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A8-Sunday News, February 24, 1980

Police officers ‘fighting for their careers’

FROM PAGE A1

be given for his judgement.

which will be handed down
in New Westminster court,
where Judge Husband
normally sits.

Constable David Weaving
and Sergeant Frank
Aikenhead face charges of
common assault on Robert
Logan, who was 15 at the
tume the incident is said to
have occurred in July 1978.

During the lengthy and
detailed evidence, both
counsel for the Crown and
the defence repeatedly drew
attention to inconsistencies
in the testimony of witnesses
and each closed their cases

with accusations of

fabncated stories.
PERJURY

Defence counsel Len

Doust submitted that if the
prosecuton case was ac-
cepted it required believing
that both accused officers as
well as various other
policemen who gave
evidence had _ deliberately
perjured themselves under
oath.

On his deferral decision,
the judge said: “I am
hesitant to reserve
judgement because I know
this matter has hung over the
heads of the two accused for
a great deal of time and I
know it must be a source of
great anxiety to them.”

But he added that he
would require several weeks
to come up with a decision
“which ts clear and concise
so the accused and _ the

general public can
clearly the basis for
decision.”

Court heard evidence that
Robert Logan was pushed
off his bicycle by Weaving
while riding in Ambleside
Park at about midnight and
that the constable picked
him up by his shirt and
rubbed his face in the dirt
and then punched him in the
face after handcuffing him.

Logan alleges’ that
Sergeant Aikenhead
stamped on his feet and that
his encounter with the police
occurred some four hours
before the 4 a.m. time given
by police witnesses.

Both officers denied any
of the incidents of assault.
Weaving told the court he
felt the boy’s injunes may
have occurred through his
falling off his bike earher
that evening and defence
evidence was that the boy's
state of disarray was
probably due to his being
found drunk near the B.C.
Railway tracks at Ambleside
Park.

Logan’s brother Douglas
testified that Robert had not
drunk at all that evening and
that he had last seen him
while riding out of Am-
bleside Park ahead of him
shortly after midnight as a
police car entered the park

Defence counsel Doust
submitted Robert Logan had
come up with his assault
account as a counter
defence to his being charged
and convicted for spitting in
Weaving'’s face twice that
night.

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He also submitted that the
youth maintained he had
been held in a cell for about
three hours through the need
to explain away to his father
a Ume lapse of four hours
dunng which nobody knew
what he had been doing.

‘NO RETURN’

And Doust said of the
youth's account: “The whole
thing became a path of no
return where he had to go all
the way and have it
prosecuted right to the end.”

In his summing up to the
court, Doust recounted
evidence that Logan had
been reluctant to fill out a
complaint against the of-
ficers and had run out from
the court clerk's office when
his father insisted he went
ahead with it. He added that
Logan’s father had run out of
the office, brought him
back, sat him in a chair and
pushed a pen into his hand to
make out the complaint.

Doust also dealt in length
with the’ evidence of the
father, saying there were
humerous’ discrepancies
between what he had said
and what his son had told
him.

He highlighted differences
between what Legana senior
had written down in a
complaint to the police and
what he had told the court.

“He wrote down what he
thought he was told at the
time and then Robert Logan
changed things and told it to
his father different,” Doust
maintained.

Among the examples he
repeatedly referred to was

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that Logan senior had
initially said “they punched
him” and then said it was
only one officer who had
done the punching.

He made references to
Logan saying his son told
him he was punched
repeatedly and then altering
his evidence to omit the
word “repeatedly”.

But Crown counsel Henry
Wood said the matters the
court had to decide were not
small inconsistencies but
“total invention.”

He said he placed far more
weight on the in-
consistencies of “an array of

professional police wit-
nesses.”
And he asked: “How can

we adjudge total invention
other than look at the in-
consistencies which seem
curious in the mouths of
professional witnesses who
are fighting for their
careers.”

Defence witnesses
detailed various instances of
police ignoring numerous
instances of Logan shouting
abuse at officers.

Court heard that when a
police patrol car had driven
into the park at about
midnight Logan had yelled
“turn your f—ing lights

down” and added further
abuse which had been
ignored.

At the police station he
was said to have kept up a
screaming session in which
he repeatedly called police
“f---ing pigs” and to havey
spat twice in the face of
constable Weaving.

Aikenhead said that at no

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time did he take any
retaliatory action or use
verbal abuse on Logan.

Aikenhead said he found
Logan lying drunk adjacent
to Ableside Park at about 4
a.m. He said Logan was
extremely dirty, almest from
head to foot and had an open
wound on one of his elbows
which was encrusted with
dried blood.

CALMNESS

Crown counsel Wood said
Aikenhead “paints himself a
rather incredible picture of
calmness” in the face of
Logan’s actions, which
Wood indicated he found
beyond belief.

Wood said Logan
maintained police officers
had called him a “puke” and
“scum”. This was denied by
police witnesses, although
both constables Peter
Norman and Scott Arm-
strong said the words were
commonly used by West
Van police officers to
describe “undesirables.”

Weaving had told the
court he had seen Logan run
out of the police station after
spitting in the constable’s
face, reach the middle of
Marine Drive and fall onto
his back. This was one
explanation suggested as to
how Logan may _ have
received various cuts and
injuries on his back.

Wood pointed out that at
the tnal in which Logan was
convicted of assault
Weaving had denied seeing
him run into the street or
fall.

Wood called it
tradiction

“a con-
which defies

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He said that in the light of
evidence by other officers he
wondered whether they were
even talking about the same
incident.

Ano . inconsistency he
drew court's attention to was
the fact that Constable
Armstrong had also
described * Logan running
onto Marine Drive and
falling yet had made no
mention of it in his official
written report of the
evening's incidents.

In his reply, Doust said the
very fact that there were
discrepencies in police
evidence indicated that
there had not been a°
fabrication of evidence.

He pointed out that
Aikenhead had contradicted
himself in his evidence
without any effort of an
explanation, whereas if he
wanted to fabricate evidence
he could have explained
away discrepencies without
any fear of contradiction.

The fact that he did not,

submitted Doust, was “the
hallmark of a= truthful
witness.”

He added:"If they

fabricate a story then surely
they can make sure it is the
same.”

As for Aikenhead’s
calmness during Logan's
continual screaming of
profanities and abuse, Doust
said: “If the officers were
going to lose their calmness
every time they were called
pigs we would have a
barrage of confrontations

between young people and
police officers.”

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