TRIO WASN'T BEATEN: OFFICER

Constable Testifies Men Taken To Park Got A Lecture, 'Couple Of Punches'

VANCOUVER - Const. Brandon Steele has denied three drug dealers were
viciously beaten by his Vancouver police squad after being arrested and
taken to Stanley Park.

Barry Lawrie, Jason Dejardins and Grant Wilson were taken to Third Beach on
Jan. 14, 2003, to remove them from the Granville Mall, Steele testified
Thursday.

"The purpose of taking [Lawrie] there was to remove him from Granville
Street so he could not continue to disturb the merchants or continue to
engage in criminal activity -- the buying and selling of drugs," he said.

The trio say they were severely beaten by the officers after being let out
of a police wagon driven by Steele. Steele and five other officers later
pleaded guilty to assault and were disciplined by the force.

Two of the officers, Duncan Gemmell and Gabriel Kojima, were fired. The
B.C. Police Complaint Commissioner ordered a public hearing after Gemmell
and Kojima sought to be reinstated.

But Steele told the hearing Thursday that he only saw a couple of punches
and minimal force used on the men.

The first to be let out of the wagon was Lawrie. Steele said Lawrie and
Wilson were associates in the drug trade but were arrested because they'd
fallen out and police thought they would start fighting.

"Hopefully, he'd cool down and have some time to think. It would be daytime
before he got back [to Granville Mall] so he'd vacate the area and at the
end of my shift he wouldn't be a problem for me or the people on Granville
Street," Steele told commission counsel Dana Urban.

He said Gardner yelled at Lawrie. "He was lecturing him on his negative
behaviour and the negative impact he was having on the merchants along
Granville Street and his negative impact on society due to his drug dealing
and his criminal lifestyle and criminal behaviour."

He said other officers also yelled at him and he saw Gemmell poking him
with his finger. He gave Lawrie a shove as did Kojima. But Steele said he
never saw Lawrie knocked to the ground, or saw him punched or kicked, and
did not see an officer stand on his face.

When Dejardins came out, he too was yelled at and intimidated, said Steele.
He was punched in the stomach by Gemmell and ended up sitting on the
wagon's rear bumper. He was told to go back to Quebec where he was wanted
on a warrant, said Steele. He denied police officers beat or kicked him or
that he was hit with a baton.

When Wilson was removed, he stumbled and fell face-first to the ground from
the back of the wagon. He jumped up quickly and Steele said he punched him
in the stomach and two other officers hit him, but none struck his face.

Wilson fell to the ground and curled into a protective pose but apart from
Kojima prodding him with his boot to get up, nothing more was done to him,
said the officer. When he got up, he saw a slight trickle of blood on his face.

Steele said the squad returned to headquarters for a debriefing and
apologized to trainee police officer Troy Peters for allowing him to be
there, as he had no job protection.