Deputy warden can’t remember talks with teen prisoner who killed herself

TORONTO – A former deputy warden describes a teen inmate who killed herself in her segregation cell as a high-needs, high profile case.

Yet Joanna Pauline says she can barely remember meeting Ashley Smith or any details of conversations they had.

She says she can’t even remember if the teen was polite to her.

Pauline does remember a fractious relationship with the warden of Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener Ont.

She tells the inquest into Smith’s death the warden cut her out of meetings with other senior managers and viewed her as an administrative assistant

Pauline has come under fierce criticism from other witnesses about her role in dealing with Smith, who died at the prison in October 2007.