Ex-con fights ejection from witness protection

An accomplice who testified in a Hells Angels murder trial says the RCMP has made him a target by trying to kick him out of the witness protection program.

Paul Joseph Derry helped convict four people in the 2000 murder of Sean Simmons in Dartmouth, N.S.

In a book released earlier this year, the convicted drug dealer claims he warned the RCMP in advance about the Hells Angels-ordered hit but nothing was done.

Derry said Tuesday the RCMP now wants to boot him out of witness protection for doing interviews while promoting his book, and therefore violating the terms of their agreement with him.

"Certainly, it puts me one step closer to getting a bullet in my head," Derry told CBC News.

'It puts me one step closer to getting a bullet in my head.' Paul Joseph Derry

"They no longer have the liability of my life, so they're not going to go out of their way to maybe do the threat assessments that they should or maybe give me the warning that I would normally get."

Derry said two Mounties arrived at his residence with a letter on Oct. 22. The letter charged that Derry had breached the terms of the witness protection program on 13 different occasions.

Derry denies that he violated the terms of his deal with the RCMP and is appealing the decision to remove him from the program.

The RCMP does not comment on individuals in the program, so would not confirm or deny Derry's claims.

Derry said the entire witness protection program should be reviewed.

"I really don't want to do anything to cause people not to give up information that can potentially put people behind bars that need to be there. But having said that, the program is administered by the RCMP and it needs an overhaul and it needs accountability," he said.

Reward for testifying

Derry was a crack cocaine dealer and fraud artist through much of the 1990s as well as a paid police informant. On Oct. 3, 2000, he helped carry out the murder of Simmons.

Simmons, 31, was shot in the headin the lobby of an apartment building in Dartmouth. Derry drove the getaway car and hid the gun.

Derry testified against his friends and helped convict Neil William Smith, a member of the Hells Angels, for ordering the murder, along with three accomplices.

Smith and Wayne Alexander James, Steven Gareau andDean DanielKelsiewereall convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

For his co-operation, Derry was given a new identity under the witness protection program. He was never charged for his role in the murder.

In his book, Treacherous: How the RCMP Allowed a Hells Angel to Kill, Derry claims he told two RCMP officers about the murder plot during a secret meeting in Bedford just days before it was carried out.

He said he told the officers that he would be driving the getaway car, that Smith had ordered the hit, and James had accepted the contract. But he did not provide the name of the victim.

The RCMP admitted its officers met with Derry before the murder, but said his information was vague and they did not believe him.

Sgt. Mark Gallagher, spokesman for Nova Scotia RCMP, told CBC News in May that the officers were cleared of any wrongdoing following an internal investigation in 2001. He wouldn't comment specifically on Derry.