There are thousands of cases on point.
Here is yet another news report
MORE POLICE FACE PERJURY CHARGES
Mon, January 21, 2009
By TAMARA KING, CP
WINNIPEG -- A growing number of Canadian police officers are facing charges of perjury -- the serious and usually rare crime of giving false testimony.
At least eight officers, either active or recently retired, will head to courts in Toronto, Winnipeg and Regina over the next two months accused of an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
"I have not seen this many examples of perjury charges brought against police officers," says James Morton, a Toronto lawyer and adjunct professor at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School.
"I don't think this means that police are lying more than they used to," Morton said..
"It used to be that people just didn't believe policemen would lie. That sort of restriction has disappeared now."
Perjury is viewed as dangerous enough to the justice system that it's actually enshrined in Canada's Constitution, Morton said. "It is the only crime that is expressly referred to in the Charter of Rights (and Freedoms)."
Most serious when the accusation is levelled against a member of the justice system, perjury is extremely difficult to prove. Prosecutors have to show the evidence was intentionally false.
In the most recent case, two Winnipeg police officers were accused last week of lying under oath about how they obtained a search warrant in a drug investigation.
Also last week, a British Columbia RCMP officer was temporarily taken off the job because of allegations he gave misleading testimony at an inquest into the 2004 death of Kevin St. Arnaud, who was shot after a drugstore burglary.
Although the force did not use the term perjury, Const. Ryan Sheremetta was suspended under the RCMP Act over allegations that he conducted himself "in a disgraceful manner that could bring discredit on the force by knowingly making false, misleading or inaccurate statement(s) while testifying," Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre said at a news conference.
In Saskatchewan, a Regina police officer is going to trial, likely in the fall, on a perjury charge that stems from testimony given at a January 2006 traffic-court case involving a seatbelt violation.
Five members of an elite Toronto police drug squad that is facing allegations of extortion and assault are also charged with perjury.
SUSPECTED FALSE TESTIMONY CASES
Recent cases of police officers accused of giving false testimony:
- Two Winnipeg police officers, Constables Peter O'Kane and Jess Zebrun, were put on paid administrative leave last week after being charged with perjury. The allegations involve how the officers obtained a search warrant for a drug investigation. -
RCMP Const. Ryan Sheremetta was suspended with pay last week over allegations that he conducted himself "in a disgraceful manner that could bring discredit on the force by knowingly making false, misleading or inaccurate statement(s)" while testifying at an inquest into the death of Kevin St. Arnaud, a man shot by Sheremetta after a 2004 drugstore robbery in Vanderhoof, B.C.
Const. William Schmidt, a Regina police officer, was charged with perjury last March and is expected to go to trial next fall. The allegation stems from testimony given at a January 2006 traffic-court case that involved a seatbelt violation.
Five members of an elite Toronto police drug squad that's facing allegations of extortion and assault are also charged with perjury: Staff Sgt. John Schertzer, Const. Steve Correia, Const. Joseph Miched, Const. Ray Pollard and Const. Ned Maodus. Jury selection is scheduled for February.
Toronto Const. Amar Katoch, 48, acquitted last November of allegations that he assaulted an activist at a violent anti-poverty demonstration in 2003 and then attempted to fabricate evidence.
