An Island Mountie has been exonerated in connection with a slow-speed moped chase in Duncan and a provincial court judge has scolded the prosecution.
Const. David Buchanan was charged with dangerous driving causing bodily harm after a moped chase on Feb. 20, 2016, that left the moped driver injured.
His actions were investigated by the Independent Investigations Office, which found Buchanan might have committed an offence and submitted a report to Crown counsel.
But, after a three-day preliminary inquiry at Duncan provincial court in June, Judge Justine Saunders threw out the charges and criticized Crown prosecutors for a dearth of evidence.
“The Crown has failed to call any evidence let alone some evidence which supports the Crown’s theory that Constable Buchanan was operating his motor vehicle as charged,” Saunders wrote in her decision.
Buchanan, with the RCMP Integrated Road Safety Unit, was on patrol in Duncan in an unmarked police vehicle when he saw a moped drive by with no licence plates. He followed the moped and watched it run a stop sign and drive the wrong way down a street. The officer turned on his lights and sirens, and the moped did a U-turn. The moped driver turned into a parking lot where items fell from the moped, including a lamp, a balaclava and a bottle of Fireball whiskey.
The driver cut across the path of the police cruiser, jumped a concrete curb and drove onto a patch of grass where he fell. He got back on the moped, fell against a fence and accelerated until he struck a fire hydrant and fell yet again, breaking his ankle.
The entire incident was recorded on the cruiser’s front and back dashcam.
Saunders said there was no evidence to support claims by the moped driver, Bryce McKay, that the police cruiser struck his moped repeatedly. McKay also testified that after he fell the final time, the police officer ran up to him, kicked him in the face mask of the helmet, pulled off the helmet and started hitting him in the face, punching him in the nose six to eight times. The judge said the video evidence does not support McKay’s version of events and found he is not a credible witness.
The moped was stolen, the ignition punched out so it could start without a key. McKay, who has a lengthy criminal record, was subsequently charged with possession of stolen property.
Ryan Hira, one of Buchanan’s lawyers, said the decision makes it “quite clear that charges should not have been laid.”
In a statement, the B.C. Prosecution Service said it “is carefully reviewing the Court’s decision to determine our next steps in relation to this matter.”
Ron MacDonald, chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office, which probes police-involved deaths or serious injuries, said the decision should not reflect poorly on the agency or the prosecution service.
“With respect to, ‘Does that reflect poorly on the IIO?’ I would remind you that at the time this matter was referred to the Crown, the standard applied by the IIO was whether an offence may have been committed, which is a very low standard,” MacDonald said. “It’s the Crown’s obligation to determine whether charges should be laid. I suggest it’s wrong and dangerous to draw conclusions about an organization or the Crown based on one case.”
