Feb 6 2006 – CBC News
A Yellowknife RCMP officer who was accused of attacking a man outside a city bar two years ago is not going to be charged and will have no criminal record.
The Crown has recommended that Constable Scot Newberry be dealt with outside the courts, through a restorative justice approach.
Under the alternative approach, the victim and accused usually sit down together before a panel of community members.
Newberry allegedly punched 23-year-old Devon Herback, leaving the man unconscious on the ground with a broken leg.
Stuart Whitley, the federal director of justice for the North, says the public as a whole should be satisfied that justice has been served in this case.
“I believe that met the public interest,” he says. “If Mr. Herback is satisified with this process, then where would be the public criticism?”
Whitley bristled, however, when asked if he would recommend restorative justice for a citizen who attacked and injured a police officer.
“This isn’t a question of preferred treatment of someone,” he says. “This was the result of an independent analysis. It will not preclude this approach being taken in future cases, regardless of who the assailant is.”
Whitley recommended going the restorative justice route after the RCMP investigated the incident.
He then turned the file over for an independent analysis to Vancouver lawyer Peter Leask, who recommended the same unorthodox approach.
Whitley says he has spoken with Herback and his mother and that both have agreed to the approach.
He says Newberry and his lawyer have also agreed to it.
An unusual case for restorative justice
However, the community justice co-ordinator for Yellowknife says the committee that would deal with the matter has yet to agree to hear it.
Lydia Bardak says 80 per cent of people who appear before the community justice committee are young offenders.
“We saw a spell there for a while where we saw so much theft under $5,000, which really is shoplifting, typically candy out of the grocery store,” she says. “But we also see some minor assaults.”
Bardak says she has never heard of a case where the RCMP or Crown has referred an accused to the committee without a charge first being laid.
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