Surrey Six homicide case: Four RCMP officers charged

VANCOUVER – Four members of the RCMP, Derek Brassington, David Attew, Paul Johnston, and Danny Michaud, are charged in connection with the “˜Surrey Six’ homicide case that took place in a Surrey highrise in October 2007.

Brassington is charged with breach of trust, fraud, willfully attempting to obstruct, pervert, or defeat the course of justice by comprising the integrity of a witness, and compromising the safety of witnesses or informants, willfully attempting to obstruct, pervert, or defeat the course of justice in relation to an investigation of alleged police misconduct, defrauding the RCMP of money in the form of wages and overtime, and claiming reimbursement of expenses.

Attew is charged with breach of trust, fraud, willfully attempting to obstruct, pervert, or defeat the course of justice by comprising the integrity of a witness, and compromising the safety of witnesses or informants, defrauding the RCMP of money in the form of wages and overtime, and claiming reimbursement of expenses.

Johnston is charged with breach of trust, willfully attempting to obstruct, pervert, or defeat the course of justice by comprising the integrity of a witness, and compromising the safety of witnesses or informants, and willfully attempting to obstruct, pervert, or defeat the course of justice by attempting to mislead members of the Ontario Provincial Police who were engaged in an investigation of alleged police misconduct.

Michaud is charged with breach of trust, willfully attempting to obstruct, pervert, or defeat the course of justice by comprising the integrity of a witness, and willfully attempting to obstruct, pervert, or defeat the course of justice by attempting to mislead members of the Ontario Provincial Police who were engaged in an investigation of alleged police misconduct.

“I am deeply disappointed in the alleged actions of the officers involved,” said RCMP Chief Supt. Janice Armstrong, operations officer and assistant district commander for the Lower Mainland District Regional Police Service. “The investigators charged in this case were senior, experienced and trusted police officers. Their alleged behaviour is completely contrary to the RCMP’s core values, and falls well below the standard the public expects from us.”

“I want to be clear," she added. "The alleged behaviors are absolutely unacceptable and show poor decision making. What is alleged to have occurred was a breach of policy, protocol and the law. And fundamentally, it was an abuse of the trust the public places in police."

Christopher Considine, QC, approved the charges on Thursday, but as the matter is now before the court he will not be making any public statments at this time, according to Crown Counsel spokesperson Neil MacKenzie.

The officers are expected to make their first court appearance on July 11.

Five men are facing charges in connection to the death of the six people: Jamie Bacon, Matt Johnson, Cody Haevischer and Michael Le are facing first-degree-murder charges, while, Sophon Sek is facing a charge of manslaughter according to the Vancouver Sun.

We will be reporting on this story on the News Hour at 6 p.m.