Ex-Cops Back Before Police Commission
Monday, October 22, 2007 at 13:14
Two former Saskatoon police officers are continuing their fight today to get their former jobs back.
Larry Hartwig and Bradley Senger were fired three years ago after a provincial inquiry into the death of 17-year-old Neil Stonechild found they had the Aboriginal teen in their custody the last night he was seen alive.
Stonechild’s frozen body was found on the outskirts of Saskatoon in November 1990.
Their lawyers are appearing before a panel of the Saskatchewan Police Commission over the next two days to appeal the firings.
They are arguing new evidence presented last month should be admitted into this hearing.
That evidence consisted of a man testifying that a former jailmate admitted to killing Stonechild.
Neither man can be identified because of a publication ban.
The ex-cops’ lawyers argue the testimony is reliable and credible, and say it gets to the heart of their appeal — the reliance of Jason Roy’s testimony.
Hartwig’s lawyer, Aaron Fox, is arguing the initial hearing officer needed to question the credibility and reliability of Roy’s testimony more.
Roy testified at the Stonechild inquiry that he saw Stonechild bleeding in the back of a police car, screaming, “They’re going to kill me!”
The lawyer for the police service, Mitch Holash, says the new testimony isn’t relevant or credible.
The appeal finishes today. However, a written decision — on both the admissibility of the new evidence and the actual appeal — will come later.