Former Surrey Six cop says he disagreed with some investigative tactics

A former RCMP officer who slept with a potential Surrey Six witness testified Tuesday about controversial investigative techniques that police used during the unprecedented gangland murder case.

Derek Brassington, who pleaded guilty to breach of trust in 2019, appeared for a second day at a B.C. Supreme Court hearing to determine if police misconduct in the case was so egregious that the charges against convicted killer Cody Haevischer should be dropped.

“Things were being done during this investigation that were not run-of-the-mill techniques,” Brassington told Justice Martha Devlin.

Haevischer and fellow Red Scorpion Matthew Johnston were convicted in 2014 of first-degree murder in the Oct. 19, 2007, slayings of young drug traffickers Corey Lal, his brother Michael, Eddie Narong and Ryan Bartolomeo, as well as bystanders Ed Schellenberg and Christopher Mohan.

The Surrey Six killers won a Supreme Court of Canada challenge to have the police misconduct in the case reviewed at an evidentiary hearing. Johnston died in jail in December 2022.

Brassington told Devlin on Tuesday that he sometimes expressed concerns to his superiors about the techniques being used in the high-profile case. He explained that Surrey Six investigators facilitated conjugal visits between a co-operating gangster who can only be identified as Person X and his then-17-year-old girlfriend. X had agreed to testify at the Surrey Six trial, but was never called. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for his role in the fatal shootings.

“To me, it was distasteful. I had daughters that were approaching that same age,” Brassington testified.

He said he and fellow officer Dave Attew had to convince the teen’s parents that Person X “is not such a bad guy. It’s OK. He’s turning his life around.”

Brassington, Attew and former Mountie Danny Michaud ended up under investigation for their behaviour while working the case. Brassington pleaded guilty in 2019 for his inappropriate sexual relationship with the witness, who can only be identified as Jane Doe 1. Attew and Michaud pleaded guilty to failing to maintain law and order under the RCMP Act.

Brassington said another technique was “buddying up” to Person X and other Red Scorpion gangsters police were trying to flip at the time by going out golfing or gambling and playing poker at the Pan Pacific hotel.

Police also arranged to get an OxyContin prescription for Person X, who was then in their custody.

“What I recall about that is contact was made with a doctor who could prescribe OxyContin, and the meeting took place, I believe, at the Peace Arch hospital gravel parking lot,” he said.