CROWN DROPS CHARGES HINGING ON VPD TESTIMONY

Officers Guilty of Stanley Park Assault Were to Testify at Drug Possession
Trial

VANCOUVER - The federal Crown has stayed five drug possession charges that
depended on testimony from the six Vancouver police officers who pleaded
guilty last month to assaulting three men.

The officers were supposed to testify about the circumstances of the
arrests, but the possession charges are now on hold, according to a
spokeswoman for the department of justice.

Lyse Cantin, director of communications for the department, said Monday the
charges were for simple possession and could be reactivated.

The six constables pleaded guilty last month to charges of assaulting three
men near Third Beach in Stanley Park.

The officers picked up Barry Lawrie, 34, Jason Desjardins, 28, and Grant
Wilson, 37, in the 1100-block of Granville and took them to the park to
give them what the constables' lawyers described in court as a lecture that
got carried away.

Under current police policy, officers can transport suspects to another
area of the city in lieu of making an arrest for minor disturbances.

The provincial Crown counsel's office is considering whether to stay any
charges the officers were involved in on a case-by-case basis, said Geoff
Gaul, a spokesman for the attorney-general's office.

"There is no global direction or general direction from the criminal
justice branch that requires that all cases involving these officers be
stayed," Gaul said Monday. "We have an ongoing obligation to assess the
evidence we have for any particular case and determine what evidence we are
going to call at trial and what evidence we won't call."

The assaults came to light last January when police Chief Jamie Graham
announced the officers were under internal investigation. The constables
involved are Christopher Cronmiller, 31, Raymond Gardner, 31, Duncan
Gemmell, 38, Gabriel Kojima, 24, James Kenney, 33, and Brandon Steele, 30.
All have been suspended with pay since the incident.

An internal disciplinary hearing to determine their future as police
officers will be held in January.

Their sentencing date is set for Jan. 5. A civil suit has also been
launched by the three victims.

Constable Sarah Bloor, the department's spokeswoman, said Monday she had no
comment on the staying of the drug charges since the internal disciplinary
hearing and sentencing are still pending.

Lawyer Phil Rankin, who is representing the victims in the assault, said it
isn't worth the time and money to pursue the possession charges.

"I don't lose sleep from a law and order point of view about these charges
being stayed," he said. "I would be very surprised if they had gone ahead
with these charges after these guilty pleas were entered. It would have
opened up a whole credibility shark fest."