Lawyer accuses undercover police of manipulating Vallee

A lawyer for accused United Nations Gang killer Cory Vallee says police improperly manipulated his “chatty” client during an undercover operation in August 2014.

Lawyer Tony Paisana wants secretly recorded conversations between Vallee and two officers ruled inadmissible at the murder trial.

Paisana told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon Tuesday that the cops, whose identities are shielded by a publication ban, came up with a fake backstory that matched Vallee’s circumstances just to get him to talk.

“It is, of course, permissible for undercover officers to have a cover story,” he said. “Where the line gets crossed is where the cover story is used to manipulate, stimulate or elicit.”

The two officers posed as criminals from Winnipeg arrested at Vancouver International Airport with $175,000 in undeclared cash. One said several times he was concerned an associate “ratted” on them.

Vallee is charged with the February 2009 murder of Red Scorpion gangster Kevin LeClair, as well as conspiracy to kill the Bacon brothers in 2008 and 2009.

The Crown is expected to call former gang associates-turned-police informants.

The undercover cops were placed in a holding room with Vallee at the airport after he was escorted back from Mexico on Aug. 17, 2014. All three were then driven to the Richmond RCMP detachment, where Vallee and a cop were locked in the same cell.

Paisana said the cell plant kept redirecting the conversation back to things the police wanted to know for their case.

The officers deny trying to elicit specific information from Vallee. They said they were trying to establish “credibility” by discussing their fake criminal links and related topics.

Paisana suggested they were instructed to say certain things before meeting Vallee.

Crown David Jardine will make his arguments on the admissibility of the recorded conversations Wednesday.