Pubdate: Sat, 18 Sep 2004
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2004 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Authors: Jim Rankin, and Betsy Powell

OFFICER HAD 1993 PROFILING RULING

Stopped Black Man In Earlier Contentious Case

Criticized This Week For Targeting Man Due To Race

One of the two Toronto police officers whose arrest of a young black 
motorist has been ruled a case of racial profiling had a prior 
controversial traffic stop involving a black man.

In that case, a judge found that Detective Glenn Asselin, then a constable, 
and his then partner, Richard Shank, had no "reasonable basis upon which to 
stop and demand identification from a citizen ostensibly walking to a 
parked vehicle."

"The officers," Mr. Justice Peter Cumming of the Ontario Court, General 
Division, wrote in a 1997 ruling, "were not seeking to stop the person 
because of anything to do with his operating of the vehicle or to see 
whether it was roadworthy.

"The officers were simply acting intuitively on a hunch, as in their view, 
the area is a `drug-infested area' and the vehicle might be stolen."

Cumming's ruling upheld an earlier acquittal of Paul Reece, who had been 
arrested by Asselin and Shank at his home in 1993, charged with failing to 
give proper identification, driving while under suspension and assaulting 
police. No drugs were discovered. Reece testified he wasn't the man who 
police saw walking to the car.

He later alleged in a civil suit, which named the Toronto Police Services 
Board as the defendant, that he was taken to a cemetery while en route to 
the police station and "savagely" beaten, his civil lawyer, Peter Abrahams, 
told the Star yesterday.

Police admitted there had been a stop at a cemetery, and said Reece had 
tried to kick out a window in the cruiser and had to be subdued. Videotape 
entered as evidence at Reece's initial trial showed Reece, apparently 
unconscious, being taken into the station.

The civil case was settled out of court by the board for "tens of thousands 
of dollars," Abrahams said.

"Race was clearly the spine of our case. You didn't call it racial 
profiling then, because it wasn't a common word then," Abrahams said. "We 
sued them because clearly it was a breach of duty, and racial profiling."

Reece, originally from Guyana, is now in his 30s and lives in Toronto, 
Abrahams said. He couldn't be reached for comment.

Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino also could not be reached for comment.

Following the settlement with the police board, Abrahams said, he also 
attempted to sue Asselin and Shank, but the case was dismissed because of a 
release he had signed, essentially a case of "double jeopardy."

When Abrahams opened up his newspaper yesterday and saw Asselin's name, he 
remarked to a man sitting next to him in a restaurant, "I know this guy."

On Thursday, Madam Justice Anne Molloy of the Superior Court of Justice, in 
written reasons for acquitting a black motorist of a drug charge earlier 
this summer, found that Kevin Khan, 29, "was targeted" three years ago by 
Asselin and former Toronto police officer Craig James "because of racial 
profiling: because he was a black man with an expensive car."

Khan's lawyer said the decision marks the first time a Canadian judge had 
found that a motorist had been stopped solely because he fit a racial 
profile. Fantino has ordered an internal investigation into the case.

A kilogram of cocaine was discovered in the car -- drugs the judge ruled 
did not belong to Khan. Khan had lent the car to his brother.

Malloy found the officers later fabricated evidence, and that the evidence 
was "overpowering" that the officers' testimony was "untrue." The judge 
said Khan deserved to have his name cleared.

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation yesterday lauded the decision, which 
it said builds upon a previous Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that 
acknowledged the existence of racial profiling by Toronto police, and 
"clears the way" for a civil action.

"A series of civil actions against police for this sort of behaviour will 
stop racial profiling in its tracks," the foundation's chair, Patrick Case, 
said in a news release. "It also supports the need for very deep and 
significant changes" in the police service, he said.

The Toronto Police Association, in a news release of its own yesterday, 
said its board is "disturbed and disappointed" by the ruling in the Khan 
case, and reiterated sentiments shared on previous occasions by Fantino.

"The Toronto Police Service does not practise racial profiling -- never 
has, never will, end of story," acting association president Al Olsen said 
in the release.

In an early morning interview yesterday on MOJO Radio 640 AM, Fantino said 
the issues raised by the judge in Khan's case, such as evidence tampering, 
are of "grave concern" and that officers must have legal justification for 
stopping a vehicle.

"You don't pull people over because they are black and happen to be driving 
a nice car," he said.

At the same time, he said he was not yet ready to "sell our people out," 
and called for a full investigation into the matter. And he expressed 
concern about the case tarnishing the "credibility" of his officers, 99.9 
per cent of whom are honest and hard-working.

Fantino noted that because of the arrest, a kilogram of cocaine was not on 
the streets. When the interviewer pointed out that was not the point of the 
ruling, he agreed.

The chief would not say whether he supports the association's position that 
an appeal be launched.

The police association news release said Olsen believes the officers 
decided to stop Khan -- a teacher and real-estate agent, pulled over 
shortly after noon on Oct. 21, 2001, in his Mercedes-Benz -- "solely 
because of what they considered to be suspicious behaviour," and that there 
is no reason to believe that racial profiling had anything to do with the 
decision.

Asselin's partner in the 1993 incident, Richard Shank, made headlines four 
years later for his involvement in the fatal shooting of Hugh Dawson, a 
suspected drug dealer police believed was in possession of a gun. Dawson, 
31, who was black, was shot to death March 30, 1997, in a botched police 
takedown. He was unarmed.

Shank was charged with manslaughter and later acquitted. 
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