REODICA INQUEST HEARS OF EVIDENCE TAMPERING

Published in BALITA of 16 September 2006 on page 4
By: Marlene Mogado

After 2 months of summer recess, the Coroner’s inquest on the shooting death of 17-year old Jeffrey Reodica resumed on September 11. BALITA was there to continue with its coverage. We have been reporting on witness accounts since the inquest started on May 8 and hope to stay with it until its scheduled end on October 13.

The inquest has heard that plainclothes Constable Dan Belanger shot Jeffrey three times in the back on May 21, 2004. He succumbed to his wounds three days later.

Why he was shot remains to be the point in question. The two attending Police Officers claimed Jeffrey swung at Belanger with a knife. All the other witnesses said they did not see any knife. One witness testified that Jeffrey owned a knife similar to the one found at the scene. On cross-examination of Belanger’s partner, Detective Constable Allen Love, it was revealed he also kept a similar knife that he sometimes brought with him to work. The knife evidence however did not have any fingerprints on it.

In spite of conflicting testimonies and doubts about the knife, the Special Investigation Unit sided with the Police. They exonerated Belanger of any wrongdoing, saying he acted in self-defence.

The Filipino community reacted with outrage. Under the leadership of the Community Alliance for Social Justice, they mobilized and protested the blatant abuse of police powers and the apparent racism in the justice system, particularly in the handling of this Jeffrey case.

Eventually and bucking tradition, the Attorney General’s Office granted an inquest on the case. In addition, CASJ was allowed intervenor standing, with two lawyers representing them in the proceedings.

Knife on the grass
We now pick up from the September 11 witnesses. The first officers to respond after the shooting arrived simultaneously in 2 marked cars. Constable John Cilia arrived less than 2 minutes from receiving a radio call. Constables Alex Ruttner and Rob Clauson got to the scene from 41 Division in 7 minutes. All three officers observed a black-handled knife beside Jeffrey who was lying on his back with Constable Love applying CPR on him. They said although blood was observed around the area they didn’t see any blood on the knife.

Tampering with the knife…
Paramedics soon arrived. David Pattison, with 29 years service, was at the time a Primary Care Paramedic. Getting there with his partner Jeremiah Canon and following normal protocol, Pattison scanned the surroundings. He noticed the knife close to the side of Jeffrey. As he needed to place his carrying board where the knife was, and concerned that officers may step on it, he lifted the knife and placed it 2-3 feet away.

It was at that time that Constable Ruttner told him to put the knife down. Ruttner then ordered his partner to get something to protect the knife. Constable Clauson got a Rubbermaid cover from the car and placed it on top of the knife.

Mystery of the Rubbermaid lid…
Both Ruttner and Clauson said they saw the Rubbermaid lid over the knife when they left to join Jeffrey in the emergency run to Sunnybrook Hospital. The officer assigned to secure the crime scene however tells a different story. Constable Cilia, on guard for 7 hours, didn’t see the lid anywhere at anytime. The 3 paramedics who attended to Jeffrey said they didn’t see the lid either.

Photos taken 3 hours after the shooting and presented at the inquest show the plastic lid a few feet away from the knife. To Barry Swadron, lawyer for the Reodica family, the most important evidence had been tampered with yet again.

Paramedic Canon who was left behind to retrieve emergency equipment when Jeffrey was rushed to the hospital said he did not see the plastic lid the whole time he was there until he left.

“Bloody knife”
In his SIU interview Paramedic Pattison testified the knife he saw was covered with blood. On cross-examination, he slightly changed it to a “smear of blood.”

“I couldn’t have been mistaken, it was colored ‘red’”, Pattison said. “I looked at the knife several times,” and in his years of being paramedic and having attended thousands of bloody incidents he insisted, “I know when it is blood; I’m not a stranger to the sight of blood; I had an excellent view of the knife as I picked it up.”

When he found out it could be a potential SIU case, he said he took a good look at the knife and the blood on it, deliberately about 2-3 times. When showed the knife kept by SIU as evidence, he said, “I can’t see the blood I saw on it before.”

SIU found knife with no fingerprints…
The knife recovered by SIU at the scene had no fingerprints, and no blood on it. Pattison asked the officers if they shot Jeffrey and someone responded, “Yes we did.” He did not pay particular attention on who responded but he also added that among the officers “no one said Jeffrey attempted to stab an officer.”

Paramedics thought undercover cop was civilian...
To the paramedics who saw Love doing chest compressions they did not think he was a plainclothes officer. “Hard to tell at the time as there were no tapes around the scene and they were in civilian clothes. I did not see any badge either.” Pattison said.

An Advance Care Paramedic, Mr. Christidis, who arrived later, assumed that Love was an undercover officer because “the place was secured with tapes so only police is allowed within.”

Possible tampering with Jeffrey’s belongings …
As SIU had taken over the case, control of evidence fell directly with its investigator. At the hospital despite the presence of an SIU investigator there, Jeffrey’s personal belongings were handed over to Ruttner by different people- by a nurse, another police officer, and a fireman. These were kept by Police at 41 Division, and then given to an SIU investigator, who passed them finally to Joe Berney, the SIU lead forensic investigator.

In spite of his 12 years experience as a cop, under cross-examination Ruttner admitted he was not aware that evidence should be handed directly to SIU and not to a Police Officer since this was a case of police shooting.

The mishandling of Jeffrey’s belongings unnecessarily making its way into police hands against police practice raised yet again another instance of evidence tampering, according to Swadron.

To the SIU and the Coroner, Jeffrey’s case appeared to be cut and dried. Given the extraneous circumstances coming out in the inquest, the spectre of miscarriage of justice is becoming evident at every turn. First, SIU’s quick exoneration of Belanger is now best described as “lutung makao’ in our native lingo.

Second, the Coroner’s apparent favorable accommodation of the police team, and on the flip side her hostile attitude against Jeffrey’s team is generating fireworks, therefore a hot serving for the gallery that’s better than reality soap television. No wonder the Ontario Ombudsman is keeping an eye on the proceedings, looking to follow up on the whole affair when it ends.

Come to the inquest to support the Reodicas and our community’s lawyers. It is held at Coroner’s Court at 15 Grosvenor St., north of College between Yonge and Bay from 9:30 to 4:30 weekdays. The public can come in and leave at anytime during the proceedings.