A former Leamington resident, who was found not guilty of arson, is seeking compensation for the stress he endured during his four-year battle with the court system.
Tyler Boismier says he was charged with arson on November 23, 2013 after his home, just outside of Leamington on 2 Kildare Rd., caught fire. Boismier was found not guilty on Monday, November 6, 2017.
Boismier is a family man and a retired truck driver. He says the accusations put a strain on his life and relationships.
"Everything has put a stress on my life. There have been a lot of losses. Not just financially, but personally and friendship-wise," says Boismier.
Boismier says the case should have been dismissed from the start.
"When you're given a list of what they figure the possibilities are of why somebody would do such a thing or commit a crime, that list is put together from what they're thinking. They don't follow up to take a look and see if what they're thinking is concrete to what they're suggesting," explains Boismier.
Boismier says "right from the beginning, nothing was concrete." He says it was all circumstantial.
He says he hired a lawyer when he was first arrested, which caused him to suffer financially. He adds that he has had to surrender many of his hard-earned possessions during the trial after depleting his bank account.
"When it started getting very costly, I couldn't afford to come up with what the lawyers wanted monthly...that's when I decided to defend myself," says Boismier.
Boismier says many "lawyers want to prolong it as long as they can so they have an income." He says if he could go back, he would not have hired a lawyer in the first place.
"It's a very tough system once you get into it and you try to figure it out, if you're not educated in it. They're not going to tell you what you want to know, you have to figure that out on your own. [There] have been a lot of different avenues that I had to seek, other than the advice that was given to me, to get the correct response," he says.
Boismier says he would like to see some type of compensation, even just an apology. However, he says he has nowhere to start and will be pursuing legal action to find out his next step.
He says anyone who is falsely accused of a crime should stand their ground.
"Stand up, be firm, and don't be intimidated or manipulated, because it occurs constantly... and from people you wouldn't expect in the court system," says Boismier.
Blackburnnews.com has confirmed the outcome of Boismier's trial with the courts.