POLICE RULES WEREN'T FOLLOWED, INQUEST TOLD

The night Heather Benson died in RCMP custody, some regulations were
not followed, a coroner's inquest heard Tuesday. Benson died while
being transported by the RCMP from Tagish to Whitehorse, when the
police cruiser rolled off the road and into the ditch.

She was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene of the accident
as a result of chest wounds, on Sept. 27, 2003.

Const. Jeff Monkman, who was driving the car, was convicted of
careless driving in a trial held last February and fined $1,000.
While the detachment commander must be notified when officers are
seeking a search warrant, Monkman did not phone Sgt. Dan Otterbein
when he began seeking a search warrant for Benson's home on Sept. 26.

"No, I have no idea why he didn't contact me," Otterbein told the inquest.

He added that he had questions about how the search was conducted and
why it was carried out at 4:00 in the morning. "There are a myriad of
variables there," he said. "There are a number of things that had I
been there I would have done differently. But unfortunately, I wasn't
contacted."

For example, Otterbein said they knew Benson's identity and realized
she wasn't a flight risk as she was a single mother with two children.

When asked by a juror why there was such urgency to conduct the
search at 4:00 in the morning, he said it wasn't necessary. "In other
words, yes, the search could have waited until the next day."

Monkman said it didn't cross his mind to contact Otterbein because
he'd already received advice from someone in the drug unit. He phoned
the on-call officer from the drug unit in Whitehorse, Const. Leanne
Lind, for advice on how to proceed with the case. What transpired
during the phone conversations between Monkman and Lind that night
was a main theme in the hearing this morning from both coroner's
counsel Lee Kirkpatrick and Ed Horembala, the lawyer acting for Monkman.

According to Lind, most of their conversation centred around search warrants.

However, they also spoke about how to preserve the marijuana plants
as evidence, what kinds of charges to lay and what would be required
for Benson's release on bail.

The advice that Lind gave Monkman regarding what kinds of charges
should be laid and what those charges meant in terms of releasing
Benson on bail are of particular importance.

This is because it affected whether or not Benson had to be driven
into Whitehorse.

Monkman said yesterday that after conversations over the phone with
Lind, and then with Const. Derek Turner, they decided to charge
Benson with the production of marijuana. Turner was on duty with
Monkman that night.

Kirkpatrick explained to the jury that there are three types of
offences: summary offences, which are generally less serious;
indictable offences, which are more serious but the Crown can choose
to try as a summary offence; and straight indictable offences, which
are the most serious and must be as indictable.

Production of marijuana is a straight indictable offence, Lind said
this morning. As a result, she said she believed Benson needed to go
before a justice of the peace or a judge in Whitehorse in order to be
released on bail.

She said on the stand that they also talked about other options
because Benson was a single mom and there was no justice of the peace
with the authority to release her in Carcross.

When asked by Horembala if these other options were documented in her
notes or in her subsequent statement to police, she said no.

"I gave him the best statement I could at the time," Lind said. "It's
not that I'm just remembering this now, it's that I had no cause to
review my notes until shortly before this inquest."

Horembala countered that Monkman acted on Lind's advice that night
and that the details of the conversation are critical. "It's not a
minor detail, is it, constable?" he said. "It's not a minor detail
because what Monkman did was to get in a car and drive."

Two weeks have been set aside for the coroner's inquest, which began
yesterday morning.

Chief coroner Sharon Hanley is presiding over the inquest, in which
the jury must determine how and why Benson died.

While a criminal trial, in general, seeks to find out who is
responsible or liable for a person's death, a coroner's inquest is
held to analyze the facts of a case and provide recommendations for
preventing a similar death in the future. The inquest was scheduled
to continue this afternoon.