Richard Michael Anthony Sauvé (born 27 July 1952) is a former Canadian outlaw biker, wrongly convicted of first degree murder in the Port Hope 8 case of 1979, turned social activist.
[1] He obtained employment at the Davidison Rubber factory in Port Hope and in 1972 started to date a 15-year-old high school student, Sharon.
[5] After being fired from Davidison Rubber in 1975, Sauvé obtained employment at the Chemtron factory and became the president of the Steelworkers local.
[6] Reflecting tensions in his marriage, Sauvé decided to join the Peterborough chapter of the Satan's Choice Motorcycle Club in the same year as he felt happier in the company of his biker "brothers" than with his wife.
[6] As a member of Satan's Choice, Sauvé came into conflict with William "Heavy" Matiyek, the sergeant-at-arms of the rival Golden Hawk Riders.
[8] On the night of 18 October 1978, Sauvé received a phone call from a local drug addict, Brian Brideau, who told him that Matiyek was drinking at the Queen's Hotel and wanted to see him at once.
[10] Sauvé was afraid to see Matiyek-who had a reputation as a violent bully-alone and he started to phone around, asking various members of Satan's Choice to come with him to the Queen's Hotel.
[12] At 9: 30 pm, he again called Comeau, who agreed to go to the Queen's Hotel along with Lorne Edgar Campbell, Jeff McLeod, Larry "Beaver" Hurren and Armand "In the Truck" Sanguingi.
[14] A waitress, Cathy Cotgrave, who knew both Sauvé and Blaker went to their table to tell them Satan's Choice members were banned from the Queen's Hotel and the two would not be served.
[20] Corporal Terry Hall of the Ontario Provincial Police's Special Squad interviewed Sauvé about the murder on 31 October 1978.
[26] Sauvé favored a plea bargain with the Crown where he would pledge guilty to a lesser charge, but the Crown Attorney in charge of the "Port Hope 8 case", Chris Meinhardt, wanted all of the accused to make guilty pleas along with a statement that the killing of Matiyek had been a premediated act, which the "Port Hope 8" rejected.
[27] The Crown Attorney at the trial, Chris Meinhardt, presented the case as a first-degree murder, calling it "a foul, horrible, planned execution.
[32] Another witness for the Crown, William Goodwin-who was friend of Sauvé's-testified that Sauvé had told him in July 1978 that he was planning to kill Matiyek soon.
[33] Another witness for the Crown, David Gillispie, the town drunk of Port Hope, testified that he had heard Comeau to tell Sauvé and Blaker on the night of the murder "are we going to do it to this fat fucker now or what?
[36] In his first statement to the police on 19 October 1978, Comeau's "fat fucker" remark to Sauvé and Blaker concerned who was going to speak to Matiyek first, not who was to kill him.
[39] Sauvé showed no emotion at his sentence, but broke down in tears in front of his wife and daughter as he noted he was 27 years old and he would likely never see either of them again.
[42] Sauvé practiced transcendental meditation and refused the material possessions allowed the inmates such as a radio, a TV or books.
[41] Sauvé worked in the prison store and used his $5.10 per day wage along with selling his artwork to pay for his tuition, which averaged $300 per course.
[41] When Sauvé was awarded a BA in psychology, he was at first denied permission from the Crown to attend his convocation at Queen's University, which made frontpage news in newspapers across Canada.
[49] After his release, Sauvé became active in the Life-Line program as he sought to mentor prisoners to reject criminality as a life of way.