[news] Police hold their tongues

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Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 13:31:45 -0800 (PST)
From: sabate <sabate at ziplip.com>

Police hold their tongues

Adrienne Tanner
The Province
Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Five police officers scheduled to testify at a public hearing into the
death of Jeff Berg are refusing to co-operate with the police complaint
commission's lawyer.

Berg died in Oct. 2000 of injuries he received during his arrest. The
hearing will determine whether the level of force used by arresting
Vancouver police officer David Bruce-Thomas was excessive.

Witnesses told The Province that police beat Berg as he tried to
surrender.

The hearing is less than a month away and three officers who were
witnesses at the arrest are refusing to grant pre-hearing interviews to
commission lawyer Dana Urban.

"They are the most important witnesses," said Urban, who has interviewed
more than 60 people, including 30 police officers.

One of the three, Const. Donald McFaul, is now a police officer in
Edmonton. Another retired shortly after Berg's death and the third is
still a serving member in Vancouver.

Also refusing to meet Urban is the major crimes detective, now retired,
who investigated the death.

The fifth officer is the lead internal affairs investigator who found that
Berg struggled during the arrest and Bruce-Thomas used appropriate force
to subdue him.

All the officers will be subpoenaed to testify.

But without pre-interviews, Urban said he is unable to prepare an agreed
statement of facts, an important step.

He warned adjudicator Brian Weddell the delays may mean the hearing, set
to begin Jan. 19, will have to be adjourned.

Kevin Woodall represents a large number of the police officers who will be
called to testify and said the public should not come to wrong
conclusions.

"The suggestion there has been a lack of co-operation has been completely
baseless."

The internal affairs investigator is the only one of Woodall's clients to
refuse a pre-hearing interview. Woodall said he will argue that forcing
the officer to testify would exceed the public hearing mandate.

The other officer to refuse an interview will testify when called to do
so, said department spokeswoman Anne Drennan.

She said he had a problem with the interview process.