Landlord continues fight with EPS over complaint
Abdullah Shah wants officers reined in and an end to ‘harassment’ against him
A landlord well-known in Edmonton’s inner city is challenging the police chief ’s decision to toss his complaint about three officers who he alleges trespassed on a community member’s property without a search warrant.
Abdullah Shah, also known as Carmen Pervez, was before the Law Enforcement Review Board Tuesday for an appeal hearing on his complaint regarding the conduct of three officers during a 2018 incident at 11833 79 St.
According to a letter from Acting Police Chief Kevin Brezinski summarizing the case, the three officers stopped at the property on Jan. 18, 2018, when they noticed two men removing items from the yard with a wheelbarrow.
The officers told police Professional Standards Branch investigators that they sometimes find stolen vehicles in the area and wanted to make sure nothing was suspicious.
Brezinski said the officers entered the yard and learned the men were cleaning up the property at Shah’s request. Shah claims one of the officers went inside the garage to inspect what he incorrectly thought might be a stolen vehicle engine, though whether the officer actually entered the garage is in dispute.
Shah arrived after one of the residents called the landlord, Jennifer Vuong. He shouted at the officers, saying they did not have a warrant to be on the property. The officers left soon after, but not before issuing Shah an “equipment violation” ticket for not having mudguards on his vehicle.
The complaint letter from Shah’s lawyer, Erika Norheim, asks that the police chief educate the officers on “the limitations on their authority to trespass on private property, and to put an end to the harassment of Mr. Shah and his employees and tenants.”
After the hearing, Shah said he does not own the property, but wanted to “stand up” for the men.
“Most of the people don’t know the rules and regulations (governing police), and they ’re just shoved under the carpet,” he said.
Some of the people on the property had recently been released from jail and were worried about saying no to the officers, he said.
“None of these people are personal friends of mine or anything,” Shah added. “They’re just people who rent properties from the group of individuals that I do know.”
Norheim told the hearing that no stolen property was found at the residence.
Shah, a landlord with a large number of properties in Edmonton’s inner city, was jailed in 2008 as part of a major mortgage fraud scheme. He was released from prison in 2010.
Brezinski wrote that Shah’s complaint should be thrown out without a hearing because there was insufficient evidence to prove that any of the officers committed professional misconduct.
He noted that video evidence Shah claimed to have of an officer entering the garage was never produced. The officers weren’t asked to leave the property before Shah arrived, Brezinski wrote.
Lawyers for the police service argued the review board should only get involved if there’s evidence that the investigation was “tainted, flawed or grossly inadequate” — not the case in Shah’s complaint, they said.
Norheim, meanwhile, argued Shah’s complaint should either receive further investigation or be sent to a full disciplinary hearing.
She said there were deficiencies in the internal investigation, including the failure to contact other people on the property besides the officers and Shah for their side of the story.
Norheim said her client had filed previous complaints against the lead constable — now a detective — and that the behaviour fits a pattern.
Last year, drug charges against Shah connected to a 2016 raid on a commercial warehouse were withdrawn over what his lawyer called errors in how police obtained their search warrants. Public Health Act charges related to the condition of a house Shah owned with three other people were also stayed over trial delays.
The three-member review board will release its decision at a later date.