Pubdate: Tue, 31 May 2005 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.) ADJUDICATOR TO RULE THIS SUMMER ON FIRING OF OFFICERS WHO BEAT DRUG DEALERS VANCOUVER - B.C. Police Complaint Commission adjudicator Donald Clancy will decide later this summer whether Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham was right to dismiss two police officers for their part in beating three drug dealers in Stanley Park. All the evidence against the officers -- Constables Duncan Gemmell and Gabriel Kojima -- has been presented. On Monday, final arguments began following a five-week long public hearing into the events of Jan. 14, 2003. Commission counsel Dana Urban told Clancy that public confidence in the rule of law was at stake. He said commissioner Dirk Ryneveld ordered the hearing because the public had a right to know what happened in Stanley Park through the testimony of witnesses tested by cross-examination. Gemmell and Kojima were among six officers who took part in the beating and pleaded guilty to assault in provincial court, meaning witnesses were not called to testify. At later disciplinary hearings they all pleaded guilty to a number of disciplinary defaults including abuse of authority and discreditable conduct but only Gemmell and Kojima were fired. They are appealing the chief's dismissal orders. Urban said the three victims were drug addicts and would never be contributing members of society and nothing the police could do would change that. "They are what they are -- criminals -- but they are also human beings and citizens of this country and persons entitled to same the protection of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as anyone else," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom