A trial date has been set for a Prince George man who was beaten by a Lower Mainland police squad in a case of mistaken identity.
Dwayne Washington was alone at his brother's house in Surrey when members of the RCMP's Emergency Response Team converged on the home in order, they said, to enforce a child maintenance order. When Washington dutifully answered their initial questions and attempted to end the conversation after that, he told The Citizen, the police officers allegedly attacked him without provocation to the point some of his teeth were knocked out, boot marks were visible on his skin, and he needed medical attention for the painful concussions and welts he sustained on his head, neck, torso and limbs.
The RCMP have contended since then that the members involved acted appropriately for the level of resistance shown by Washington. The dispute will be heard by a B.C. Supreme Court judge over seven days, starting on Jan. 3, 2012 - coincidentally the five-year anniversary of the incident.
Part of the court action by Washington focuses on the length of time taken to examine the incident. His assertion centres on a lack of internal investigation action by the RCMP in checking out his allegations.
His assertions to The Citizen came the day before a special report by Vancouver Sun journalist Kim Bolan in which the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the federal Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP both insisted they knew of cases for which the Mounties were dragging their feet on potentially embarrassing internal investigations - one of them being the ongoing concerns of the Clay Alvin Willey in-custody death at the Prince George RCMP detachment in July, 2003 (see page 8).
Washington's court date conversation also coincided with the announcement by the provincial and federal governments that long, controversial negotiations had resulted in a tentative deal to extend the RCMP's contract with this and other provinces.
"Based on my experience with them [the RCMP], I don't wish that they have that contract renewed," Washington said. "Further to the same, I will be taking [B.C. Solicitor General] Shirley Bond to task in the sense of this new directive they have [written into the new contract] for transparency, and for the civilian investigative body she says she is setting up so police don't investigate police anymore."
There is a chance, said Washington, that a mediation process might bring a resolution to his particular case before trial one month from today.
