Police statement would violate officer’s rights at Taser perjury trial: lawyer

VANCOUVER – The lawyer for a Mountie charged with perjury at the public inquiry into Robert Dziekanski’s death says a statement he gave to investigators was essentially coerced and shouldn’t be allowed as evidence at his trial.

Const. Bill Bentley is charged with lying six times during the 2009 inquiry that examined what happened when Dziekanski was stunned with a Taser and died at Vancouver’s airport two years earlier.

Several of Bentley’s alleged lies relate to a statement he made to homicide investigators several hours after Dziekanski’s death — specifically, the explanations he offered at the inquiry for several errors in his statement.

One of his lawyers, Maegan Richards, says Bentley was compelled to provide a statement to investigators and believed he would be reprimanded if he didn’t comply with the order.

Richards says Bentley’s charter rights would be violated if the statement is permitted to be used as evidence.

The Crown is arguing the statement should be allowed in, telling the judge the it will be a key piece of evidence to determine whether Bentley was lying at the public inquiry.