DAVID COOPER/TORONTO STAR

BARRICADE: Police officers from 14 Division form a chain to push back media cameras as four comrades accused of manslaughter in an Aug. 9 incident leave Old City Hall court yesterday in a van with dark tinted windows.

Manslaughter charges laid in the death of Otto Vass

Supporters fill courtroom after four Toronto officers turn themselves in to SIU

Four Toronto police officers were stripped of their weapons, passports and police powers as they appeared in court yesterday, charged with manslaughter in the death of Otto Vass.

The downtown courtroom was packed with sombre-looking police as their four colleagues made a brief appearance before being released.

Vass' widow, Zsuzsanna, sat among them during the hearing at Old City Hall, which took place just hours after Constables Robert LeMaitre, Phillip Duncan, Nam-Nhat Le and Filippo Bevilacqua surrendered to the province's special investigations unit.

The four were formally charged by the SIU with manslaughter in the Aug. 9 death of Vass. The 55-year-old father of five died after a violent struggle with police outside a 7-Eleven store at College St. and Lansdowne Ave.

RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR

GRIEF: Widow Zsuzsanna Vass weeps outside court yesterday.

The officers said nothing during the show-cause hearing (a hearing to determine whether the accused should be held in jail) as Crown Attorney Desmond McGarry read out the seven conditions to which the officers had to agree before they were released and given their next court date of Nov. 23.

The conditions include a ban on possessing weapons, especially of the baton type. They must also refrain from talking to witnesses in the case, and ``refrain from their duties as peace officers,'' McGarry said.

Chief Julian Fantino said he was ``disappointed that charges have been laid against four of my officers, but we must now let due process take its course.''

He said the four would be ``reassigned to meaningful work in an administrative capacity,'' while the case progresses.

Because of the crown's unusual condition that the constables cannot carry out their duties as officers, the force must seek a legal opinion as to how their jobs will be affected, said Superintendent Bill Blair.

Outside the courthouse, there was tension between members of the media and some police officers who came in support. Some reporters and photographers were shoved aside as a minivan carrying the four accused constables sped away from the courthouse.

Craig Bromell, president of the 7,000-member Toronto police association, said police across the city were upset with the charges.

``We have a right to be angry,'' Bromell said, noting the charges were unprecedented in the force's history. He said he was confident the officers would be cleared.

``There's no doubt these officers will be found innocent,'' said Bromell, who was flanked by the officers' lawyer, Gary Clewley, and union officials.

Bromell said the four officers, each of whom has less than four years experience on the force, are extremely upset. ``I told them to keep their head up, stand tall . . . and the entire police service is behind you,'' Bromell said.

He then hurried back to the union hall, where he spent the day fielding calls from concerned officers.

Vass' widow let her lawyer, Julian Falconer, do most of the talking. He told reporters he fears the provincial government won't put in the resources needed to take on the police union's high-priced lawyers.

``The Vass family will be watching,'' Falconer said. ``If justice is to be done, the attorney-general's office must be willing to commit the same level of resources that the police union pours into cases.''

As he spoke, Zsuzsanna Vass dabbed tears from her eyes. Eventually she couldn't take any more, and the press conference ended abruptly.

Though she spoke little, in a statement released to the media, Vass' widow said she wants justice to be done, ``for Otto and my family.

``My husband did not deserve to die like that. I don't want his death to be swept under the rug, just because the police are involved.''

Early yesterday morning, the officers arrived at SIU headquarters to be photographed and fingerprinted.

At a news conference announcing the charges, SIU director Peter Tinsley said the allegations are that the actions of the officers ``were unlawful, that they were not legally justified in any manner, as may be by certain provisions of the Criminal Code in respect of the actions of police officers - and that those actions and their impact upon Mr. Vass contributed significantly to the event of his death.''

Tinsley refused to reveal the cause of Vass' death, saying the evidence will show several factors involved.

``Those factors, I believe, are going to be the subject of much expert commentary in court.''

Tinsley said the decision to charge the officers with manslaughter, rather than second-degree murder, came after an exhaustive 11-week probe.

A charge of second-degree murder requires ``subjective foresight of either the intent to kill or that the force being applied is likely to cause death and that you're reckless as to the consequences.

``Manslaughter is a lesser form of culpable homicide,'' Tinsley explained. ``It is still occasioned by an unlawful act, but it does not have inherent to it premeditation or deliberation.''

A security videotape of the incident was ``a factor'' in the evidence, but Tinsley said he wasn't ``comfortable'' weighing its importance.

Premier Mike Harris commented on the Vass case yesterday, saying he hopes the charges haven't shaken the public's confidence in the police.