INQUIRY INTO SIX COPS BOGS DOWN IN LEGALITIES

Legal wrangling is threatening to derail an inquiry into a botched drug
raid by six Vancouver cops.

One of those cops through her lawyer yesterday told the hearing that she
had quit her job and should have the complaint against her withdrawn.

A lawyer for the police complaint commissioner told adjudicator Kenneth
Scherling that he expects several applications to quash the entire
proceedings will soon go before the B.C. Supreme Court.

A "case management conference" was set for April 30.

If the hearing hasn't been called off by any Supreme Court rulings by then,
the commission might be able to set a date for testimony to begin.

Glen Orris, a lawyer for former Const. Katrina O'Reilly, told Scherling his
client's husband is being transferred to Ontario and she has accepted a job
as a police officer there.

He said the commission now has no jurisdiction over his client.

Commission lawyer Dana Urban couldn't say if the cop would be excused.

Orris and another lawyer had earlier tried to have their clients excused on
the grounds that they had been exonerated by an independent police
investigation.

The inquiry is looking into a March 1998 raid on the Commercial Drive
apartment of Joseph Denault.

It's alleged the officers trashed the apartment and made false and
misleading statements at a subsequent criminal trial.

A judge tossed out drug-trafficking charges against Denault and two others
because of the way the officers behaved and found the officers' evidence
"completely lacking in credibility."

The other officers involved are Denise Barry, Jodyne Keller, Elizabeth
Miller, Sherron Bayley and Jeffery Fletcher.