Police conduct under fire again in Surrey Six appeal
Police misconduct during the Surrey Six murder probe may have been more widespread than what was disclosed before the trial of Cody Haevischer and Matthew Johnston, Haevischer's lawyer said in court on Thursday.
Simon Buck told a panel of three B.C. Appeal Court judges that former Mountie Derek Brassington recounted to Ontario police in January 2019 more questionable behaviour by officers in the case.
Brassington pleaded guilty last year to obstruction of justice and breach of trust for having a sexual relationship with a potential witness in the Surrey Six case. As part of his plea deal, he gave the interview to the Ontario Provincial Police. In it, he said that after his suspension, he went to the Cactus Club with Mountie Paul Dadwal, who told him the witness Dadwal was handling, known only as KM, was “falling for him.”
Brassington said in the interview that he had “no doubt that shady stuff happened with KM. And I say that in part because of things Paul Dadwal told me.”
Buck said that if the defence team had access to details of Brassington's interview during the 2013-14 murder trial, they could have pressed KM harder during cross-examination, or applied to have her testimony excluded altogether.
“I say that if we had been permitted to cross-examine the witness about the new information we now have, her answers would have been different and may have impacted the outcome of the trial,” he told appeal Justices Anne MacKenzie, David Tysoe and Peter Willcock.
Haevischer and fellow Red Scorpion gangster Johnston were convicted in October 2014 of first-degree murder and conspiracy for the 2007 execution-style slayings of rival Corey Lal, his brother Michael, associates Ryan Bartolomeo and Eddie Narong, and bystanders Chris Mohan and Ed Schellenberg.
Their appeal, scheduled to last eight days, is being broadcast on the internet due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
MacKenzie noted that the OPP also interviewed KM as part of the investigation into Brassington and two other Surrey Six officers who were convicted of misconduct.
The judge said KM repeatedly denied there had been any inappropriate contact between her and police officers. In a written response to the defence claims, the Crown said “the Brassington statement cannot reasonably be expected to have affected the result of the appellants' trial.”
The response also said the statement “is inadmissible in both form and substance” and that “the allegations relied on by the appellants are unreliable and vague.”
The Crown said that during the trial KM “repeatedly denied witnessing inappropriate police conduct.”