A trial looking into the treatment of an officer who was first on the scene of a fatal 2011 attack of an Armstrong teen is set to begin April 4 in Kamloops.
Former RCMP constable Milan Ilic filed a civil suit in the years after the murder, saying he was harassed and intimidated in the aftermath of the high-profile trial of Matthew Foerster, the man convicted of the murder of Taylor Van Diest.
In the notice of civil claim, Ilic said he learned he was under investigation in April 2014, accused of not telling the truth while testifying in the murder trial.
During the trial, more than two years after he found Van Diest, allegations surfaced that Ilic had cast aside a liquor bottle that night.
“In his testimony, the plaintiff denied having a bottle of liquor or discarding a bottle of liquor at the scene on the night of the murder. He did testify that he had discarded a box of pens he had in his jacket,” the claim reads.
Ilic alleges he faced questions from other officers about “whether (he) was drinking that night, whether he had a liquor bottle in his possession, and whether he discarded a liquor bottle at the scene.”
He claims, in the suit, to have told the other officers none of this was true. According to the claim, an internal investigation was launched against him the following month.
Ilic has since left the police force, claiming officers harassed and intimidated him. His wife Michelle estimates they’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in a prolonged legal battle against the government.
The suit has been scheduled and delayed repeatedly in recent years, though Illic’s wife said it’s scheduled for four weeks this time