'CRUEL TREATMENT'

Allegations of police brutality that gained international attention
have been accepted as true by an Edmonton court. "The appropriate and
only decision I can reach in this case is to grant a judicial stay,"
said provincial court Judge Jack Easton yesterday, halting the
prosecution of a youth who was repeatedly tasered before his arrest by
Edmonton police in October 2002.

"All we can say at this point is that our legal advisers are waiting
for the decision so it can then be reviewed," Edmonton police
spokesman Dean Parthenis said yesterday.

The charge of breaching bail conditions against Randy Fryingpan was
actually true and is admitted, lawyer Tom Engel said yesterday. But
the "torture" his client suffered in his arrest led to him asking for
the charge to be thrown out.

Fryingpan, now 19, was among a group of four youths drinking malt
liquor and smoking marijuana in a parked car near homes on
Abbottsfield Road early on Oct. 5, 2002.

Witnesses told court that about six police officers responded to a
complaint by a neighbour, and began removing the youths from the car.

Fryingpan, then 16, was passed out in the back of the car.

Judge Easton said Const. Mike Wasylyshen used his taser to rouse
Fryingpan, not to subdue him. Wasylyshen then tasered the crying youth
at least five more times as he was hauled out of the car and forced to
the ground.

"That, in my conclusion, is abuse of use of force and cruel and
unusual treatment," Easton said in a written decision.

Claims by police that Fryingpan was fighting back are untrue, the
judge decided: "Any resistance, arm swinging or the like, was as a
result of the direct application of the taser."

Fryingpan was not present in court yesterday because he didn't expect
to win, said mom Marilyn.

"You don't win against the police. They have too much power," Marilyn
said, adding she herself did not understand at first that the judge
was staying the charges.

"I'm starting to believe it now," she said outside court.

The Fryingpan case was one of several cited in a nationally published
story by The Canadian Press regarding controversial use of police
tasers. It was also cited by Amnesty International in a report from
London, England, calling for an end to use of tasers by police worldwide.

"They called it, the Fryingpan case, torture," said lawyer Engel.

This court ruling will be sent to Crown prosecutors with a request
that someone review an earlier decision not to lay criminal charges
against police, Engel said. Additionally, a demand for an internal
investigation remains in the hands of Edmonton police, and a civil
lawsuit has been filed, Engel added.

Fryingpan still suffers back pain, said mom Marilyn, and "he seems
kind of slow now. He can't read or write as well as he used to."