Public hearing resumes on allegations of misconduct against transit officers a decade after assault at Vancouver SkyTrain station

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VANCOUVER – A public hearing into allegations of misconduct against a current and former transit police officer began on Tuesday, more than 10 years after an assault at a Vancouver SkyTrain station.

The hearing, which was ordered by former Police Complaints Commissioner Stan Lowe, was originally called in 2018 but was adjourned after officers asked the BC Supreme Court to overturn the audience.

According to court documents, the court ruled that the decision to hold the hearing was an “abuse of process” given the delay involved. However, last year the British Columbia Court of Appeal (link: https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/ca/20/02/2020BCCA0221.htm) reinstated the notice of ‘public hearing, asserting that the previous judge had failed to take into account “the important public interest in the complaint being dealt with in its entirety”.

On August 10, 2011, a UBC freshman and college football player whose identity is protected was violently detained by transit police at the Rupert Street SkyTrain station. The 22-year-old black man was tackled, punched and hit with a baton 10 times in the head, neck and back, according to court documents.

He had gone to meet a friend and entered the “Fare Paid” area, but had not purchased a ticket as he did not intend to take the train.

Police officers in transit Const. Edgardo Diaz-Rodriguez and then agent Michael Hughes arrested the young man and mistakenly believed he had not given them his real name.

Court documents described how Const. Hughes told the man he was under arrest, then the two officers grabbed his wrists.

The man worried about his safety and tried to escape. Diaz-Rodriguez “tackled and hit him, then pulled out his stick” and hit the man 10 times in about nine seconds, causing injuries, including a six inch laceration on the back of the head.

Hughes left the force a year after the incident. Diaz-Rodriguez pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm in the attack and was sentenced to 12 months probation in 2016.

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