebec and the Attorney General.
August 29, 2016 – the day Cédrika Provencher would have turned 19 – the SQ proceeded to the arrest of Jonathan Bettez. The next day, he was charged with possessing, distributing and accessing child pornography. He was subsequently acquitted of all 10 charges against him.
The police team was preparing the arrest and searches at Emballages Bettez, his parents' company, since spring 2016.
Among the documents that will be at the heart of the upcoming civil trial is the action plan of the SQ in the investigation into the murder of Cédrika Provencher.
Dated April 11, 2016, the strategy developed by the police describes how they intended to use pornography as an important leverage tool in the murder investigation.
In October 2018, judge Jacques Lacoursière severely criticized the work of SQ investigators. He described their actions as a fishing operation. The police actions were, according to him, abusive and the warrants invalid, he concluded.
Jonathan Bettez has never been charged with anything related to Cédrika's disappearance or murder Provencher.
Stéphane Bordeleau (Consult the profile)Stéphane BordeleauFollow
Teilor Stone has been a reporter on the news desk since 2013. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining Thesaxon , Teilor Stone worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my teilor@nizhtimes.com 1-800-268-7116
