‘Makes no sense’: Ex-VPD union head pushes back on allegations about note taking in Gray case

A public hearing resumed Monday into the police-involved death of Myles Gray.

A former president of the Vancouver Police Union is rejecting allegations that officers were told not to take notes after the 2015 police-involved death of Myles Gray.

Tom Stamatakis testified Monday at a public hearing examining the actions of seven Vancouver police officers, saying he never directed anyone to avoid documenting their response and has never known the union to offer that kind of advice.

“That is not advice I would ever give a police officer involved in a serious incident,” Stamatakis told CTV News, after testifying in the hearing. He told the adjudicator it “makes no sense” for officers to skip note taking and added that if he had heard any union representative telling members not to document their actions, he would have intervened.

Stamatakis also questioned why it took years for the Independent Investigations Office to interview officers about what happened that day.

“The officers responded to a question in an interview seven years after this incident happened, which is another issue that the public should be asking. Why did this take so long?” he said.

He went on to urge the public to look at the broader role of the IIO in the delay.

“The public should be asking the IIO who had custody of the investigation and control of the pace of the investigation, why there was no follow up on that issue. When those officers were asked to provide notes and statements, they did that. Unfortunately, they were not asked for some months later. But that is the IIO’s role. It is not the union’s role,” Stamatakis said.

Officers involved in Grey’s death have said they were told by union officials, including Stamatakis, not to take notes.

“I got out my notebook, I got my pen out, I was about to write handwritten notes, and I was told specifically not to write them,” said Const. Josh Wong during a Oct. 13, 2021 Police Act investigation interview with the IIO.

Const. Derek Cain said during an interview in 2021 he believed it was Stamatakis who told him not to write any notes.

Conflicting accounts about note taking were also highlighted by Gray’s family’s legal counsel Ian Donaldson, who told CTV News it will be up to the adjudicator to determine what actually happened.

“The officers say they were told not to make notes by a union person or official or whatever. The union says we never told anybody that. That is for Madam Adjudicator to sort out,” Donaldson said.

Background

Gray died on Aug. 13, 2015, after officers responded to a disturbance call in East Vancouver. Multiple officers became involved and a violent struggle followed. Gray was handcuffed with his legs bound, and a coroner’s inquest later heard he suffered significant injuries including bleeding on the brain, a fractured eye socket, a crushed larynx and ruptured testicles. He died at the scene.

The current public hearing is focused on whether seven officers abused their authority or used unnecessary force, and whether they failed to make timely notes about the incident. Six of the seven officers did not produce notes in a timely way, and none of them are scheduled to testify at the hearing.

The hearing is aimed at bringing transparency to what happened and ensuring accountability. The officers could face discipline that includes dismissal. All seven deny wrongdoing.