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Lie-detector requested by suspect in Lac La Biche shooting

"... I am totally innocent."
Court gavel
Court gavel (via Shutterstock)

LAC LA BICHE - Einar Johansen says he'll take a polygraph test to prove he's innocent.

The 58-year-old Lac La Biche man is in the Edmonton Remand Centre awaiting a court date that will detail his role in a Jan. 6 shooting that sent another area man to hospital with serious injuries.

Johansen, along with Joel Cory Desjarlais, 38, and Riel Desjarlais, 25 are all facing aggravated assault, forcible confinement and assault with a weapon charges. Both Desjarlais men are also facing an additional charge of attempted murder with a firearm, stemming from the discovery of a 31-year old man at a residence along 99 Avenue suffering from a gunshot wound.

RELATED: Condition of shooting victim improves

All three of the accused men were scheduled to make their first appearances in Lac La Biche Provincial Court last week, but their files were adjourned a week due to scheduling of lawyers.

Johansen's voice was heard in open court in the Lac La Biche courtroom from his holding cell at the Edmonton Remand Centre last Monday. Using a cell phone provided to Remand Centre inmates, Johansen said he hadn't been able to secure a lawyer since his arrest a week earlier.

"I can't get any phone time," he said, with clear disappointment in his voice when told by presiding Lac La Biche Provincial Court justice Ivan Ladouceur it would be another week before his day in court. "I've said I'd take a polygraph test. I know everyone says they are innocent — but I am totally innocent."

Going further, quickly speaking as Ladouceur was closing the connection, Johansen said, "The only thing I did was let 'em in — I shouldn't have let them come over."

Lakeland Today will have an update from the Lac La Biche Courtroom early in the week. In most cases, a first appearance will determine pleas to charges and set judge and courtroom schedules.

According to the latest update from RCMP the victim of the shooting is expected to have been released from hospital.




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