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Edmonton police stories | Abdulahi
Mahamad: It
is three years since the cops arrested him in his own home, handcuffed
him in front of his children, took him to the police station
where they strip-searched and held for over 30 hours. The charges
did not stick, but any police check on him now shows him as an
accused sex offender whose charges were stayed. The police are
still up to their old tricks as the following article shows.
. . "Of 725 child sex abuse complaints investigated by Edmonton
police in 2000, 2001 and 2002, only 160 - about 22% -resulted
in criminal charges being laid. But that doesn't mean the other
565 cases were all false allegations, Eastcott said. " Then
what were they? Remember, in 1992 prosecutor Matt Miazga said
he was staying charges against the Klassens and Kvellos in Saskatoon
because the children were "too traumatized to testify."
On December 30, 2003, he was found to have been malicious.--Steele
- Tom
Engel: the Edmonton lawyer cops love to hate | No
name case | Kerry Diotte
| Randy Fryingpan | Edmonton
Police 2005 | Edmonton
police on U.S. State Department Bad Cop list for violating human
rights
-
-
- Fudging statistics
(scroll down)
- Mayor a target?
Source says sting cops also wanted Mandel
- By ANDREA SANDS, Edmonton
Sun, City Hall BUREAU
Cops under investigation for
an allegedly improper sting targeting their commission boss and
a Sun writer may have also targeted the mayor, a new complaint
to the police chief suggests.
A letter from the Criminal
Trial Lawyers Association yesterday says information from a confidential
source indicates police officers were overheard making inappropriate
comments over communications channels about a person who now
appears to be Mayor Stephen Mandel.
Officers involved in a stakeout
Nov. 18 at a provincial election candidates "meet-and-greet"
in the Overtime Broiler and Taproom, 10304 111 St., are currently
under scrutiny for allegedly targeting Edmonton Police Commission
chairman Martin Ignasiak and Sun columnist Kerry Diotte. The
probe follows allegations that officers made comments to suggest
the sting was politically motivated.
"During the (police radio)
transmissions, there were conversations between the police about
a person who was wearing a turtleneck," states the CTLA
complaint. "This person was referred to as a 'prick' and
'asshole.' It was mentioned that this person was talking to (Alberta
New Democrat Leader) Brian Mason. It appears that this person
drove away from the Overtime bar and was followed."
A police officer was then allegedly
overheard saying the "prick will probably blow the stop
sign" and cops would nab him then, the complaint said. The
officer "then expressed disappointment that did not occur,"
states the CTLA complaint.
Several inquiries about who
was wearing a turtleneck at the gathering between politicians
and reporters identified only the mayor, the letter concluded.
The mayor's chief of staff
told the Sun yesterday Mandel will not comment on the new allegations.
"It's an ongoing investigation.
We're not going to muddy it further by commenting on this,"
said Patricia Misutka. "It would be our expectation that
the investigation will uncover the whole truth about this, whatever
it might be."
Earlier in the day, Mandel
told the Sun he hopes police quickly finish their investigation
- which will be reviewed by a Calgary officer - so the public
gets answers about the sting. Police have said they went to the
bar after a complaint that a drunken patron was going to leave
in his car.
Mandel said he had "a
couple of ginger ales" before driving home from the event.
"No one that I saw had been drinking too much or had any
signs of being drunk at all, and I left, I think, about 9:30
p.m. and went home."
Mason told the Sun yesterday
he recalls speaking with Mandel that night, as mentioned in the
CTLA complaint. The NDP Leader said he parked his tour van at
Overtime behind a marked police car.
"Stephen Mandel was just
leaving, so I started talking with him outside the front of the
restaurant for about five minutes," Mason recalled. "He
left and I went inside."
The police are expected to
update the Edmonton Police Commission next week on the investigation's
progress. Several Sun staffers have been asked to provide statements.
-
- Twisted tales of abuse
- Some kids pressured
to make false sex allegations by parent waging custody war
By LORI COOLICAN , EDMONTON
SUN, January 20, 2004
In the bitter world of child
custody battles, some parents are coaching their own kids to
make false sexual abuse complaints - with disastrous results
for everyone, experts say.
"We're very concerned
and very conscious of allegations that have inklings that there
may be custody and access (issues)," says Staff Sgt. Darren
Eastcott of the Edmonton police Zebra Child Protection Centre,
which investigates allegations of child sex abuse.
"When we are aware of
them, we're very concerned about that and very careful of them.
If there's a custody or access (dispute) ... there's a little
bit of a brighter red light on it," he said. "There's
nothing worse than to have somebody falsely accused of these
kind of things."
Police don't keep statistics
on how many abuse complaints relate to custody battles. But Eastcott
said his unit typically encounters such situations a couple of
times each month.
The centre even employs a full-time
child welfare worker who specializes in custody and access disputes.
Investigators have encountered cases where the same child has
made allegations multiple times and investigators concluded they
weren't being honest, Eastcott said.
"Parents should certainly
not be involving kids in custody disputes. That's not fair emotionally
to the child, let alone the former spouse," said Karen Smith,
director of the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton.
"I just have no patience
for that. There are so many people who have legitimate sexual
abuse issues that it's not fair to waste the police or child
welfare's time investigating. However ... the numbers of false
allegations are very small."
Cops can charge people with
public mischief for fabricating a complaint to police, but it's
not always worthwhile when a child is caught in the middle, Eastcott
said.
"The police do not want
to continue kids being used as pawns in custody proceedings."
Of 725 child sex abuse complaints
investigated by Edmonton police in 2000, 2001 and 2002, only
160 - about 22% -resulted in criminal charges being laid. But
that doesn't mean the other 565 cases were all false allegations,
Eastcott said.
"For example, if you have
a victim who is too distraught and is not able to participate
in the court case, sometimes we either stay the charges or suspend
files until they're ready."
Some cases are resolved through
mediation, while in others police can't gather enough evidence
to make a conviction likely, so they don't consider it worthwhile
to put a child through the pain of testifying, he said.
Edmonton's police
chases lead country
CBC, Aug 13, 2004
Edmonton - There were more
police chases in Edmonton last year than in much larger Canadian
cities, including Toronto and Vancouver.
Officers were involved in pursuits 232 times in 2003, compared
to 176 in Toronto and 98 in Vancouver. The number of chases in
the city has more than doubled in the past four years.
Number of chases in 2003:
Edmonton - 232
Toronto - 176
Montreal - 142
Winnipeg - 132
Vancouver - 98
Calgary - 70
Ottawa - 31
Windsor - 11
"Looking at the graphs,
of course it looks like it's out of proportion," Mayor Bill
Smith, who has defended the chases as a necessary part of policing,
said when shown the numbers.
Smith says the police service
will have to do its own comparison, to make sure the cities calculate
chase statistics the same way.
"That's always something
that's important," he said. "I'm not trying to make
light of it. But that's something the police service really needs
to defend."
Using numbers obtained from
eight police services across the country, Edmonton had the highest
number of police chases by far at 232. Toronto had the second
highest with 176, while Montreal had 142.
Rod Gregory, president of the
Criminal Trial Lawyer's Association, says Edmonton needs to look
at how other cities govern chases.
"We certainly want to
make submissions to the police commission, provide research if
we can," he said. "And we hope the police commission
will look at expert evidence in the area to see whether or not
there ought to be changes made."
The Edmonton Police Service's
policy on chases will be discussed Friday morning at the police
commission meeting.
Smith, who will attend Friday's
meeting, says he's received a number of calls about the number
of chases since the information became public.
"I'm getting calls on
both sides of it. Good for the police and this is dangerous,"
he said.
Police commission chairman
Martin Ignasiak has said they will investigate the high number
of chases, which leaped to 232 in 2003 from 101 in 1999.
Calgary had 70 police chases
last year. And while the number in that city decreased by about
40 per cent once it began using a helicopter, Edmonton saw a
jump of 56 per cent after the Air-1 was introduced in 2001.
Police have said a number of
factors affect the number of chases, including an increase in
auto thefts and a growing population.
On July 24, two teenagers who
were running from police in a high-speed chase died when their
car hit a tree. Police had called off the pursuit two blocks
before. Crack cocaine was found in the wreckage.
Copyright © 2004 Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserve
Ignasiak leaves police
commission
CBC, Mar 18, 2005
EDMONTON - Martin Ignasiak
resigned from the police commission Friday, citing a potential
conflict of interest with his new role as partner in his law
firm.
Martin Ignasiak and Mayor Stephen Mandel (file photo)
Martin Ignasiak and Mayor Stephen
Mandel (file photo)
The 31-year-old had deflected numerous calls for his resignation
during his controversial four-year tenure, but said he wasn't
pushed out.
The latest calls for the commission
chairman's head came as he became embroiled in a police drunk
driving stakeout, the aftermath of which claimed a police chief.
He acknowledged his rocky relationship
with the service Friday when he began by jokingly telling reporters
that he was leaving the commission to apply for the chief's job.
Ignasiak said the real reason
for his decision stems from his promotion to partner at Fraser
Milner Casgrain, which represents the Edmonton Police Service
and individual officers.
When Ignasiak joined the board,
he said there wasn't a conflict with his job because his practice
focused on environmental law. However, as partner, a portion
of his income would come from the police work and he said that
could be a problem.
"The risk of being in
conflict of interest was too strong a possibility," Ignasiak
said. "The job of the commission is difficult enough without
having to constantly worry whether its chairman or any of its
members are in conflict of interest."
Acting police Chief Daryl da
Costa congratulated Ignasiak on his promotion, and Mayor Stephen
Mandel said Ignasiak had done a "great job." The mayor
wouldn't comment on speculation he'd asked the embattled Ignasiak
to resign.
Pete Ratcliff, president of
the Edmonton Police Association, said he thought Ignasiak overstepped
his bounds on a number of occasions. He had called for Ignasiak's
resignation a number of times, of late after the firing of chief
Fred Rayner.
"Just that we can get
this relationship back on track," Ratcliff said. "Everyone
knows it's been dysfunctional, at best. We've spent far too much
time arguing about personal differences, about things that really
aren't worthwhile."
Ignasiak, appointed to the
commission in 2001 and as chairman in 2002, says he's been a
lightning road for the board.
"I have received credit
for things the commission has done that I shouldn't have received
credit for, because it's often at the urging of members that
certain things have happened," he said. "And when a
body is criticized, it's usually the head of the body that's
criticized.
"And the Edmonton Police
Association and some of its members have had some difficulty
with the direction of this commission, and that's natural.
Ignasiak has been in the middle
of the controversy over the Nov. 18 stakeout of the Overtime
Taproom and Grill. Edmonton Sun columnist Kerry Diotte was the
target of the sting, and Ignasiak also believed he was being
watched that night.
Both were at an event at the
bar, took cabs home and said they weren't intoxicated.
Ignasiak, who was vocal in
the aftermath, had to step down as spokesman on the issue.
The controversy flared again
after then-chief Rayner released the results of the investigation
into the incident, clearing the seven officers at the scene,
but saying two senior officers would face discipline.
Days later, the Edmonton Journal
printed transcripts of police radio calls that showed the officers
were pleased with the possibility of arresting Diotte.
Rayner went on medical leave
and was fired by the police commission the next day. At the same
meeting, the commission hired his replacement, former Edmonton
deputy chief David Cassels.
Some accused the police commission
of using the sting and its aftermath as an excuse to get rid
of Rayner, who had been initially hired in a close 5-4 vote.
Former members of the police commission said Ignasiak had wanted
Cassels.
City council overturned the
commission's hiring of Cassels, launching a search for the new
chief.
Ignasiak says despite his sometimes
antagonistic relationship with the police service, he admires
the officers and regrets that it may have seemed otherwise.
"[My regret] would be
that I allowed myself and the commission to be portrayed by some
as less than supportive of the men and women in the police service,"
he said. "I've met many great officers, very talented people
who I think share the commission's goal of seeing the Edmonton
Police Service be the best it can be."
The city will appoint a new
person to the commission, and the members will elect a new chairman
within the next few weeks.
with files from Canadian
Press
Days later, the Edmonton Journal
printed transcripts of police radio calls that showed the officers
were pleased with the possibility of arresting Diotte.
Rayner went on medical leave
and was fired by the police commission the next day. At the same
meeting, the commission hired his replacement, former Edmonton
deputy chief David Cassels.
Some accused the police commission
of using the sting and its aftermath as an excuse to get rid
of Rayner, who had been initially hired in a close 5-4 vote.
Former members of the police commission said Ignasiak had wanted
Cassels.
City council overturned the
commission's hiring of Cassels, launching a search for the new
chief.
Ignasiak says despite his sometimes
antagonistic relationship with the police service, he admires
the officers and regrets that it may have seemed otherwise.
"[My regret] would be
that I allowed myself and the commission to be portrayed by some
as less than supportive of the men and women in the police service,"
he said. "I've met many great officers, very talented people
who I think share the commission's goal of seeing the Edmonton
Police Service be the best it can be."
The city will appoint a new
person to the commission, and the members will elect a new chairman
within the next few weeks.
with files from Canadian
Press
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
