Jeff Smiley’s Arbitration Hearings are a Monumental Waste of Public Funds
What do Charles LeBlanc, Dennis Oland and Jeff Smiley all have in common? They are all victims of the most appalling police negligence, ineptitude and incompetence I have ever seen – other than in Keystone Cops movies.
Jeff Smiley’s Arbitration hearings show, yet again, the public of New Brunswick is paying a huge amount of money for yet another FPF personal vendetta – and megabucks to lawyers. The police union pays defence counsel, T. J. Burke, who is not cheap. The New Brunswick Police Commission paid three lawyers for the week – the arbitrator and two lawyers from Stewart McKelvey, to represent the Police Commission, and a court stenographer. That’s probably five thousand dollars a day, without the cost of renting the Wu Centre and witnesses’ time.
On Monday and Tuesday we heard sworn testimony from Cpl. Ross Chandler, Cpl. Dwight Doyle, Cst. Karla Forsythe, Cst. Samantha McInness and Staff Sgt. Matt Myers (after which I left, since the proceedings were obviously not in the interests of justice).
Every one of these cops had “convenient memory loss and incompetence” syndrome. They all testified to losing evidence, failing to collect relevant evidence and information, failing to take notes or inability to remember any facts at all that were crucial to their colleague Jeff Smiley’s constitutional rights to defend himself. I lost count of the number of times they repeatedly answered simple questions with, “I can’t recall, I don’t remember, I couldn’t say for sure, I can’t specifically recall that.”
This does not inspire confidence in the FPF and is exactly why Chiefs like Leanne Fitch must not be given power to suspend officers without pay, until they have been provided access to justice and a proper review.
Every charge of misconduct against Smiley relies on the allegations of assault having substance, to prove his arrests and the undertaking he was released on were lawful. The law says they were not.
The FPF’s operational manual states section 495 of the Criminal Code of Canada confers their powers of arrest for alleged criminal offences. Jeff Smiley’s circumstances on 26th and 27th February, 2014, did not meet any of the requirements of the Criminal Code, which states:
495. (1) A peace officer may arrest without warrant
(a) a person who has committed an indictable offence or who, on reasonable grounds, he believes has committed or is about to commit an indictable offence;
(b) a person whom he finds committing a criminal offence; or
(c) a person in respect of whom he has reasonable grounds to believe that a warrant of arrest or committal, in any form set out in Part XXVIII in relation thereto, is in force within the territorial jurisdiction in which the person is found.
Not one of these applied, so the police should have gone away, investigated, submitted its case to the Crown for approval, then laid an information and requested a summons to be issued. The testimony against Smiley confirms there was no evidence of any offence on the night in question and no evidence of any prior offences. The FPF had no power to do more than request a peace bond, for Smiley to stay away from his partner, based on the lack of evidence.
Since there were no lawful grounds to arrest Jeff Smiley there were also no lawful grounds to detain him in custody. The police therefore had no lawful rights to force him to sign an undertaking, in order to be released. With no legal grounds to force him to sign an undertaking there were no lawful rights to require him to hand over his firearms. There was no breach of the undertaking – it was constitutionally and legally invalid.
As for the assaults Smiley was accused of, the FPF officers did not state (and were not asked) when they found out the allegations related to incidents in Nova Scotia, where they had no jurisdiction. Cpl. Chandler claimed the sworn video statement given by Smiley’s partner did not record audio and he did not discover that for many hours. I believe that was intentional. Chandler went on vacation immediately his shift ended. With no audio we are left with his word – which certainly isn’t good enough for me.
The second video-recorded sworn statement was not reviewed by anyone except Cst. Karla Forsythe, the officer who took it, before being sent to the RCMP. It was revealed she had the interview transcribed but only used the parts that sounded bad for Jeff. She left out every single statement that confirmed he did not ever hurt his partner, was always loving towards her and that she suffered from mental disorders of OCD, anxiety and depression, which caused difficulties.
While under oath Matt Myers expressed his “surprise” that the RCMP did not charge Smiley with 20 or more allegations of assault. (It seems the Crown and RCMP actually wanted evidence to support the allegations!) Myers also stated that Smiley had not stored one of his guns safely, because there were two shells in it, and should have been criminally charged with that too. Funny thing though, the RCMP took the weapons from Smiley’s vehicle around the 28th February, 2014, and declared them to have been safely stored. A week or so later it was alleged the two shells were found but no photographs of that evidence were taken. If I were Smiley I would have asked for them to be fingerprinted – I am pretty sure Smiley’s prints wouldn’t be on them. So, Myers sounded really pissed off the additional charges weren’t laid.
Doyle testified Smiley’s guns were taken to stop him hurting himself. If that was the case they should have taken their colleague to hospital for evaluation, if suicide was a concern. Myers and Chandler testified the guns were taken because Smiley’s girlfriend was at risk, even though her sworn statement said she was not. Myers testified he did not read or review any reports or evidence before arresting Smiley for breach of the undertaking. There was no evidence the shells were in the gun, no evidence of any assaults and no evidence Smiley was a danger to himself or anyone else.
Matt Myers is a vindictive and ruthless man. He sat at the witness table and spoke as though his negligent, incompetent and unlawful conduct was the law of the land. It was disappointing his arguments and personal issues with Smiley were not introduced into evidence - he is a man who carries a grudge. As second in command of the Serious Crime Unit he knew he had no powers of arrest and nor did the others. The FPF officers were in a direct conflict of interests dealing with Cst. Smiley and arresting one of their own, without lawful grounds, evidence or investigation. Another agency should have been brought in immediately.
Our police are corrupt and the City of Fredericton, NB Police Commission, minister for Public Safety and Law Society help them get away with it. They are costing us hundreds and thousands of dollars in frivolous and vexatious vendettas. People like Charles and Jeff Smiley are victims of defamation, denial of natural justice and multiple constitutional violations. If the Commission upholds these complaints Smiley has the right to a judicial review. I hope he uses every avenue available to fight for justice – and his career. Leanne Fitch needs to go, so does Matt Myers.
