A public hearing into the police-involved death of Myles Gray resumes in Vancouver today, after a four-week adjournment triggered by an obscene remark and the subsequent resignation of counsel for the proceeding.
The delay allowed replacement counsel, Brock Martland, to get up to speed on the case by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner of B.C. involving seven Vancouver officers who deny misconduct in Gray’s 2015 beating death.
Former hearing counsel Brad Hickford resigned last month over a remark picked up by a microphone in the hearing room, describing someone as “stupid” and using an obscenity.
Gray’s family had sought the hearing after a discipline authority cleared the seven officers of misconduct in 2024.
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A coroner’s jury concluded in 2023 that Gray’s death was a homicide after hearing that he died shortly after a beating by several officers, leaving him with injuries including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.
Hickford is under investigation by the Law Society of B.C. over the remark in the hearing room on Jan. 21.
His own lawyer, Richard Neary, initially said Hickford denied making the remark, but later said that while his client could not recall making it, it was possible he had done so unintentionally.
Hickford said in a statement that he was “bewildered and troubled” by the recording of the obscenity.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner says the hearing is expected to continue over three weeks, and more dates could be scheduled after that.
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