Crown can argue Mounties colluded on Taser evidence when trial resumes

VANCOUVER — The Crown will be permitted to present evidence at the perjury trial of an RCMP officer to allege he and three other Mounties colluded to fake a story about Robert Dziekanski’s death, but the trial itself has been postponed until the fall.

Const. Kwesi Millington is on trial for perjury in connection with his testimony at a public inquiry that examined what happened when Dziekanski was stunned with a Taser at Vancouver’s airport in October 2007.

All four officers were charged with perjury. One of them, Const Bill Bentley, was acquitted last year, while two others are still awaiting trial.

Millington’s lawyer argued the Crown should not be able to claim the officer colluded with the other Mounties before providing statements to investigators on the night of Dziekanski’s death, because a judge already rejected the same theory at Bentley’s trial.

But Judge William Ehrcke denied Millington’s application Thursday, concluding that the legal principle the officer’s lawyer attempted to use only applies in cases in which the same person is on trial.

“There is not a sufficient degree of identification between Mr. Millington and Const. Bentley to hold that the decision to which one was party should be binding on proceedings to which the other is party,” Ehrcke told the court, as Millington sat in the prisoner’s dock.

After Ehrcke read his decision, the trial was adjourned until Oct. 31, with 15 days set aside to hear evidence.