James Roszko was every small town's nightmare.
The 46-year-old long-term resident of the Mayerthorpe,
Alta. area was a gun-loving, cop-hating, violent,
bullying, manipulative convicted pedophile.
"James Roszko is one of the worst psychopaths
it has ever been my misfortune to run across,"
Bailiff Brenda Storm told CTV News.
Five years ago, she seized cattle from his farm
-- wearing body armour while she did so. She says
Roszko's hatred for the police was clear.
"... He blamed all of his problems on the RCMP,"
she said.
An affidavit signed by Storm and recently made
public concludes that Roszko was likely to shoot
anyone he found on his property.
"Learned that he was quite dangerous," she wrote
in her report, "has a long history of assaults,
in possession of a number of firearms, would most
likely shoot anyone on the property on sight,
is known to have booby-trapped land and used a
spike belt to discourage vehicles."
Despite the fact that many considered Roszko
to be a walking time bomb and he faced a slew
of charges in his lifetime, including firearms-related
offences and sexual assault, his record is relatively
free of criminal convictions.
Roszko was imprisoned for two-and-a-half years
after being convicted in April, 2000, for sexually
assaulting a young boy between January, 1983,
and December, 1989.
The boy was 10 when the assaults began.
According to a report by the Toronto Star and
The Canadian Press, the victim told the court
that when he reached driving age, Roszko indicated
he would help him with an auto insurance claim
if the two had oral sex.
While in prison, he refused to take responsibility
for his actions and spurned treatment, causing
him to serve two-thirds of his sentence rather
than gaining parole.
When he applied for parole in December of 2000,
nine months into his sentence, the National Parole
Board wrote: "You vigorously deny responsibility
for the sexual assaults."
After being released, he was thrown back in
prison for refusing to accept treatment or co-operate
with his parole officer.
Roszko's troubles began at the age of 12 when
his mother left the family home, leaving his father
Bill to raise eight children alone.
At 14, he was caught with marijuana in his room.
A few years later, in 1976, he faced break and
enter, and possession of stolen property charges.
As an adult, he worked in the oil patch as a
driller on oil-well rigs. He eventually bought
some land and tried raising cattle.
In an interview with the Toronto Star, his sister
Josephine Ruel said her brother went through a
lot.
"It started very young. We tried to let him
know we'd help him. But he couldn't overcome it.
A lot of people played a part in that."
In 1993, a confrontation with a local school
trustee over a school bus stop being moved led
to Roszko being charged with 12 offences. He only
went to trial on seven charges and was acquitted.
The Globe and Mail reported that one night in
the fall of that same year, Roszko terrorized
a young male acquaintance at gunpoint, eventually
coercing the man into a sexual encounter. He was
forced to perform several sexual acts with him
in front of a camera.
A dozen offences connected to these assaults
were laid but some were dismissed. The trial eventually
collapsed when the alleged victim refused to testify.
"Mike" (a pseudonym) told The Globe that Roszko
had threatened to kill his family.
The Canadian Press reported that also in 1993,
Roszko tried to convince another man to kill for
him.
According to court documents, Roszko offered
the man $10,000 to kill a Mayerthorpe man with
an automatic assault rifle that may have been
the same one used to shoot the Mounties.
He was charged with counselling another person
to commit murder but the charge was dropped when
the judge ruled that talking about killing someone
is not the same thing as plotting to kill someone.
One of the conditions of Roszko's initial release
-- after he was arrested on the charge and six
other firearms-related charges -- was that he
stay away from the RCMP. But according to the
Crown prosecutor Craig Krieger, police thought
Roszko was following them. He was later acquitted
of the six firearms-related charges when the witness
didn't appear in court.
Meanwhile in 1993, Roszko spent 45 days in jail
for three charges of failing to comply with a
probation order, according to a report by the
CBC.
In 2001, Roszko was charged with five offences
in response to a 1999 incident in which he shot
and wounded one man and missed a second. There
are differing stories of why they were at his
farm -- either for a joy ride or to warn Roszko
to stay away from their friend.
Those charges were dismissed in 2003.
His last criminal charge was in August 2004
for mischief against property. Spike belts on
his property had ruined the tires on the vehicles
of two provincial election enumerators.
There was no mistaking his unfriendliness to
visitors. "No trespassing" signs were clearly
posted above guard dogs that stood watch over
his property near Rochfort Bridge, Alta.
Roszko reportedly used a scanner to monitor
police radio traffic wherever he went. Back at
home, he set up his property so that he could
see all comings and goings.
There were rumours he had weapons hidden all
over the property despite the fact that the courts
banned him from owning firearms following his
2000 conviction.
Josephine tried to find some good in her brother.
She recalls him bringing her food when she was
experiencing tough times.
Others have said Roszko could pull on a mask
of normality when required.
But his capacity for violence, paranoia and
hatred of authority made the events of March 2
and 3 seem inevitable.
With a report from CTV's Lisa LaFlamme
The Officers
