Judge made ‘significant errors’ in acquitting Mountie of perjury: Crown

VANCOUVER – The Crown says a judge made “significant errors” when an RCMP officer was found not guilty of perjury related to the Robert Dziekanski inquiry.

Prosecutors are appealing a verdict that found Const. Bill Bentley not guilty of lying in connection to his testimony at a public inquiry in 2009.

Bentley was among four RCMP officers who confronted Dziekanski at Vancouver’s airport the night the Polish immigrant was stunned with a Taser and died.

The judge hearing the case concluded there were reasonable explanations for what Bentley told the inquiry, even after some of that testimony turned out to be incorrect when compared with a video of the incident.

In recently filed court documents, the Crown says the judge failed to properly consider evidence that suggested all four officers colluded before giving statements to homicide investigators the night Dziekanski died.

The documents says the judge misinterpreted the law when he ruled the Crown had failed to prove collusion, and that there’s a possibility Bentley might be convicted if put on trial for a second time.