The Crown is refuting claims that Travis Vader was mistreated or abused by members of the justice system.
Vader testified Tuesday in the hope that his sentence for two manslaughter convictions will take into account the “cruel and unusual conditions” of his time served in pre-trial custody.
He claimed corrections officers and inmates at the Edmonton Remand Centre physically and verbally abused him and that the RCMP mistreated him following his arrest in July 2010 by subjecting him to a public strip search and denying his legal right to counsel.
Vader spoke on the second day of a sentencing hearing expected to run into next week. He is seeking a stay in proceedings or reduction of his sentence to time served in relation to these alleged Charter rights violations.
In September, Vader was found guilty of murdering Lyle and Marie McCann. The second-degree murder conviction was later downgraded to manslaughter. Manslaughter carries no minimum sentence. Vader could receive anywhere from time served to life in prison.
The McCanns, an elderly St. Albert couple, disappeared while they were on a road trip to B.C. in summer 2010.
Cross-examination of Vader began Tuesday afternoon and continued into Friday afternoon at his sentencing hearing. Crown prosecutor Ashley Finlayson called into question the alleged mistreatment Vader claims he received at the hands of the RCMP and the ERC.
Vader claims he was physically assaulted several times while in custody. His testimony on Tuesday focused on two particular events while housed in the ERC disciplinary unit.
The first incident, which allegedly occurred in Oct. 26, 2010, saw him ambushed and beaten up by guards outside the view of a camera. On Thursday, Finlayson presented a nurse’s report showing the extent of Vader’s injuries were three superficial abrasions to his right cheek, as well as pain and numbness in his wrists and fingers.
Vader claims that he received stuns and kicks from guards that caused him to bruise on his legs and ribs. He told the court that just because the injuries were not reported, it does not mean he did not sustain them.
“I felt every one of those kicks Mr. Finlayson, and I felt the effects for weeks after,” said Vader.
The second incident allegedly occurred on Jan. 7, 2011. Vader claims he was forcefully thrown to the ground, handcuffed and had his arm twisted so hard by guards his wrist was broken.
On Friday, the Crown produced Vader's medical records. Vader was x-rayed twice in 2012 – once in January, a year after the ERC guards allegedly broke his wrist, at a medical imaging centre in Red Deer and again at an Edmonton facility in August.
The Edmonton medical notes indicate that there is no issue with Vader's right wrist, while Red Deer makes no mention of the wrist at all, as it was not x-rayed.
Finlayson asked Vader why he only brought the broken wrist to the remand centre’s attention in 2012.
“What you described to us Tuesday is a very significant injury,” he said. “Why are there no records until well into 2012 when it was so significant?”
Vader claims that the ERC ignored his immediate complaints because they weren’t properly worded and that in 2012 he had started to notice a bump develop as a result of the improper healing process.
A medical request dated July 2012 did make mention of nerve damage in his right hand as a result of a beating by guards on the disciplinary unit, where he was housed during the first six months of his pre-trial custody. The request however made no mention of a broken wrist.
Finlayson continued to press Vader on the lack of records, refusing to believe the nurses and guards would ignore such a significant injury, until defence attorney Nate Whitling objected to the continued line of questioning.
“We do need to move along at some point,” Whitling said to Justice Denny Thomas.
As of 12:45 p.m. the Crown had moved back to the subject of Vader’s right to legal counsel.
Much of Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning were spent listening to audio recordings made by one of the arresting RCMP officers, in an effort to disprove the defence’s claims that Vader was “deliberately and actively” prevented from consulting his lawyer following his arrest in July 2010.
While it took Vader several hours to get a hold of his lawyer, the tapes showed RCMP Const. Steve McQueen making several attempts to contact the names and numbers provided to him by Vader. Vader provided two wrong names before remembering the right one.
Vader claimed Tuesday that he could not recall the name of the lawyer that had been previously contacted by a friend on his behalf due to alleged trauma caused by an alleged public RCMP strip search.
During Thursday’s cross-examination, an agreed statement of fact showed that Vader was naked for 35 seconds, not five minutes as he alleged Tuesday. Vader also admitted, through this document, that there was no one present in the hallway and no one walked past the door while the strip search at the Edson RCMP detachment on July 19, 2010 occurred.
The sentencing hearing, which had been scheduled to last five days, will continue into next week. The Crown plans to introduce at least two witnesses and the defence has indicated it would ask for a re-direct once Finlayson’s cross-examination is complete.
