EDMONTON SUN
An Edmonton police officer has lost his bid to have an outside force hear his disciplinary case.
Police Supt. Mark Logar ruled this morning he has no “personal animosity” towards the officer’s lawyer, Tom Engel, and therefore he won’t be removing himself from the case against Const. Sebastien Berube.
Engel claimed Logar was biased since he had once launched a complaint against him with the Law Society of Alberta.
EDMONTON SUN
In the wake of sexual-harassment allegations by an Edmonton cop against her supervisor this week, a police union official is calling for changes to the way the local force handles complaints by female officers.
“They tend to bear the brunt of coming forward,” Edmonton Police Association vice-president Tony Simioni said, referring to officers who have made allegations in the past.
In particular, he’s concerned about incidents where it’s the accuser who gets moved to another department instead of the accused.
“You don’t move the whistleblowers in these cases because that would be considered a form of punishment,” said Simioni.
EDMONTON JOURNAL
EDMONTON - An officer involved in the controversial Overtime stakeout told a hearing today he is considering quitting the Edmonton Police Service because he is fed up with frivolous complaints and “legal bullying.”
Const. Ian Brookes went further, telling the Law Enforcement Review Board that he considered the hearing at which he was testifying an “abuse of process.”
“This is not about accountability,” Brookes said. “It is about legal bullying.”
Brookes cited the Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association, a group that monitors police conduct, as a primary source of complaints against himself and other officers but he declined to name any lawyers specifically.
Brookes was among six of seven officers involved in the November 2004 drunk-driving stakeout of Edmonton Sun columnist Kerry Diotte. After an internal investigation, former police chief Fred Rayner found there was insufficient evidence to hold a disciplinary hearing. The CTLA appealed that decision and the LERB hearings have continued, in fits and starts, since November 2006.
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EDMONTON - The final witnesses are giving evidence today at a Law Enforcement Review Board hearing into alleged police misconduct in the “Overtime” sting operation.
It was called “overtime” because of the name of the downtown bar, the Overtime Broiler and Taproom where police were hoping to nab one, maybe two impaired drivers – notably reporter Kerry Diotte of the Edmonton Sun … and the head of the police commission at the time, Martin Ignasiak.
EDMONTON SUN
A long-serving Edmonton police officer has been suspended without pay after cops charged him with three criminal offences yesterday.
Police allege that Wallace James MacNeil, a detective working out of the southeast division, interfered with an impaired-driving case against one of his family members.
He faces charges of obstructing justice, personation and breach of trust by a police officer. The charges stem from an investigation that began in 2005 when a police employee informed detectives in the professional -standards branch after noticing an irregularity in a file.
EDMONTON SUN
A long-serving Edmonton police officer is off the job after cops charged him with three criminal offences.
Police allege that Wallace James MacNeil, a detective working out of the southeast division, interfered with a an impaired-driving case against one of his family members.
He faces charges of obstructing justice, personation and breach of trust by a police officer.
The charges stem from an investigation that began in 2005, when a police employee informed detectives in the professional-standards branch after noticing an irregularity in a file.
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EDMONTON/630 CHED - A woman is suing Edmonton police for $5-million after allegedly being permanently disabled when an officer accidentally fired a seized shotgun while trying to unload it.
According to a statement of claim filed last week, 33-year-old Sherry Lee Ogden suffered permanent injuries to her legs, chronic pain, post traumatic stress disorder and other mental distress in the August 3rd, 2005, incident. The lawsuit, which names former acting police Chief Darryl da Costa and an unidentified officer as defendants, alleges Ogden called 9-1-1 over a domestic dispute she was having with her husband, Daryl Dwight Ogden.
Police responded and when officers removed the man, they learned he had a sawed-off shotgun in the north-side home. According to the statement of claim, the officer who allegedly discharged the gun was “repeatedly warned that the shotgun was loaded and jammed.’
The claim says after finding the shotgun, the officer attempted to unload the weapon in the immediate vicinity of Sherry Ogden and discharged shrapnel, sand and grit, which became embedded in her legs and caused her to be permanently disabled.
EDMONTON JOURNAL
EDMONTON - A Calgary Crown prosecutor has appealed a judge’s decision to dismiss an assault charge against an Edmonton police officer.
Provincial court Judge Ian Kirkpatrick dismissed the assault charge against Const. Jan Cichon last month after the man he allegedly assaulted didn’t to show up at trial to testify.
But complainant Raymond Anderson is serving time in a Calgary jail, and a judge’s order telling prison officials to bring him to Edmonton had gone astray.
EDMONTON JOURNAL
EDMONTON - Court documents released today outline five criminal charges laid against Const. Mike Wasylyshen, the son of a former Edmonton police chief.
The 31-year-old officer, who has been with the Edmonton service for eight years, faces the following charges:
- one count of assaulting a 24-year-old Edmonton man;
- one count of threatening to cause death or bodily harm to the same man;
- one count of assaulting a second 24-year-old Edmonton man;
- one count of assaulting a third man;
- one count of threatening to cause death or bodily harm to the family of a 21-year-old Edmonton man.
All five charges stem from an off-duty incident on Whyte Avenue on Dec. 18, 2005.
NATIONAL POST
EDMONTON — An Edmonton police officer who Tasered a drunken teen six times in one minute — but was never disciplined for the act — now faces five new criminal charges.
Const. Mike Wasylyshen, son of former Edmonton police chief Bob Wasylyshen, has been charged with assaulting and threatening to cause death or bodily harm to a 24-year-old Edmonton man, assaulting two more men and threatening to cause death or bodily harm to the family of a fourth man, age 21.
All of the charges stem from an incident on Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue, a popular bar and nightclub strip, on Dec. 18, 2005.
Wasylyshen was not on duty at the time. (more…)