Perjury charges laid against RCMP involved in Dziekanski's death

May 12, 2011
Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER -- Perjury Charges now have been laid against four Mounties involved in the in-custody death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's airport in 2007, the criminal justice branched announced today.

The charges were laid against RCMP Cpl. Benjamin (Monty) Robinson, and Const. Kwesi Millington, Const. Bill Bently and Const. Gerry Rundel.

They will make a first court appearance June 29 in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

The charges were laid after Vancouver senior lawyer Richard Peck was appointed to review the evidence.

Peck recommended perjury charges be laid against the officers, who allegedly lied during their testimony at the Braidwood Inquiry, which probed Dziekanski death on Oct. 14, 2007.

Inquiry commissioner Thomas Braidwood concluded the officers were not justified in using a Taser on Dziekanski and found the four officers displayed "shameful conduct."

The officers will go to trial by direct indictments, which eliminates the need for a preliminary hearing in Provincial Court.

Dziekanski, 40, had come to Canada to live with his mother, who lived in Kamloops.

Unable to speak English, he spent more than 10 hours in the airport and could not find his mother, who eventually went home, thinking her son never arrived from Poland.

Dziekanski, exhausted and possibly delirious, began throwing things around and someone called police.

Seconds after the four Mounties arrived, Dziekanski was jolted five times with a Taser by a junior officer, who had never used a stun gun before.

The officers testified they feared for their safety after Dziekanski grabbed a stapler and came at them with it raised as a weapon. They said Dziekanski had to be jolted more than once because the first shot didn't cause him to fall

A bystander captured the incident on video, which contradicted the officers' testimony.

The video, which was posted on the Internet and caused an international outcry, showed Dziekanski fell after the first Taser jolt and then screamed and writhed in pain from multiple electric shocks from the conducted energy weapon.

He died after he was handcuffed face down on the airport floor.