Edmonton Police Watch

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.

Edmonton police, who laid the charges last month, did not release further details about the incident, aside from saying an investigation began on information offered by another officer. The Calgary Crown prosecutor’s office reviewed the file first and suggested charges be laid.

Wasylyshen remains on duty as a patrol officer and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 7.

His father is former chief Bob Wasylyshen.

Mike Wasylyshen has been in the spotlight before for questions about his conduct.

In 2005 during a teenager’s hearing in provincial court, a judge heard allegations the officer Tasered the teen six times in 66 seconds.

Randy Fryingpan, then 16, was passed out drunk in 2002, contrary to his bail conditions. During a hearing that would determine whether he would be punished for breaching his conditions, the court heard the teen was unnecessarily stripsearched and treated with excessive force.

The presiding judge called the arrest “cruel and unusual treatment,” and said using the Taser was “absolutely unnecessary.”

No charges were laid against Wasylyshen in connection to the Fryingpan case. Later in 2005, then-acting police chief Darryl da Costa said an internal disciplinary hearing was unnecessary and cleared the officer of allegations he had breached the Police Act.

Da Costa said there was not enough evidence to support any charges.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 5:44 pm and is filed under News.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.