Police investigating Police: Does it work? (Part 2)

It was after midnight on June 23, 2005, when a group of kids gathered in and around Duffins Bay Public School, celebrating the end of the school year and disturbing the quiet Ajax, Onario neighbourhood near the shore of Lake Ontario. At about 1:20 am., Durham police officers in marked cruisers went to the area, responding to complaints from residents about unruly kids in the park.

The SIU later said that Durham Region officer, Martin Franssen drove over a grassy knoll in the park and ran over two of the teens who were lying on the down slope of the hill. The knoll is a slight change in elevation.

One of the victims said that they were talking, “looking at the stars.” The area was poorly lit, shaded from the moonlight by several tall trees.

Teenager Caitlin Hiller who was once of the two victims lying in the grass of thepublic park, was chatting with her friend when a one-and-a-half-ton police car drove over them. Pressed into the blood-stained grass, Hiller, 16, regained consciousness soon after but could not move. The, stood over her, shaken, asking if the kids were okay. “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you,” Franssen said to the two teens lying behind his rear bumper. And then the cop asked if they needed an ambulance. “Hey dummy. You just ran over two human beings and you are wondering if you need to call an ambulance?”

Caitlin Hiller was not okay. She had a broken shoulder, her pelvis was broken in four places. She would need a walker and a sling while recovering from the fractures. Her friend Derrick Buckley's right collarbone was broken.

Why hadn’t this police officer seen her and the others lying in the grass? In the Hiller case, this raises raised serious questions.

Were Const. Franssen's headlights on that night in the summer of 2005? He said yes. Hiller said no. One of Franssen's colleagues on the force said Durham cruisers sometimes creep around parks with lights off. That is very stupid when you consider that people may be lying on the grass if for no other reason that to stare up at the stars above them. It is unclear why the officer chose not to patrol the park on foot and instead drove his car into a park where kids were known to likely be gathered.

Franssen was cleared by the SIU. If he had been a civilian, he would have gone to jail.

Immediately after the incident, the Durham Police force sent Hiller a candy basket with a card wishing her a speedy recovery. Franssen did not sign it.“It makes me think he doesn't even care,” Hiller told the Star. “I could never imagine doing something like that and never being in contact with that person.” Obviously, the foolish cop didn’t care.

The accident that would cause months of physical rehabilitation and subsequently caused her permanent damage.

In justifying its decision not to charge Franssen, the SIU said “This incident was truly an accident.” That is very strange when you consider that civilians are often charged with driving offences when the police believe the accident that caused an injury or death was caused by reckless driving and driving in a park on the grass with no lights on is extremely reckless. The SIU director at the time, James Cornish, noted in his decision that the park was dark and should have been vacant.Is that supposed to justify the stupid act of the police officer?

In an interview with the Star, Durham Police Insp. Bruce Townley defended his officer, saying Franssen was “doing his job” that night, “and then some.” This is why police officers like Franssen do stupid acts. They are led by stupid leaders whose lips begin to move before they get their brains in gear.

Cornish, now a senior prosecutor with the Ministry of the Attorney General, declined to comment. Now we are all in trouble.

The Hillers sued Franssen and the police force, seeking $1 million in damages. Are you ready for this? The Durham Police counter-sued Hiller, claiming she “knew or ought to have known” her friend Buckley was “in danger of being struck by the police vehicle and failed to warn” him. Last winter, the force settled out of court, paying the Hiller family an undisclosed sum.

“The doctor said if the car had been going any slower, it would have killed us,” Hiller says. “I had to do a neuro-psych test, which showed I had brain damage. After the test, (the police) offered more money. I felt like they didn't want to go to court because they knew they'd lose.”

Franssen did not face any Police Service Act charges, which would have resulted in an internal disciplinary hearing and the possibility of a suspension if found guilty. Franssen went unpunished. He still works as a police officer for Durham Region.

Had the car been driven by a civilian, he or she would likely have been arrested, charged and prosecuted. But in Durham Region, an officer can drive in a poorly lit park, run over teens and get away with it.

This story is just one of many cases about police conduct in Ontario.
Responding to a report of an assault outside a house in Elmvale, Ont., OPP Const, Jeff Seguin arrived to talk with the suspect, Doug Minty, an intellectually challenged 59-year-old living with his mother. Minty moved toward Seguin and was shot dead. The SIU did not conduct a thorough investigation and cleared Seguin, though his sketchy story failed to conclusively show that a fatal bullet was his only option.

Grandmother Mei Han Lee, 67, was not a suspect. She was walking home to help care for her autistic grandson when Toronto police officer Juan Quijada-Mancia sped into an illegal right turn, hit Lee and killed her instantly. The officer was not responding to an emergency call, and to this day neither the SIU nor Toronto Police have said where Quijada-Mancia was going in such a hurry on that February morning in 2005.

Police officers such as Quijada-Mancia can also face internal disciplinary hearings, which are conducted by superiors in their own force and carry softer punishments than those that could result from a criminal charge. Quijada-Mancia was disciplined by the Toronto Police. He lost 40 hours' pay. It was in this decision that Supt. Tweedy stressed the importance of police officers being held to the same standard as civilians. I doubt that. If it had been a private citizen who killed the grandmother, he wouldn’t have got a loss of pay for 40 hours. He would have got a loss of vfreedom for at least 40 months.

Hamilton Police Const. Jason Williams was charged in 2002 with assault for kicking a handcuffed 57-year-old psychiatric resident of a group home in the head. Five fellow officers testified they saw Williams repeatedly punch and kick the man. Williams was convicted of assault, though the judge dismissed the more serious charge of assault causing bodily harm. Ian Scott (the head of SIU) was the prosecutor. At sentencing, he asked for jail time, but Williams received none.

The SIU also prosecuted Niagara constable Michael Moore, found guilty in 2002 of breach of trust after he accepted oral sex from a woman in exchange for not issuing her a traffic ticket. Scott called Moore a “wolf in police uniform” and wanted him jailed for six to nine months. Moore got a year of house arrest. He has since resigned from the force.

The Toronto Star found no accountability for incidents that caused civilian injuries and deaths. The SIU completes reports after investigations and then gives them to the Ministry of the Attorney General. But the victims and the public do not get to see the information.

The Toronto Star found that the virtual immunity police officers enjoy is not the SIU's fault alone. The agency faces obstacles that Ian Scott knew well before he took over in 2008. An officer investigated by the SIU benefits from a presumption of good character by jurors and judges. In the rare instance when the SIU has laid charges, one of every four officers sees the charges dropped before trial, many others are acquitted, or, as has happened at least 10 times, an officer is found guilty before a judge spares him jail time. Some guilty police officers walk out of court with their record wiped clean.

Ian Scott (head of SIU) said in an interview, “Police trials, are “very different” because many in the justice system view these as occupational crimes — the consequences of a dangerous job — as opposed to crimes committed by criminals.”
Officers also enjoy stiff protection from the sturdy blue wall of their police force, insulation by scrappy lawyers working for unions with deep pockets, and typically a close working relationship with prosecutors.

Following a judge's criticism of this type of relationship, the SIU recently re-investigated and charged a Peel Region police officer with assault against Quang Hoang Tran.

Tran had been convicted of playing a role in a series of brutal home invasions, but the conviction was thrown out this year after an appeals court found Peel officers “beat him up” and “attempted to cover up their shocking conduct.” Because of the behaviour of the police and prosecutor, a criminal walked free.

What happened to the police officers who beat up their prisoner? Nothing. Is anyone surprised? Not really.

Although police officers are afforded special powers — to stop and arrest civilians, and carry a gun — officers enjoy some of the same protections as civilians when investigated. For example, police officers at the centre of SIU probes do not have to give a statement to the agency — a right zealously protected by police lawyers and unions.

One well-known police lawyer, Gary Clewley, recently said in an article he wrote for a police union magazine that he has been tempted to tell so-called “subject officers” to “Shut the f--- up” before writing their notes, and talk to a lawyer.

As part of their internal disciplinary proceedings, police forces can compel officers to give statements, but the SIU is not entitled to that crucial evidence.

Now that Scott has the job he previously thought so impotent, a defence lawyer who has represented officers investigated by the SIU summed up Scott's untenable position this way: “Ian has the worst job in the province. Everyone hates him — the police, the community. No matter what he does he can't do anything right. Every decision he makes will be criticized for years.”

The powerful OPP union has sent out a newsletter accusing Scott of anti-cop bias.
Though the justice system heavily favours police, one Ontario judge was surprised that police officers complain of persecution when they are hardly ever charged.

In 2001, when Justice John Ground threw out a $10 million malicious prosecution lawsuit brought by York Region officer Robert Wiche against the SIU, he wrote,

“There appeared to be on the part of certain police witnesses and certain police associations an almost Pavlovian reaction against a civilian agency (the SIU) investigating the conduct of police officers ... and against the idea that such an agency could conduct an investigation which could be fair to police officers.” This is particularly surprising when in about 97 per cent of the cases, the investigation exonerates the subject officer.”

A Toronto Star probe of two decades of cases examined by the province's Special Investigations Unit found that police officers are treated far differently than civilians when accused of shooting, beating, running over and killing people.