Edmonton Police Watch

EDMONTON JOURNAL

EDMONTON - City police plans to video-equip their Tasers will avoid hundreds of hours of court time and constant questions about officers’ use of the non-lethal weapons, lawyers and police predict.

As soon as an officer pulls out the stun-gun and flips the safety switch, an attached camera will start recording the scene.

Edmonton police deputy chief Norm Lipinski said the service will buy several sample units within months to test them out.

“It’s a great idea,” defence lawyer Lisa Trach said.

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EDMONTON JOURNAL

EDMONTON - The police officer seen forcefully arresting a young woman in a series of Edmonton Journal photographs during the Stanley Cup playoffs appeared before a disciplinary hearing for the first time this morning.

Const. Shane Connor faces two charges under the Police Act of unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority in connection to the arrest, made last year on Whyte Avenue.

The details of the professional misconduct allegations were not made available today.

Connor denied both charges.The trial-like meeting at Edmonton police headquarters was presided over by Halifax-based assistant RCMP commissioner Ian Atkins. Atkins appeared by video conference.

Kristin Wilson, then 20, had her hands bound behind her back with plastic cuffs when she was struck and pushed to the pavement in June 2006.

The images of her arrest, captured frame-by-frame by a photographer on the scene, saw Wilson’s head cranking back, then blood pouring from her mouth.

In a statement of claim filed last year by her lawyers, Wilson said she suffered a concussion and broken teeth.

In October, Calgary chief Crown prosecutor Gordon Wong recommended no criminal charges be laid against Connor in connection to the playoffs arrest.

He said police were dealing with someone who was verbally abusive and actively resisting arrest. In order to subdue her and prevent a riot, Wong said, the officer had to use a head stun technique.

Connor’s case will reconvene Aug. 8 to schedule a seven-day hearing.

Edmonton lawyer Alex Pringle is defending Connor.

Earlier this year, Pringle represented Const. Aubrey Zalaski, an Edmonton police officer convicted of using unnecessary and gratuitous force when he Tasered a jaywalker in 2004.

EDMONTON SUN

A city cop denies he overdid it when he slapped a handcuffed woman on the head during Stanley Cup playoff celebrations on Whyte Avenue last spring.

Const. Shane Connor entered a not guilty plea to using unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority in the incident at the height of playoff festivities.

Last November, Calgary Chief Crown prosecutor Gordon Wong recommended no criminal charges against Connor, saying it wasn’t excessive force when he used a head-stun to control Kristin Wilson, then 20.

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EDMONTON JOURNAL

EDMONTON — An officer already on the hook for allegedly bringing strip-club waitresses to Edmonton police headquarters in 2005 — and lying about it — faces new allegations of deceit, corrupt practice and discreditable conduct.

On Monday, lawyers representing Const. Sebastien Berube entered not-guilty pleas for all the internal disciplinary charges.

According to notices filed last month, Berube faces three discreditable conduct charges connected to an off-duty incident on Edmonton’s raucous Whyte Avenue during last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.

He is accused of failing to listen to a police officer’s directions, instead running to a vehicle and trying to drive away. Officers had to use force to arrest him.

It is also alleged Berube ran to a vehicle that contained open bottles of beer.

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EDMONTON SUN

More disciplinary charges have been filed against a city constable who is accused of telling a fellow cop “you’re f—ing dead” after he was nabbed for violating a parking ban during last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.

Const. Sebastien Berube faces three counts of discreditable conduct in the June 10, 2006, incident near Whyte Avenue and 104 St. – one of three sets of allegations for which he’s now up on misconduct charges.

According to documents filed at his disciplinary hearing Monday, Berube is accused of flipping out after he was busted for snubbing the parking ban around 10:30 p.m.

He allegedly told Const. Brenda Buckner words to the effect: “You are so dead you don’t know what you’re doing,” “You’re so f—ing dead,” “You’re so f—ing done,” and “You’re so done.”

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EDMONTON JOURNAL

EDMONTON - The lawyer for a police officer accused of 11 counts of misconduct has requested the hearing be judged by someone outside the Edmonton police service.

“We’re saying that nobody from the Edmonton police service can (preside over) this thing,” defence lawyer Tom Engel said this afternoon.

Engel noted his client, Const. Sebastien Berube, was suspended without pay last year after an off-duty incident on Whyte Avenue during the Stanley Cup playoffs.

For pay to be withheld - Berube lost about $40,000 in salary before his pay was reinstated in January - Engel said the chief of police would have had to believe the case was serious and strong. Therefore, Engel said outside the hearing, he believes Chief Mike Boyd’s subordinates would follow suit and the role of judging the internal disciplinary hearing should be handed to someone outside the city force.

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EDMONTON SUN

The Edmonton Police Service might like to control what its officers will say if called to testify in court, especially if their testimony could hurt another cop’s reputation, says a B.C. forensics expert and critic of the EPS “peer review” policy in such cases.

Dr. Mark Skinner of Simon Fraser University knows of several instances where fellow forensics experts like Edmonton Const. Joe Slemko have been quietly pressured not to testify for fear of embarrassing their employer.

Slemko, a blood spatter pattern expert, is facing an EPS disciplinary hearing for testifying at an inquiry into the death of Ian Bush, shot and killed by RCMP Const. Paul Koester at the Houston, B.C. detachment in 2005.

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EDMONTON SUN

The “egregious and unnecessary” use of a Taser on a suspect in a high-speed chase by two city cops has led to the man getting an eight-month reduction in sentence.

Hector Patricio Jara, 22, was given the break Friday by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman, who ruled Jara’s charter rights had been violated and said the police must be held accountable for their actions.

“When they do something wrong, it needs to be pointed out,” said Sanderman.

The judge told Jara he was knocking off eight months “for your treatment at the hands of the Edmonton Police Service” and sentenced him to one year in jail.

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NATIONAL POST

EDMONTON — Edmonton Police Chief Mike Boyd said he had no idea his service provided the information used by the RCMP to attack the credibility of an Edmonton police blood-spatter expert at a public inquiry in British Columbia earlier this month.

“Look, I was out of the country on annual leave,” Boyd said. “I didn’t know anything about it.”

Const. Joe Slemko, an internationally recognized blood-spatter expert, provided testimony as private consultant at the July 7 coroner’s inquest into the shooting death of 22-year-old mill worker Ian Bush while in police custody in Houston, B.C.

Const. Paul Koester claimed Bush attacked him in the police interview room, and was throttling him from behind when he managed to free his gun and fire.

But Slemko testified the physical forensic evidence did not support Koester’s account.

After Slemko gave his evidence, RCMP lawyer David Butcher attacked Slemko’s record.

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EDMONTON JOURNAL

EDMONTON - In an abrupt about-face, the Edmonton Police Service has dropped a controversial policy that barred one of its officers, an internationally recognized blood-spatter expert, from testifying for the defence as a private consultant in criminal cases.

Saying he wouldn’t be bound by the policy of a previous administration, Chief Mike Boyd said he had no problems with Const. Joe Slemko testifying for the defence.

“I have no concern about any police officer testifying in court either for the defence or the Crown,” Boyd said after a police commission meeting Wednesday. “There is no ownership of a witness. So when a police officer gives evidence in court — either to the benefit of an accused or the detriment of an accused — they give their evidence independently, objectively, honestly.”

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