Mountie not guilty of perjury in Dziekanski Taser probe

VANCOUVER – A Mountie who was among four RCMP officers at Vancouver’s airport the night Robert Dziekanski was jolted with a Taser and died has been found not guilty of lying at the inquiry into the Polish immigrant’s death.

Const. Bill Bentley was the first to go on trial for perjury for his testimony during the 2009 inquiry seeking to find answers about what happened when the officers responded to a call about a distraught man throwing furniture in an arrivals area.

Dziekanski was zapped with a Taser and died on the airport floor in October 2007 after what Bentley said in his notes was a confrontation in which Dziekanski came at the officers screaming and brandishing the stapler before he had to be shocked and wrestled to the ground.

But a video, taken by a traveller, contradicted some of Bentley’s notes and statements.

The Crown argued at Bentley’s trial that he and the other officers colluded on their stories to homicide investigators and then lied at the inquiry to cover up the deception.