Headline: Unknown/Unrecorded

Story re: Law Enforcement Review Board

The provincial Law Enforcement Review Board is recommending that a Calgary cop be charged for illegally arresting and confining Juan Melendez last year, according to a report on the investigation into Melendez’s allegations of police brutality and racism.

But Melendez and his supporters in the Latin American Community Association (LACA) were also admonished for spreading a "variety of fictions, groundless conclusions, and ill considered allegations" related to the case.

Melendez was arrested in Victoria Park in August 2000, and received cuts and bruises to his face. Although he was initially charged with resisting arrest, those charges were dropped and no other charges were ever laid.

Melendez said the initial arrest was a case of mistaken identity, and accused the cops of beating him and uttering racist insults. He was backed by the Latin American Community Association (LACA), which launched a high-profile campaign against the police and lobbied to have the board investigate.

The report, released this week, directed the Calgary Police Service (CPS) to levy charges of unlawful detention and unlawful arrest against Const. James Grossklaus, but found there wasn’t enough evidence to lay charges against any other officers involved in the case. It also said there was no evidence racist language was used, although it did support the CPS’s official warning to one of the officers for "foul and unprofessional language."

Another officer, Const. Christopher Nisbet, was harshly criticized for not taking Melendez to the hospital immediately – he took about 25 minutes to get a witness statement from another officer while Melendez sat bleeding in his cruiser.

"The board... was satisfied that the conduct of Cst. Nisbet was both unprofessional and callous. When an arrestee is slated for hospital treatment that disposition must be given first priority, unless an emergent circumstance arises in the interim," the report says.

But the criticism wasn’t limited to the police – Melendez and the LACA were called irresponsible for releasing media statements and launching a Web site accusing the police of racism.

"Indeed, to make such generalizations is entirely irresponsible and greatly offensive on the part of those so doing," the report says. "Allegations of this nature are easily made and once issued create public concern, linger, and tend to damage the targeted party, regardless of merit."

The report also recommends improving the process to file complaints about the police.