RCMP Watch

CanWest News Service, The StarPhoenix

The Edmonton Police Service employed bureaucratic stonewalling in an attempt to block Const. Joe Slemko from providing expert evidence in a court case — evidence which helped stay a first-degree murder charge — a local defence lawyer says.

“It is almost an obstruction of justice,” lawyer Bob Aloneissi said Friday. “There was relevant evidence to be given, the Edmonton Police Service knew that, but they were effectively trying to stop him from giving that evidence.”

Slemko, an internationally recognized blood-spatter expert, will face a disciplinary hearing this fall for defying an order not to assist the defence in two cases in which he contradicted RCMP evidence.

Until recently, Edmonton police policy was to deny permission for their officers to testify for the defence.Slemko was charged with insubordination after Police Chief Mike Boyd ordered an internal investigation. After the Edmonton Journal published stories about Slemko’s conflict with his superiors, Boyd abruptly reversed his previous position, telling the police commission Wednesday that Slemko and other officers with expert credentials were free to testify for whomever they wished as long as they told the chain of command in advance.

Both Slemko and the medical examiner refuted the police theory on the murder.The Crown stayed the charges.