Jeffrey Reodica Inquest : Police changes needed, says jury

Jeffrey Reodica Inquest : Police changes needed, says jury

TORONTO – After 10 weeks of hearing testimonies from 47 witnesses at the Coroner’s inquest into the death of Michael Jeffrey Reodica, the jury came up with crucial recommendations suggesting some police changes needed that may have changed the course of events leading to the teen’s death in the hands of police.

These recommendations were met with varying reactions from the Reodica family, the Filipino community, the family lawyer, the lawyers of the Filipino community alliance, the police and police lawyers.

Recommendations

One of the seven jury recommendations (See page 7) asked that “the Toronto Police Service should study and determine whether outfitting unmarked police service vehicles with sirens, and or “cherries,” public address system of “Police” jacket and arm bands” would help “to enhance identification of plain clothes officers, when required.”

The jury heard testimonies during the inquest from several witnesses that Reodica was not aware that Det. Const. Dan Belanger and Det. Const. Allen Love, who had emerged from an unmarked car in plainclothes, were police officers.

Another recommendation asked that TPS should require all plainclothes officers responding to a call for service to “take with them, by whatever means possible, all use of force options when exiting their vehicles.”

The jury heard Steven Summerville, a security expert and former Toronto police sergeant testify that if Det. Belanger, who fatally shot the 17 year old, had used pepper spray or a baton, which the officer had left behind in his car, the outcome of that day would have been different.

A related recommendation was that “the Ontario Police College should reinstate control training in their curriculum with regards to the extendable baton.” The jury’s rationale was that “it has been mandated that all police officer must be issued, amongst other items, extendable batons and as such they should have the required training to understand when and how to use it, along with the striking position.”

Another recommendation called for the police and the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the body mandated to investigate police involved in injury or death to civilians, to notify parents or guardians of the youth whom they detain for the purpose of an interview.

The jury’s rationale for this was that “testimony had shown that most of the youths, aged 12 to 16 years, were detained by police to be interviewed by the SIU. Some of the youths were at the police station for over 8 hours (approximately form 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.) feeling tired, scared and hungry. As a result of this, it could have affected their statements.”

Another recommendation had asked that the police “Community Liaison Officers should continue their practice of building up relationships and establishing trusts between themselves and the communities.”

The jury had heard from Nora Angeles, an expert in the area of anti-racism , that it was important for police to build trust with the Filipino and other communities. The death of Jeffrey in the hands of police had resulted in the loss of trust or confidence in the police among some community members, especially the youth.

Family reacts

The jury’s recommendations were received with varied reactions. Outside the coroner’s court, an angry Willie Reodica, Jeffrey’s father, told the media that the jury recommendations were “garbage,” “another form of miscarriage of justice here in Canada,” and that the inquest “a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Reodica took issue with the fact that his family was not allowed to participate in the inquest. “We’re part of this inquest. We did not have the chance to speak before this coroner’s court would give us some clear cut evidence of what really happened, “ Reodica said.

Family lawyer’s views

Barry Swadron, the Reodica family’s lawyer, explained that the Reodica family is not happy in the manner which the inquest was structured. “We were told almost from day one, notwithstanding there are lots of answers we need about the SIU, we were told this is not an inquiry into the SIU. We made a number of recommendations with regards the SIU and the coroner ruled that they could not go forward to the jury.”

“The most disappointing element of the inquest is that the SIU has gotten off unscathed,” Swadron said. “The Reodica family has been trying since Jeffrey died to get information, and could not get information and had to get to court to get the SIU records and lo and behold, there was opposition to them getting the records,” Swadron revealed to media.

“The opposition was an affidavit of this coroner and we could not believe it, we could not believe it that this coroner would be fighting the Reodica’s right to have the records. And then throughout the inquest, there were all kinds of mistakes surely that the SIU made, and for some reasons, this coroner made rulings that insulated the SIU from any accountability.,” he said.

Swadron disclosed that “it is the family’s intention to bring to the attention of the Ombudsman of Ontario all the things that are wrong with the SIU in this particular case.”

Swadron cited the case of the knife which the police had alleged Jeffrey had used to attack the officers, causing Det. Belanger to shoot at the youth in what he claimed as self-defense, and leading the SIU to clear the officers of any criminal wrongdoing.

“The knife that was supposed to be pulled out by Jeffrey. We don’t believe it at all. Jeffrey did not have a knife in his hand. And the SIU did not send it for DNA testing. There were no fingerprints on the knife.” Swadron emphasized that had the knife been subjected to DNA testing, “it would possibly show that Jeffrey never touched it.”

Swadron however welcomed two recommendations which he said were very telling: the need for police identification gear, even for undercover officers using unmarked cars; and the use of force options.
Police identification measures are very important, he said, “ because the family takes the viewpoint that Jeffrey did not know that they were police officers.”

Swadron noted that the use of force recommendation was “very telling. We know that Const. Belanger did not bring his baton and pepper spray with him. He left them in the car, therefore, he did not have those options available. The only use of force option he had was a gun and he used it and Jeffrey is dead., and he can’t be brought back. And the recommendation of the jury is that even plainclothes officers should have all use of force options with them”.

Filipino community reacts

Meanwhile, the Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ), an umbrella organization of about 30 Filipino and other community groups, declared in a media statement that the inquest results were“ a victory for the Filipino and ethnic communities but failed to address racism, the underlying reason behind the violence that took the life of Jeffrey Reodica.”

CASJ was granted the status of intervenor at the inquest, and was represented by legal counsels Kike Roach and Mike Leitold.

In the statement, Hermie Garcia, President of CASJ, said: “Most of the jury’s recommendations, if not all, were taken from or modified versions of the suggested recommendations submitted by Barry Swadron, Reodica family’s counsel and by CASJ lawyers Roach and Leitold. They were all in the spirit of the non-use of lethal weapons in non-threatening situations, proper police identification, notifying youth’s parents when under detention, the question of building trust of the police in the community.

The essence of the jury’s recommendations is that many changes are needed that could help prevent a similar death of a civilian caused by police officers. And these changes, though limited, can help achieve that purpose. But still the ultimate issue is racism should be stamped out of the police force, if that is at all possible.”

Garcia said that the community worked hard to demand for an inquest and having achieved it, meticulously presented its case in the inquest through CASJ, that Jeffrey could not have been killed by police had the latter treated the Filipino youth equally and non-aggressively as their treatment of the white youth.”

“Another central question missed is the much needed changes in the Special Investigations Unit, particularly concerning its composition of mostly ex-police officers, which could have led to the bunglings, intentional or not, in the handling of evidence specially the question of the existence of a knife.”

“In fairness to the jury, it was Coroner Bonita Porter who disallowed any substantial recommendations from the counsels of Reodica and CASJ that touched on the SIU. And the jury as a result did not receive or see these suggested recommendations. The Coroner practically protected the SIU from being the subject of any recommendation,” Garcia said.

“Our counsel Roach was stopped by the Coroner from speaking about SIU when she was making her submissions and presenting the CASJ’s suggested recommendations.”

Youth reaction

Mithi Esguerra, general secretary of the Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada (UKPC) a national network of Filipino-Canadian youth, and head of the Youth and Community Safety Committee of CASJ, said that the recommendations of the coroner’s inquest “ was a huge victory on the part of the Filipino community.”

She said the issue of police identification, notifying parents of the young witnesses, and the use of force were things that the youth have all along been bringing up as important issues in their campaign for justice for Jeffrey. “I think it was really good that the jury took notice of all these into account when they adopted their recommendations,” Esguerra said.

However, Esguerra also lamented that the issue of racism was not addressed “because there was opposition from the coroner and the lawyers representing the police and the SIU, so this just goes to show that there is a lot more work that has to be done in terms of addressing systemic racism.”

Senior’s reaction

Rose Bustamante, a Filipino-Canadian senior citizen, educator and community newspaper columnist who had sat through many days of inquest proceedings with the Reodica family and community supporters, told media that racism was overlooked by the process.

She cited a columnist of the Toronto’s Star’s opinion saying that “We would not have been here and have an inquest if there was no racism.”

“It was the racism of those boys against our young people that started all of these, and it was very clear that there was racism when the police considered the white youth as the complainant, and that the Filipino were the culprits, right form the beginning,” Bustamante said.

“Even the experts of the use of force mentioned that in a case like this, everybody should be considered and part of those investigated. The white boys were not investigated. Only the Filipino youth were investigated,” Bustamante, said, referring to the fact that only the Filipino youth were detained and investigated for hours during that night of Jeffrey’s shooting.

Community counsels’ views

Roach said that as counsel for CASJ. she thinks that the jurors’ recommendations “are a victory for all the positions that were argued by the community alliance as well as the counsel for the family.”

Just like family counsel Swadron, Roach pointed out that two of the recommendations speak to the jurors’ strong concerns about the use of force and the need for even undercover police officers to identify themselves especially if they are dealing with youth on a public street.

“The other thing that is very important is that the jury is concerned about the evidence that they heard about the Filipino community’s lack of trust and faith following the death of Jeffrey. And they said that the police force have to do more to encourage and build relationship with trust and confidence with the Filipino community in particular.”

“So we are very happy to see all of those recommendations,” Roach said. “We feel that the jury has done a wonderful job but they w ere labour ing under a lot of restrictions and they were hampered in their ability to make certain recommendations that would have been directed towards the SIU.”

Leitold, co-counsel for CASJ, similarly noted that “the jury as best as it could had supported the position of looking towards truth and justice taken by the family and the community alliance.”

“However, they were restricted by the process and decisions made by the coroner Bonita Porter,” he said.
“I think the real tragedy is the opportunities to make society better, and to deal with the challenges of racism and systemic injustice here and the problems with the SIU and the investigation of police were dropped, and the opportunity was lost. That is the failure of the system,” Leitold said.

“However, the jury putting our faith in the people has paid off, in the sense that they’ve heard the truth of the argument made by the lawyers and the cries for justice of the community. I mean there are recommendations specifically of youth being allowed to have their parents present, or have their parents notified, which was a critical concern of the Filipino community. I think in that way, it is a qualified victory, but it is a victory, nonetheless,” Leitold concluded.

Police lawyer’s views

Lawyer Joseph Markson, counsel for Belanger, while crediting the jury with some of the recommendations, told media that while some of the recommendations were positive, none of these would have changed his client’s need to defend himself and the life of his partner.

Meanwhile, Toronto Police Association president Dave Wilson said outside the courtroom that he was there to support the officers. He said that “these recommendations have to be considered, but there are a lot of things we would be concerned about as far as identification of plainclothes officers. There is a reason why we have plainclothes officers out there.”

Regarding the recommendation of using all use of force options, Wilson said “ I do not agree that a baton or pepper spray would have changed anything.”

Wilson made it clear to media that his men had already been cleared by the SIU. “They’ve done everything right and nothing wrong,” he said. “And the fact that they are standing here today is something we’re pleased. It’s a tragedy that someone died in this situation, but the fact is, these officers have to make these very difficult, very sudden decisions regularly.”

With the inquest over, the family plans to ask Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin to investigate the SIU’s handling of the Reodica case, according to family counsel Swadron. He added that the family’s $5.4 million civil suit against the police officers will proceed.