Transit officers’ lawyers critical of drawn-out complaints process
Lawyers for two Transit police officers — accused of misconduct — on Friday criticized the decision by Police Complaint Commissioner Stan Lowe to hold a public hearing into the matter.
Lowe called the hearing into alleged misconduct by Const. Edgar Diaz and former Const. Michael Hughes following an altercation between the officers and a 22-yearold UBC student at Rupert SkyTrain station in August 2011.
The incident, captured on video, saw the student being struck by a police baton and suffering cuts and scrapes to his head, hands, legs and back.
The young man was transported to hospital where he received four sutures for his head injury.
He was then taken to the Vancouver jail and arrested for obstruction, assault of a police officer and causing a disturbance by being drunk.
The charges were either dropped or stayed by the Crown.
The investigation of the officers’ conduct that followed the incident involved decisions by three different disciplinary authorities over the course of the next several years. Various findings of misconduct were made involving the two officers.
The disciplinary process set into motion by Lowe was suspended in January 2014 when criminal charges were being recommended against the two cops.
In June 2016, the disciplinary process continued after the Crown entered a stay of proceedings on the charges against Hughes. Diaz pleaded guilty to one count of assault causing bodily harm and received 12 months of probation.
In late 2016, Lowe, who was not satisfied with the disciplinary findings, ordered that retired Justice Ronald McKinnon be appointed an adjudicator and that a public hearing be held to ensure accountability and to assist in determining the truth.
The decision to hold a hearing came under fire Friday at an appearance to deal with several applications made by lawyers for the two officers.
Kevin Woodall, a lawyer for Hughes, told McKinnon he was applying to dismiss the allegation that his client had engaged in an abuse of authority by recommending that a charge of assaulting a police officer be laid against the student.
Woodall also asked that Lowe provide details of an allegation that his client lied in official statements made in the case.
“What unifies these two applications is this: this case has been festering, and I choose that word carefully, in the Police Act process for nearly seven years.”
Woodall said that hundreds and hundreds of hours had been taken up and thousands of pages of documents produced, bringing the administration of the police complaints process “sorely into disrepute.”
David Butcher, a lawyer for Diaz, made similar submissions critical of the lengthy disciplinary process, saying hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money had been spent on something that is admitted by his client.
“That of course is scandalous.” But Greg DelBigio, a lawyer for the commission, told McKinnon that the only contextual piece of information required was that criminal conduct was captured on video.
“It was a vicious assault captured on video. So if context is needed, that is the context.”
The other contextual factor was that no charges against the student were ever proceeded with, he said.
DelBigio said any suggestions that Lowe’s decisions amounted to an abuse of process were “completely irrelevant” to the applications before the hearing.
McKinnon is expected to make a ruling on the applications at a later date.