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Vernon  

First cop at murder sues

The police officer who found 18-year-old Taylor Van Diest dying in Armstrong on Oct. 31, 2011, is suing B.C.'s justice minister and the federal attorney general over his treatment by the RCMP following that incident, in which he was accused of drinking on the job.

Const. Milan Ilic has filed a notice of civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.

Ilic was first on the scene of the attack where “he took his jacket off and placed it over the victim, in an effort to keep her warm,” reads the statement of facts.

It was the first and only time the officer had been involved in what became a murder investigation and he was emotionally shaken by the experience and “still suffering from trauma at the time of the trial in March 2014,” says the document.

Following his testimony during the murder trial, Ilic says he was approached by the defence counsel and asked whether he had thrown a bottle of liquor out of his pocket at the scene. He denied it.

The issue came up again however when a witness testified she saw an officer throw away a bottle at the scene.

A subsequent interview with RCMP officers is said to have taken “on the character of an interrogation,” and on April 21, 2014, Ilic was advised a Code of Conduct investigation had been ordered into his actions.

According to the statement of facts, over the next few months:

  • Ilic was served with an official notice of Code of Conduct investigation into his "disgraceful" behaviour and for lying
  • told to take a polygraph, which he refused
  • supplied a DNA sample
  • suspended on Aug. 25, 2014
  • ordered to report daily to the Kamloops detachment, referred to by the officer's psychologist as a “daily walk of shame.”

The bottle found at the scene was tested and a DNA sample could not be obtained, says the statement.

Immediately following the lifting of his suspension in July 2015, Ilic was placed off duty sick on the recommendation of his treating psychologist.

The notice of claim says at no time during the investigation was a report to Crown counsel ever submitted seeking charges against the officer.

The conduct of RCMP members involved in the process has “undermined the trust the plaintiff had in other members to back him up” and left a “permanent stain on any future potential career in the RCMP,” according to the document. It further accuses fellow officers of harassment during the 14-month investigation.

Ilic is seeking general and specific damages as well as past and future loss of earnings and loss of benefits and court costs.



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