VANCOUVER — Lawyers for a former RCMP officer found guilty of perjuring himself in connection with the Robert Dziekanski case were in court Tuesday seeking to overturn the conviction.
Benjamin (Monty) Robinson was one of four Mounties charged with perjury in relation to their testimony at an inquiry that was held into the death of the Polish man at the Vancouver airport in October 2007.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nathan Smith concluded that the former corporal had lied in his explanation for having initially told police investigators that Dziekanski had to be wrestled to the ground after a first Taser firing. A video recorded by a bystander showed that Dziekanski collapsed in pain after being Tasered by police and was not wrestled to the ground.
Robinson had testified at the inquiry that he was mistaken in that version of events but that officers did wrestle with Dziekanski and that in his statement he “blended” the whole interaction with Dziekanski.
The judge found that Robinson also lied when he testified at the inquiry that he did not discuss with his fellow officers details of the incident before giving statements to the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team. He found Robinson had colluded with the others in the lie.
The Crown’s theory at trial was that Robinson and the other officers lied in order to justify their use of force because they knew there was going to be an investigation and possible consequences.
David Crossin, a lawyer for Robinson, told a three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal that the trial judge had erred in a number of respects in his judgment.
Noting that the case was based wholly on circumstantial evidence, he argued that a finding that Robinson was guilty of perjury was not the only rationale inference available.
Crossin pointed to the fact that two of the three other accused officers — Const. Bill Bentley and Const. Gerry Rundel — were acquitted at trial. The third officer, Const. Kwesi Millington, was found guilty.
Millington appealed his conviction but in July the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld the verdict. Millington is appealing that ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Richard Peck, a lawyer for the Crown, told the panel that the evidence in the case supported a guilty verdict and the judge had considered the points raised by the defence at trial.
He said that the two acquittals are irrelevant because each case was different.
Zofia Cisowski, Dziekanski’s mother, was in court for the appeal. She told reporters outside court that she found it “terrible” having to re-live the details in a case that has run nine years.
In addition to the perjury conviction, Robinson was found guilty of obstruction of justice in a case in which the vehicle he was driving hit and killed a young motorcyclist in October 2008.
He left the force in 2012.
