Winnipeg police and the Crown failed to disclose a report about an informant's murder warning that could have changed the outcome of the trial that sent Frank Ostrowski to prison for the last 22 years, court documents say.

The outcome of the trial that sent Frank Ostrowski to prison for the last 22 years, court documents say.

The material has been filed by the Association In Defence of the Wrongly Convicted in support of Ostrowski's Nov. 23 bail application.

The 60-year-old grandfather is seeking release while federal Justice Minister Rod Nicholson reviews his murder conviction to determine whether there may have been a miscarriage of justice.

Ostrowski's case is the latest alleging questionable tactics by police and Manitoba's top Crown prosecutors in securing murder convictions. Thomas Sophonow and James Driskell have already been found, through public inquiries, to have been wrongly convicted of murder. A decision to re-try Kyle Unger is pending. He was granted bail in 2005.

The new evidence in the Ostrowski case involves a Sept. 24, 1986 phone call to police in which a man, who identifies himself as Sonny, says, "Frank has a contract out on my friend."

The officer who took the call, Sgt. N. Jacobson, prepared a report on the call, but it was never disclosed at the time to Ostrowski's lawyer, Greg Brodsky, according to the documents.

Jacobson's report has since been supplied by police to AIDWYC and is included in Ostrowski's bail application.

AIDWYC lawyers James Lockyer and Alan Libman say in their written submission that omitting Jacobson's report at Ostrowski's 1987 trial is crucial to demonstrating Ostrowski was wrongly convicted of ordering two men to murder drug dealer Robert Nieman.

That's because "Sonny" was later identified as Matthew Lovelace, the only person to give direct evidence against Ostrowski at trial.

In the call to Jacobson, Lovelace didn't mention Nieman at all — he only referred to carpenter Dominic Diubaldo as the target.

However, when he was on the witness stand months later, Lovelace testified he told police that he "had heard that there was going to be a hit or an attempt to kill Robbie Nieman."

Lockyer and Libman declined to be interviewed, citing the pending bail hearing in Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench.

Brodsky's affidavit, also filed in the bail application, said Jacobson's report could have changed the outcome of Ostrowski's trial.

"In my opinion, the disclosure of Sgt. Jacobson's investigation report of the call would have proved the falsity of Lovelace's claim that, in the phone call, he warned the police that Nieman's life was in danger because of what (Ostrowski) had told him," Brodsky wrote.

"I believe that the new disclosure establishes that (Ostrowski) is a victim of a miscarriage of justice."

Lovelace was acquitted of drug trafficking months after he testified at Ostrowski's trial. Documents filed in the case say the Crown made a secret deal with Lovelace in exchange for his testimony against Ostrowski, but that was not disclosed to Brodsky or to the jury.

Ostrowski has maintained his innocence since the day he was charged.

His bail application is part of an independent review of his conviction and has been referred to Ottawa's Criminal Conviction Review Group, which advises the federal minister on wrongful convictions. The review group has retained Halifax lawyer John Briggs to review the case.

The executive director of the Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia has said in a court document that, "I am of the opinion that there may be a reasonable doubt basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred."

A provincial spokeswoman said the Crown is fully co-operating with Ostrowski's review process.

In an affidavit, Ostrowski said that if granted bail, he'll live with his daughter and granddaughter.

"It is my desire to live out the rest of my life around people who love me, in a positive and law-abiding way," he said.