“MAUDSLING ING” CONDEMNED |
Police brutality claim
‘Spurious’ - judge

By CHRIS LLOYD

A driver who told a
North Vancouver court
Wednesday that two
RCMP officers who
ordered him to drop his
pants) yanked his arm
behind his back until he
complied was sharply
rebuked by Judge J.K.
Shaw. oT

Allan Tardiff, aged 22, of
2215 Bonnyvale Avenue, in
Vancouver, made the
allegation in provincial court
when testifying in a case in
which he pleaded not guilty
to driving with a blood-

alcohol level exceeding .08 .

and to failing to blow into a
breathalyzer.

He said that after he had
been fingerprinted at the
North Van detachment, he
was told to hand over his
valuables and then to drop
his pants while two RCMP
officers - Sergeant Albert
Vancaesele and Constable
Brian Garbie - twisted his
arm behind his back.

Tardiff said that when it
came to undergoing a
second breathalyzer test, no
matter how hard he blew,
Vancaesele told him there
was not enough breath to
register.

Tardiff maintained that he
blew four or five times
before Vancaesele turned to
Garbie, the arresting officer,
and said: “F--- it. We're nol
getting anywhere here
Book him.”

ARM TWISTING

Tardiff said of the incident
after fingerprinting: “The
two put me in an arm lock
and lifted me right up in the
air and said ‘If you don't. we
will,’ so I complied as they
were twisting my arm right
up my back.”

Recapping the incident in
his judgement, Judge Shaw
said: ‘Firstly 1 do not believe
Mr. Tardiff when he says it.
It ts a spunous allegation and
has no bearing on this case at
all.

Call us today!

“It is as if the accused is
shnging mud when the police
have no opportunity to
reply. If he has a complaint
to make I don’t think it

should be done in _ this
fashion.”
He went on: “The ac-

cused’s reference to it at his
trial is improper, un-
fortunate and unfair to the
police, who have no op-
portunity to reply.”

However, Judge Shaw
noted that the police in-
formation sheet showed that
Tardfiff had been released
from police headquarters the
“same night on the order of a
judge. “But it appears he
was not released and the
constable was in error when
he says he was released.”

Constable Garbie told the
court he had seen a car
driven by Tardiff bump into
the back of another car
stopped at the traffic lights
at Mountain Highway and

Main Street at about 1:40
a.m. August 9.
He spoke to Tardiff,

smelled a faint odor of
alcohol on his breath and
asked him‘to carry out three
physical tests, which Tardiff
told the court he thought he
completed satisfactorily.

But Garbie said he still
formed the opinion Tardiff
was impaired and took him
back to headquarters for
breathalyzer tests.

OBNOXIOUS

He described Tardiff as
being courteous and
cooperative until after the
first test, conducted by
Sergeant Vancaesele, which
showed a reading of .13, and
Tardiff was then said to have
become obnoxious.

Vancaesele said that when
it came to the second test
Tardiff did not blow enough
to move the piston in the
breathalyzer and obtain a
reading and then refused to
biow further. :

A submission by defence
counsel David Leigh that the
charge of having a blood-

alcohol content exceeding
.08 should be thrown out as
the second test had not
shown that to be the case

was accepted by Judge
Shaw.

Tardiff told the court he
had only had two or three
beers that evening and could
not believe that the
breathalyzer had shown him
to be impaired.

He wondered if his work
in spraying alcohol at the
Dow Chemical site may have
contributed to the reading
and said he actually
requested to have a second
test.

However, he said that
when he blew, Vancaesele
told him he was not blowing
hard enough to get a reading
and though he tried again
about four times, until he
was blowing as hard as he
could, he was told he was
still not blowing enough.

CREDIBILITY

But Judge Shaw com-
mented in his judgement:
“The answer comes down to
credibility” and added:“I
don’t believe him.”

He felt Tardiff had learned
the first breath test reading
was over .08 and that he had
decided there was no way he
was going to blow again.

“In my view, he tried to
pretend to blow and _ the

pretence is obvious,” said
the judge.

Fining Tardiff $350 or 21
days’ imprisonment in
default, the judge com-
mented: “He saw he was

licked and decided not to
blow the second time.”

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