Pubdate: Thu, 07 Jun 2012 Source: Now, The (Surrey, CN BC) Copyright: 2012 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.thenownewspaper.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1462 Author: Tom Zytaruk FURIOUS SURREY DAD SAYS 'TRAUMATIC' DRUG ARREST BOGUS 'The only drugs I was on that day was coffee and adrenaline,' Surrey driver insists after roadside stop A busy day turned into a nightmare for Robert Stierle last November after Mounties stopped the Surrey dad on suspicion of running a red light at a busy intersection in Whalley. The 51-year-old Surrey man had been to Bible study, choir practise, worked out at the gym, bought some supplies at a health food store and was finally enjoying a cup of coffee when he realized he was late in picking his kids up from school. He says he'd caught the tail end of a yellow light at King George Boulevard and 108th Avenue when a constable driving an unmarked cruiser pulled him over. "He said it's red," Stierle recalled. "I dispute that, maybe I'm wrong. I don't know." What he did know was there was no way he'd pick up his kids on time now, and he was stressed about it. The constable was back inside the cruiser, checking on him. "I thought I was going to get a ticket and be let go." Thinking he'd better call the school, he stepped out to get his cellphone. It was inside a jacket rolled up in the back of his van, where he'd left it after his visit to the gym. The cop hollered at him to return to his seat because doing stuff like that could get him shot. Two other cops arrived, in separate cars, and the three officers talked amongst themselves. Stierle said the officer let him go on the red light, but told him there was "another problem." Seeing Stierle sweaty and agitated, the constable accused him of being on drugs. Stierle was outraged. Ironically, in 2006 he'd spearheaded a Surrey-wide campaign to get corner stores to stop displaying pipes and other drug paraphernalia where children can see them. "The only drugs I was on that day was coffee and adrenaline," Stierle said. He noted he has no criminal record, and hasn't had a traffic ticket in six years. He said police laughed at him when he said he'd been to the gym, and Bible study before that. He showed the Now a letter from his Lutheran pastor confirming his attendance at Bible study and choir practise that morning. He also had printouts of his sign-in and out times from Surrey Sport & Leisure Complex, as well as receipts from a health food store. "Nobody's asked to see these documents," he said of the police. "They assume I'm lying, and that's good for them. I tell them I was at Bible study in church and they laughed at me. They laughed." DRUG TEST SURPRISE During his interview with the Now, Stierle seemed fidgety and high-strung. His dad, who accompanied him, said he's always been that way. The police asked him if he'd submit to a drug test. Worried about his kids waiting at school, Stierle figured he had no time for a blood or urine test and refused. He also found it strange, he said, that the police didn't seize a container filled with pills when they searched his car. "If they were concerned about drug use, and these were unlabelled - a whole Tupperware container full of white pills, Tylenol - they didn't seize it, they gave it back to me." Stierle said he was handcuffed and kept in a room at Whalley District 1 office where at one point a constable identifying himself as a drug recognition expert shone a flashlight into his mouth and called some other Mounties over to have a look at "classic crack cocaine teeth." Stierle said his 72-year-old father advised him not to submit to the testing until he'd spoken with a lawyer. But Stierle relented, he said, after they threatened to arrest his dad for interfering with their investigation. Eventually a legal aid lawyer - a disembodied voice on the other end of a phone - told him he had to submit to the testing. "I said I will pee in a cup," Stierle said he told the officers, and was shocked by the response: "They said that won't be necessary." All the while Stierle was thinking the police had wanted to do blood and urine tests, they wanted to test his balance, do a walk and turn test, a finger-to-nose test, a one-leg stand and a time test. He failed these, was given a 24-hour driving prohibition under the Motor Vehicle Act for drug impairment, and was sent on his way. If it were for drinking and driving, he could have appealed this, but not so for drug impairment. On the back of the prohibition notice, it reads: "If a notice was served on you because your ability to drive was affected by drugs, you do not have a right of review by the Superintendent." Stierle filed a complaint with the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP in January, alleging the three officers demonstrated a neglect of duty "by failing to complete a full investigation into impairment by drugs" by refusing his offer to provide a urine sample. Stierle wants an apology and the prohibition order rescinded. Legislation requires the RCMP to conduct the first investigation into any such complaint. Assistant Commissioner Fraser MacRae, who has since retired, filed his conclusions on May 24 and invariably sided with his officers. Among his observations, MacRae noted that Stierle estimated the balance test took 30 seconds when in fact 42 seconds had passed, and that he lost his balance and swayed during other tests. Stierle said he suffered a severe foot injury as a child, making balancing difficult. MacRae also stated, upon consultation with a staff sergeant who had spoken with a drug recognition instructor, that "obtaining blood and/or urine samples was not warranted." Unhappy with this result, Stierle is pursuing the next step of his complaint with the Commission. 'I FEAR THEM NOW' Meanwhile, Surrey-Whalley MLA Bruce Ralston is writing a letter to the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles requesting that the 24-hour prohibition be removed from Stierle's driving record. "I think he has a pretty convincing argument that he was not taking any drugs that day," Ralston told the Now. "The discretion granted to a police officer - it's important for them to do their job - but it can be abused." Sgt. Drew Grainger, spokesman for the Surrey RCMP, noted that the prohibition, under 215(3) of the Motor Vehicle Act, "will have no effect at all on him getting across the border" and "has no bearing on international travel." Mike Milne, a press officer for U.S. Department of Homeland Security, confirmed this. That's cold comfort to Stierle, who works as a high rigger for concert and stage productions. "This is extremely important that I have no connection to drug use while operating machinery," he said. In order to be certified as a drug recognition expert, a police officer must have at least two years of service, have Standard Field Sobriety Test training, have "reasonable background and experience" in making impaired driving arrests, complete some classroom training, participate and document the results of at least 12 drug evaluations, and pass a comprehensive test. Stierle believes police should not be able to make medical or psychological assessments. To this day, he said, the police still haven't told him what drug they suspect he was on. "I so traumatically fear them now." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom