Kim Bolan (Vancouver Sun) – Allegations against two officers on the Surrey Six murder case don’t taint the entire investigation that has involved more than 1,500 police employees, RCMP Sgt. Rob Vermeulen said Thursday.
Vermeulen was reacting after a young Mountie was charged for fraud this week for allegedly submitting bogus overtime claims while working on the unprecedented gangland murder case.
Cst. Steve Perrault was issued a summons to appear in court in March on a count of fraud under $5,000 and one of attempted fraud. The Vancouver Sun has learned that he is on sick leave.
Details of the charges were released by the RCMP Thursday — just two days after news broke that another member of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team was the subject of an internal investigation for allegedly having an affair with a potential witness in the case.
Sgt. Derek Brassington has been put on desk duty while an internal investigation is completed.
Vermeulen said neither case should have any impact on the prosecution of five gangsters linked to the Red Scorpion gang and alleged to be behind the October 2007 execution of six at the Balmoral Tower highrise.
He said the fraud investigation began last summer when suspicious overtime claims were submitted by Perrault in July and August 2009.
“This thing here had nothing to do with the integrity of the investigation or the file. This has to do with the integrity of the member,” Vermeulen said.
He said Vancouver Provincial Crown Counsel approved the charges earlier this week against the five-year member.
Vermeulen said overtime must be approved by supervisors and is reviewed by a financial officer.
“If there is anything we take from this, it is showing that our checks and balances work,” he said of the fraud charges. “I haven’t heard of this before.”
Top RCMP officials met with family members of the Surrey Six victims Wednesday night to allay their concerns about the prosecution.
Eileen Mohan, whose son Chris was an uninvolved bystander caught in the slaughter, said she felt better after the meeting.
“John Robin, the leader of the IHIT team actually apologized to me on behalf of the two officers,” Mohan said. “And from what I saw and felt, the entire IHIT team and RCMP are very angry and upset about the actions of the two officers. These two officers have let their colleagues and RCMP down.”
But she still believes the overall case will not be impacted.
“People on the streets are stopping me to get personal reassurances that the Surrey six case will not get dissolved because of these incidents. Because of these two officers’ actions I have to reassure the public,” Mohan said.
Vermeulen said Perrault was put on administrative duties last August, while Brassington got reassigned to desk duty last month.
Vermeulen said he could not give a total for the number of officers placed on administrative duties provincewide because decisions on the status are made by unit commanders in individual detachments and not tracked by E Division headquarters.
But it is still a relatively rare occurrence, he said.
Vancouver Police announced this week that one officer involved in a beating of a man during a mistaken arrest was placed on administrative duties.
Vancouver Const. Lindsey Houghton said Thursday that the department has just two members reassigned to desk duty pending the outcome of probes.
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