Constable details crass behavior of officers at missing women inquiry
ROBERT MATAS
VANCOUVER - Globe and Mail
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Two Vancouver cops involved in the missing women investigation
made their office unlivable by recounting racist tales, such as dumping flour
over the head of a Vietnamese man and joking that “now, you’re white,” the
Pickton inquiry has heard.
During her fourth day of testimony, Detective Constable Lori
Shenher told the inquiry Thursday that working in the office of the Vancouver
police missing women unit was uncomfortable, especially after Detective
Constables Doug Fell and Mark Wolthers recounted an episode of their role in an
earlier drug arrest.
Det. Constables Fell and Wolthers told a story about searching
a residence of a Vietnamese man. “At some point, they were going through the
kitchen cabinets and they pulled out a bag of white flour,” she said.
“They are telling us this story, and they said they dumped it
on this man’s head and said, ‘there you go. Now you’re white. What do you think
of that?’ and they’re laughing,” Det. Constable Shenher said.
Det. Constable Alex Clarke, another officer working on the
missing women case, was in the office with her at that time. They were “just
absolutely stunned that [Det. Constables Fell and Wolthers] would do this, and
that they would relate this stuff and think this is something we would find in
any way acceptable or funny or anything else,” Det. Constable Shenher said.
“That was the climate in the room,” she said.
Det. Constables Fell and Wolthers were assigned to the missing
women’s review team from May, 1999 to June 2000. They often used obscenities and
discriminatory language when talking about sex trade workers¸ deputy chief Doug
LePard has previously told the inquiry.
Their conduct impaired the investigation team’s ability to do
their work but neither officer was ever disciplined, deputy chief LePard
testified. He was not sure what managers at that time knew about them, he said.
The detectives are expected to testify at the inquiry later
this year.
Det. Constable Shenher, who was working on the missing women
case from July, 1998 to November, 2000, told the inquiry she spoke to her
supervisor, Sergeant Geramy Field, about the incident involving the Vietnamese
man but did not make any notes.
“I recall saying at the time, ‘I cannot believe you guys.’
Both [Det. Constable] Clarke and I were shocked,” she said.
Det. Constable Shenher, who had joined the Vancouver police
force in 1991, said she did not feel she could challenge the two detectives, who
had been police officers for much longer.
“I really, for the most part, tried to carry on without
dealing with them,” she said.
Later Thursday, Det. Constable Shenher was critical of the two
detectives for failing to tell her that three women from the Downtown Eastside
had identified Mr. Pickton in photos that Det. Constables Fell and Wolthers
showed them in April, 2000.
The inquiry has previously heard that the two detectives were
showing photos of several men including Mr. Pickton to sex-trade workers in
order to identify possible suspects in the case. At that time, the Vancouver
police investigation had stalled and police mistakenly believed that women were
no longer going missing from the Downtown Eastside.
The identification of Mr. Pickton by three sex-trade workers
would have “kick started,” the investigation, she said.
However, Det. Constables Fell and Wolthers never said they
found out that Mr. Pickton had been in the Downtown Eastside, she said.
The provincial inquiry was appointed in September, 2010 to
look into why Mr. Pickton was not arrested before February, 2002. The inquiry
has heard that police began receiving tips pointing to Mr. Pickton in 1998. Mr.
Pickton is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of six women. He
once said he killed 49 women.
© Copyright 2012 The Globe and Mail Inc. All Rights Reserved.