2010-12-20

G20 case studies: 400 official complaints, little satisfaction

The Star interviewed six people who have received final reports back from their OIPRD complaints. Five had their files handed over to the Toronto police for investigation — the very service they complained about — and were unhappy with the results. One was satisfied with the outcome of his complaint; his file was handled by two OIPRD civilian investigators.

Police spokesman Mark Pugash said police are cannot comment on cases that are still being appealed and are therefore unable to respond to individual accusations.

For 25-year-old Geoffrey Bercarich, a cyclist who alleges he was beaten by police while participating in a G20 bike rally, his experience with the OIPRD complaint process has only added insult to injury.

“There was a physical assault and this investigation is a mental assault,” said Bercarich, who suffered a bleeding nose and cut chin but was never charged following his arrest.

“It’s really bad and they shouldn’t investigate people like this.”

Established in October 2009, the OIPRD provides oversight for the handling of public complaints made against police. Any complaint that passes screening can be handled in one of three ways: it can be assigned to an OIPRD civilian investigator, referred to another police service, or sent back to the originating service for self-investigation.

Critics of the OIPRD say the rules are rigged in favour of police when services are allowed to investigate themselves.

“It gives a huge role to police officers as investigators and, from what I’ve seen, gives favourable treatment to police witnesses,” said Murray Klippenstein, a lawyer spearheading a G20 class-action lawsuit. “It’s not a neutral process.”

The deadline for submitting complaints to the OIPRD is six months after an incident, meaning the cutoff for G20-related complaints is now just days away.

Immediately after the G20, the OIPRD’s office was flooded with complaints. They contracted eight additional investigators to help with a systemic review they are conducting of the summit, which is expected to wrap up early next year.

About 100 complaints related to the G20 were screened out, according to OIPRD director Gerry McNeilly. About 200 cases were retained by OIPRD investigators. The rest given back to the original service for self-investigation, with 78 handed over to Toronto police.

McNeilly says that in an ideal world, every complaint passing through his office would be looked at by one of his own investigators. But with only nine on staff — and nearly 27,000 cops in the province — it simply isn’t possible.

“I would be dishonest if I didn’t say it was a concern of mine but you know, we have to look at logistics of matters and we have to look at things in a real way,” he said.

McNeilly says every finalized report is reviewed by himself, a lawyer and a case coordinator to ensure it is full and fair. But he does not look at final reports until after they are sent back to the complainants. McNeilly is still in the process of reviewing the G20-related reports that have landed on his desk.

“I have not signed off on any yet,” he stressed.

The G20 weekend saw 1,105 people detained. Of those, 320 appeared before the courts; most had their charges stayed or dropped. But for those who allege police misconduct or violence, answers have been slow in coming.

To date, the RCMP has received 28 complaints but only announced the appointment of a lead investigator on Wednesday. Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has probed six cases of serious injury but said it did not have enough evidence to lay a single charge, despite finding that excessive force was probable in two cases. The high-profile case of Adam Nobody, however, has since been reopened in the wake of new witnesses and evidence.

Stephen Peters, 30, submitted an online complaint back in August. He was shocked to learn that his file was assigned to the Toronto police, the very service he lost his faith in.

“I took them at their word that they were independent but I don’t think that was a very independent process,” Peters said, adding he has complained to the OIPRD about the Toronto police’s involvement in his complaint.

The McGill University student alleges he was tackled by police at Queen’s Park during the G20 and verbally threatened while en route to the Eastern Ave. detention centre. He was charged with obstructing justice and unlawful assembly. Both charges that have since been stayed.

The investigating officer assigned to Peters’ complaint is Det. Bruno Miron, a professional standards officer with the Toronto police. Miron was also the investigating officer for two other OIPRD complainants interviewed by the Star.

Peters’ impression is that Miron simply wanted to get the file off his desk. The detective urged him on two occasions to drop his complaint, he says. He decided to withhold evidence from Miron and later wrote him saying he did not wish to cooperate with an investigation conducted by the Toronto police.

When Peters received his final report back in September, he found its findings unsurprising.

“The sum total of his investigation was that my complaints were unsubstantiated,” he said.

Peters complained to the OIPRD, which said in an emailed reply that the agency had reviewed his case and found “several points in the investigation have yet to be answered.” But to Peters’ chagrin, OIPRD said the investigation would be redirected back to Toronto police. The agency encouraged him to cooperate.

Law student Swathi Sekhar and Melanie Kheidr, a 26-year-old from Peterborough, also told the Star they were urged to drop their complaints by the Toronto police officers investigating their cases. Kheidr had complained on behalf of her brother-in-law Adam McBurnie, who was allegedly beaten by plainclothes police and detained for three days.

Insp. Peter Yuen, the Toronto Police OIPRD liaison officer, said he cannot comment on specific investigators but said “if you are not happy with the service you receive, this is the grounds for the appeal.”

Investigators were instructed to conduct a thorough investigation of the G20 complaints, he said. An extra layer of scrutiny has also been implemented for the G20 investigations — all reports must first be reviewed by a Det. Sgt. and personally approved by Yuen, he added.

Yuen said additional officers with investigative experience were brought in to deal with the onslaught of G20 complaints. So far, 70 OIPRD-referred complaints have been investigated and eight remain active.

When asked whether officers investigating OIPRD complaints may have also policed the G20, Yuen said every “able and breathing” officer worked that weekend. He insisted, however, that investigators handling G20 files only served administrative roles and were not on the frontlines during the summit.

Bercarich, who also had his complaint investigated by Miron, felt the process was a sham. It stems from a June 27 incident that occurred during a critical mass bike ride protesting the G20.

Bercarich said that when the bike rally reached Cumberland Ave., he was alarmed to see an officer pointing at him. He says he decided to pull his bike over to the sidewalk at which point, an officer “sucker punched” him in the face and he was tackled by several officers.

According to the final report written by Bercarich’s investigating officer, he was apprehended by police for trying to incite a riot. They said he chanted things like “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “F—k the police, freedom of speech” and “picked up his bicycle raising it above his head.”

As for the officer who Bercarich accuses of “sucker punching” him, he told Morin that he thought the cyclist was going to collide with him. The officer raised his arm, closed his fist and “swung at the male’s direction in order to dismount the male from his bicycle and avoid serious injuries to him.”

Bercarich was arrested and taken into a nearby parking garage where he says he was roughed up some more. He was taken to the Eastern Ave. detention centre and eventually released without charge.

A 40-year-old woman named Paula Coutinho witnessed the aftermath of Bercarich’s arrest and was concerned by his treatment and the blood pouring from his nose. She later filed an OIPRD complaint about Bercarich’s arrest on his behalf: Although Bercarich considered submitting his own complaint, he says he was advised by Miron not to because it would be redundant.

On Aug. 3, Bercarich was interviewed by Miron, an experience he describes as intimidating and unpleasant.

“The interview was pretty abrasive. He (Miron) was questioning me as if to discover my intent,” he said. “He was asking me for leaders of the group and what we were intending to do and if I was in any way organizing.

“I thought he was going to be charging me with something and I was very scared after the fact.”

Bercarich says he also brought a copy of his doctor’s report from when he visited Mt. Sinai hospital two days after his arrest. He said he was surprised when Miron only looked at the report but did not photocopy it or request a copy.

Coutinho was happy with Miron’s handling of her complaint until she received the final report.

“When I got back the response, I was like, ‘Wow, you could shoot a bunch of holes thorough this,’” Coutinho said. “I’m not a detective and even I can see where they could have done a better job investigating this.”

A major problem for her is that Miron didn’t make more attempts to interview a civilian witness, just the four police officers named in the complaint. While Miron made several attempts to contact a Yorkville waitress who witnessed the incident, the detective only tried emailing one of the two witnesses Coutinho provided, the report says.

But not everyone is unhappy with the way their OIPRD complaints were handled. John Booth launched his complaint on June 26, the same day he says he awoke in his bed to find a police officer with a gun pointed at him. It turned out the officers had mistakenly raided his home. The intended target was actually a group of alleged anarchists living in another apartment in the same house.

Booth said he and his wife were pleased with the OIPRD. Two weeks ago, he received a 50-page document that concluded officers failed to do their research prior to raiding his house.

But his complaint was investigated by the OIPRD, not Toronto police.

“I wanted to submit an official complaint through this independent body that had been created for this very purpose,” he said. “Overall I’ve been quite impressed with the professionalism, the seriousness with which they took this case and they really did their research.”

Anyone unhappy with the report into their complaint has 30 days to request a review. McNeilly and Yuen also say many review processes are also still underway. McNeilly estimates he has about 25 files currently on his desk awaiting review; Yuen said a number of reports have been sent back to his office but could not confirm how many because the number changes every day.

But even with the OIPRD performing oversight, no amount of scrutiny will be fair if a police service investigates itself, critics say.

“It’s a fake agency. It’s fake. F-A-K-E,” said lawyer Clayton Ruby, a staunch police critic who has launched civil action on behalf of G20 complainants. “Like the SIU, it’s designed never to work.”

Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/torontog20summit/article/908894--g20-case-studies-400-official-complaints-little-satisfaction