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| AGBC says documents privileged |
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| Police investigate in-custody deaths differently: detective |
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| Police shouldn't investigate themselves: witnesses |
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Documents generated in respect of Crown Counsel's decision not to charge anyone implicated in the death of Frank Paul are privileged and not subject to disclosure to the Frank Paul Inquiry, argued lawyers representing the Criminal Justice Branch of the Ministry of Attorney General. This follows an earlier application for an order that the Crown enjoys an immunity that shields it from producing witnesses to the Commission of Inquiry.
Commission William Davies Q.C. has reserved judgment on both applications.
The quality of justice a Vancouver homicide victim's family receives apparently depends on who caused the death, according to testimony today at the Frank Paul Inquiry.
Retired VPD detective Doug Staunton said the investigation of a death in police custody is handled differently than a typical homicide case involving civilians. When Vancouver police investigators are investigating a death occurring at the hands of their colleagues, they prepare a "neutral" report for Crown Counsel, rather than a recommendation for charges.
Mr. Staunton also confirmed that investigators departed from usual investigative practice when Frank Paul's body was discovered, by allowing Cst. Instant, the main officer involved, to attend the death scene, by failing to separate and interview police witnesses and by failing to prepare accurate scene diagrams. He also confirmed that Leonard Doust, QC was called early Sunday morning, December 6, 1998 to provide legal assistance to Cst. Instant, though Instant was not considered a suspect. After meeting with Mr. Doust over two days, Cst. Instant delivered a written statement and was never questioned on why he left Frank Paul in the isolated alley that December night.
Mr. Staunton confirmed that in all of the 11 in-custody death investigations he handled in his career as a VPD homicide investigator, as well as in several dozen other similar cases involving the VPD, charges were not laid after his section's "neutral" reports were submitted to the Crown.
Police should not be investigating cases of police-involved deaths, according to former coroner Jeanine Robinson, former Chief Coroner Larry Campbell and current Chief Coroner Terry Smith. They were testifying at the Frank Paul Inquiry when they confirmed that the public is not being well-served by the present system.
Evidence supporting the proposition was then offered in the person of Insp. Robert Rothwell of the VPD, who found "no credible evidence" that Frank Paul's family was misled about the circumstances of his death. The Inquiry heard that the VPD did not notify the next of kin until January 11, 1999, more than a month after Frank Paul succumbed to hypothermia on December 6, 1998. He had been dumped there, soaking wet and incapacitated, by a Vancouver police wagon driver a few hours before. The family reportedly was told he had been a victim of a hit and run accident.
