Pubdate: Sat, 14 Jun 2008
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2008 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Linda Gyulai and Max Harrold, The Gazette

PUBLIC CAN RELATE TO PARASIRIS'S CONFUSION: EXPERT

'What Were They Thinking Barging in Like That?' Veteran Defence Lawyer
Asks

The not guilty verdict in the first-degree murder trial of Basil
Parasiris yesterday shows the raid on Parasiris's home "was a botched
police operation," a veteran Montreal criminal defence lawyer says.
The jury that let off Parasiris, who shot and killed Laval police
Constable Daniel Tessier in the March 2007 predawn drug raid, may have
believed Parasiris's version of events entirely or may have simply
believed part of it - all that's required for reasonable doubt and an
acquittal, Robert La Haye, who was not involved in the trial, said in
an interview yesterday.

La Haye, 65, said he had never seen a case like this one in his nearly
40-year career.

"What were they (the police) thinking barging in like that?"
Parasiris's confusion was something any average person can relate to,
he added.

"Anyone who knows there is a police officer in front of them is not
going to shoot because they know the police will shoot right back. Why
would he put himself and his family at risk like that?" Even before
the jury began hearing evidence in the trial, a Superior Court judge
threw out the warrant that had allowed Laval police to smash down the
front door of Parasiris's Brossard house with a battering ram.

Justice Guy Cournoyer ruled the warrant, which permitted "dynamic
entry," allowing police to surprise the person being investigated to
prevent drug evidence from being destroyed, was abusive and a
violation of Parasiris's right to be protected from unreasonable
search and seizure. The warrant lacked detail, the judge ruled.

As a result, evidence retrieved in Parasiris's home was thrown out
with the warrant.

"It's very common for search warrants to be challenged pursuant to the
Charter of Rights," said Greg DelBigio, a Vancouver criminal lawyer
and chairperson of the Canadian Bar Association's national criminal
justice section.

"It's certainly not unheard of for these challenges to be successful.
So there's nothing surprising in that." The fact that search warrants
are regularly contested as a defence against criminal charges,
sometimes successfully, is not a new issue, he said.

"It doesn't mean the system grinds to a halt," DelBigio
said.

"It sometimes means that a case is brought to a halt. But the system
continues to function." Nevertheless, the Ecole nationale de police du
Quebec, the province's police-training centre, will examine the ruling
in the Parasiris case to see if changes are needed to police training
programs, said Pierre St-Antoine, a spokesperson for the school.

The school does that exercise every time a coroner's report or
controversial arrest occurs, he said.

"It's very clear we'll study the judgment and all of the deliberations
to make sure our training for police investigators in Quebec
corresponds to make sure these types of things never happen again,"
St-Antoine said.

That said, training is not a panacea, he added.

"You can put in place the best training in the world, but that can't
stop operational errors or errors in judgment." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake