EDMONTON — Jim Roszko's accomplice Shawn Hennessey is dropping his appeal of his guilty plea for the killing of four RCMP officers at Mayerthorpe. Instead, Hennessey will only appeal his 15-year sentence on four counts of manslaughter.
Trying to get Hennessey's guilty plea overturned was just too difficult, his lawyer Hersh Wolch says. "It's very hard to withdraw a plea, and that's the unfortunate part."

Hennessey's father Barry says his son is innocent, but the family had to face the facts of the difficulty of overturning the guilty plea.

"It takes too much time, money (to overturn it). It's too hard. Shawn walked in and plead guilty to something he didn't do. He's got to live with the consequences right now and we'll prove down the road that he's not guilty.

"We all know they're not responsible for this, but the situation puts us into this only one route. We got to get them out. And that's what we're going to do."

Hennessey and his brother-in-law Dennis Cheeseman pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter for helping out Roszko. In the agreed statement of facts in the case, the two men admitted giving Roszko a gun and driving an angry Roszko back to his farm on the night before the mass murder of March 3, 2005.

The families of the murdered Mounties said justice was served when Hennessey was given his 15-year sentence and Cheeseman received 12 years, but others have disagreed, including parole officer Jay West, and have claimed Hennessey was coerced into making a guilty plea by an over aggressive prosecution and an underhanded RCMP "Mr. Big" investigation.

West, who interviewed both men at length after their sentencing, wrote in a report Cheeseman and Hennessey are the victims of both Roszko and of a misguided RCMP "witch hunt" to blame someone for the crimes of Roszko and for the RCMP's own mishandling of the matter.

The legal standard for overturning a guilty plea is extremely high, legal experts says. The convicted party must bring forward fresh evidence that shows their plea wasn't made voluntarily or they weren't fully informed about the charges against them, and the consequences of a guilty plea.

Wolch says guilty pleas are sometimes overturned on appeal, but this usually only happens in cases in which the accused have not received legal counsel. Both Hennessey and Cheeseman were represented by experienced defence lawyers.

"Having full legal advice is a major impediment (to a successful appeal)," Wolch says.

A date for the appeal hearing has yet to be set, but Barry Hennessey expects it will be heard in February.