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Dan Hatchen
& Ken Munson
Vellacott establishes
defence fund for ex-cops
Darren Bernhardt, The StarPhoenix,
Friday, August 27, 2004
A legal defence fund has been
established to help disgraced former city police officers Ken
Munson and Dan Hatchen fight to have their case reopened and
their names cleared.
But the lawyer for Darrell
Night, the aboriginal man whose complaint led to Munson's and
Hatchen's 2001 convictions for unlawful confinement, laughed
at the notion that the ex-officers were, in their words, seeking
justice.
"Perhaps those monies,
at the end of the day, can go toward compensating Mr. Night for
the trauma that these individuals ultimately were convicted of,"
said Don Worme.
"I have no idea what they're
trying to do. There is no legal process for them. They went to
the Court of Appeal and it rejected whatever they attempted to
put forward. It's simply wrong and their continued whining is
not going to change that."
The Munson-Hatchen defence
fund was publicly launched on the steps of the Saskatoon Queen's
Bench courthouse Thursday. Saskatoon Conservative MP Maurice
Vellacott, who has been calling for the case to be reopened,
held a press conference to announce the fund, which has raised
$1,586.
It is a grassroots campaign
that began gaining momentum before a public appeal was considered,
Vellacott said.
He called the donors "a
good many anonymous and unnamed people -- heroes if you will."
Hatchen, who attended the announcement,
said he is willing to go all the way to the Supreme Court of
Canada, which he said "is a little more removed from the
situation and might have a clearer view" than the provincial
courts.
But Vellacott is confident
there will be no need to have the country's highest court involved.
Earlier this month, the RCMP said they would look into Vellacott's
claims of new evidence and decide if the case should be reopened.
"We may not have to be
in this for the long haul, but we're certainly prepared for that,"
Vellacott said. "There may very well be a reopening and
a new trial or an acquittal long before it has to get to that."
Hatchen compared the last 4
1/2 years to "a runaway roller coaster" for his family,
during which "despair loomed darkly in our hearts."
The smallest tokens of support from friends and strangers provided
"rays of sunlight that helped us make it through and give
me hope yet today," he said.
Vellacott also read a letter
on behalf of Munson, who wasn't at the press conference. In it,
the former constable thanked people for their kindness and hoped
for "more truth and understanding to repair mistakes that
have been made.
"Race relations in Saskatoon
are in somewhat of a mess. There are some people who would feel
I had a big part in that. That may be so or it may not be so,
but one thing I would like to offer now is my participation in
helping rebuild these bridges . . . and more specifically, in
my circumstance, with Darrell Night. My hand is outstretched."
Worme questioned why Hatchen
is so willing to talk at this late stage, adding some harsh words
for Vellacott.
"I find it very disappointing
that the Reform-Conservative-Alliance would continue to use public
money to defend common criminals and foster division in our community.
If this is their idea of bridge building it's certainly different
than what most right-thinking people would consider."
The list of contributors to
the fund to date includes former Saskatoon police chief Dave
Scott and his wife, Colleen. Scott was fired in 2001 at the height
of allegations that officers were dropping aboriginal people
off at the edge of the city in freezing weather.
Although the police were cleared
of any connection to the bodies of young Native men found in
the snow by the Queen Elizabeth Power Station, Night said the
same thing happened to him in January 2000 but he survived.
At the trial, Night testified
he was arrested for public intoxication but instead of being
taken to the police station and charged, he was dropped off without
discussion and against his will in freezing weather far from
home.
Vellacott says in a letter
on the case to the RCMP that Night was picked up for disturbing
the peace but pleaded with the police not to charge him.
In court, Hatchen and Munson
testified they were reluctant to take him directly home because,
based on their experience, they would soon be called back, Vellacott
notes in his letter. Vellacott says Night then told them to leave
him to walk off his anger.
Vellacott has said he has people
ready to testify that Night was staying in an apartment a couple
of kilometres from the power plant where he was dropped off.
"We believe that truth,
over time, will come out," Vellacott said Thursday, adding
the men admit to making an error in judgment by leaving Night
there but it should have been no more than an internal disciplinary
matter.
While the officers later admitted
to picking Night up and dropping him off, none of it was against
Night's will, said Hatchen.
"That makes all the difference,"
Munson said. "(But) there was a conversation that went on
between Darrell Night and ourselves that seems to be forgotten."
The Criminal Code allows a
police officer or riot squad to remove somebody from the scene
of a disturbance for up to 24 hours.
"That's the current provision
and that's the parameters in which they were acting as police
have all across this country. Saskatchewan is not exempt from
that," Vellacott said.
"If you go with the code
as it is, these men should have been acquitted."
Hatchen is now a computer consultant
while Munson has done odd jobs, such as renovation projects.
Asked if he would ultimately like to return to the police force,
Hatchen said, "This is way too early to tell. I'm going
to let the chips fall where they do."
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
Kudos to convicted cops
a 'callous joke': lawyer
Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix,
December 03, 2003
The lawyer for Darrell Night,
who was abandoned in freezing weather by two Saskatoon police
officers, is disappointed to see that the police department acknowledged
the pair in its 2001 annual report, which is posted on the Internet.
Former constables Dan Hatchen
and Ken Munson are listed on a page of the Saskatoon Police Service
Web site that acknowledges 15 former members "for their
years of service."
Each served 17 years with the
force.
"I think that that's a
very callous joke," said Don Worme who represents Night.
Night complained in January 2000 that the officers had taken
him to a field on the city's western outskirts and left him there
in sub-zero weather.
The pair were convicted of
forcible confinement and sentenced to eight month jail terms.
Both were fired in 2001. They were released from a halfway house
in August.
The issue was raised by Richard
Klassen, a co-founder of Injustice Busters Web site. Klassen
is currently awaiting a decision on his lawsuit against former
police and justice officials for malicious prosecution. Klassen
and his family were charged in 1991 with sexually assaulting
nine foster children.
"These two ex-cons should
be deleted from this Web site right away," Klassen wrote
in an e-mail to police and forwarded to The StarPhoenix.
Klassen's Injustice Buster
colleague, Angie Geworsky, also wrote to Insp. Lorne Constantinoff,
the public relations officer for the police, that the Web site
should make clear that Hatchen and Munson were fired for their
misconduct.
Listing them along with members
who retired in good standing or who left to further their careers,
"as if there is no distinction . . . could taint the images"
of the other officers, she wrote.
Constantinoff said Tuesday
Hatchen and Munson were not given recognition per se. Instead,
they are among former members whose years of service were, "acknowledged,
not recognized or congratulated," within the 2001 annual
report, which is an historic record of that year's operations,
he said.
That annual report was originally
produced on paper and distributed widely.
"To change one (report)
would mean changing documented history, and we're not in the
practice of doing that. We also acknowledge on that same annual
report that there were two officers that were charged,"
Constantinoff said.
"I understand their (Klassen's
and Geworsky's) point of view. We're not proud of the fact that
these were members of our police service but we acknowledge that
they were.
People should not forget that
the pair were members of the police service, he said.
"I know how it could seem,
how they could be offended. But that is not our intent to offend
anyone," Constantinoff said.
Night's complaint against Munson
and Hatchen was reported nationally and internationally because
two other aboriginal men, Lawrence Wegner and Rodney Naistus,
were found frozen to death in the same area within days of the
Night incident.
Suspicion fell on the Saskatoon
police service. The RCMP created a special task force to investigate
the deaths of several aboriginal men who may have had contact
with police before they died.
The task force investigation
resulted in the charges against Hatchen and Munson but no others.
Inquests were held to examine
the circumstances around several of the deaths and a broader-ranging
public inquiry was called into the 1990 freezing death of Neil
Stonechild.
The latter is currently adjourned
to Jan. 5, 2004.
The controversy also attracted
the attention of Amnesty International, which included the allegations
in a list of human rights abuses around the world.
Worme considers the recognition
given the officers "really odd . . . considering these were
the same two who brought such a dark light on our city."
"Amnesty International,
for the first time ever, indicated Canada among the world's human
rights abusers, and, in particular, those officers were given
that sort of dubious distinction and now, in an obvious attempt
to rehabilitate them, they are being recognized for their 17
years of service," Worme said.
© Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
