There will be no criminal charges laid in the death of a mentally disabled man who died alone in the back of an Edmonton police van almost two years ago, a decision made using a process that is raising eyebrows of both law experts and the police chief himself.

Trevor Proudman's mother, Maureen Harland, heard the news in a short phone call a few days ago. In the months since she last saw her son, she says she has received no apology or mention of sympathy from an officer — and few answers.

"It's like I've been beaten up," she said. "I used to be a strong woman. But I've lost my strength since losing Trevor and dealing with this."

'That should never happen'

Trevor Proudman's mother, Maureen Harland, said she would like to see more training for police officers in how to deal with obese people and people with disabilities. (Peter Evans/CBC) Through a spokesperson, the Chief of Police confirmed the ruling that there were "no reasonable grounds" to believe a criminal offence was committed by EPS officers in Proudman's death.

Alberta's Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) typically investigates in-custody deaths like Proudman's. In this case, the provincial justice department directed the Edmonton Police Service to conduct the criminal investigation themselves.

"That should never happen,' said criminal lawyer Michael Bates, who has served five times as counsel for the Supreme Court of Canada, and is a former executive of both the national and provincial Canadian Bar Association Criminal Justice Section.

"That should never be done, if for no other reason than the appearance [of a conflict of interest] can undermine the legitimacy of the process."

Twenty-three minutes

An independent body such as ASIRT should do all criminal investigations. - Edmonton police chief Rod Knecht

An autopsy report released in July 2015 said Proudman, 32, died because of the way he was handcuffed by officers. Medical examiner Dr. Bernard Bannach wrote the cause of death was positional asphyxia as a result of being restrained with his wrists handcuffed behind his back.

Proudman was arrested after a disturbance at a north Edmonton medical clinic, where he got into an argument with staff who called police. When officers arrived, they handcuffed Proudman and placed him on his side, alone, in the EPS van.

When they checked on him 23 minutes later, he was face down and unresponsive. Bannach said he suffered a cardiac arrest. Emergency workers took him to hospital and his family says doctors used drugs to restore his heartbeat, but couldn't revive him.

The family has launched a formal complaint with the police service saying the officers were negligent when they left Proudman handcuffed and unsupervised, lying on his side in the van. Two months after Proudman died, EPS introduced a new policy saying prisoners cannot be left unattended in police vehicles.

'Serious concern'

When someone dies or is seriously hurt during an incident involving police, Alberta law dictates the government may decide to do one or more of the following: request or direct that a police officer from an outside police service be assigned to oversee the investigation, ask that an outside police service do the investigation, appoint a member of the public to oversee the investigation, or ask ASIRT to conduct the investigation.

'Always on my mind, forever in my heart,' reads a tattoo in cursive on Maureen Herland's arm. Proudman is pictured on the right in this picture. In Proudman's case, the director of law enforcement instead directed the Edmonton Police Service to conduct the criminal investigation themselves and asked ASIRT to review it.

Bates called that a waste of time and resources.

"By having the review, by definition it seems to me you're suggesting that there's a concern about the original investigation, or at least its appearance," he said. "Why would you ever allow that first investigation to happen if it's going to require a review to have legitimacy?"

He explained that police services in Alberta regularly ask outside agencies like RCMP or a police service from other cities to conduct or oversee serious incident investigations.

'ASIRT should do all criminal investigations'

Neither Alberta's justice nor EPS could explain why the Proudman investigation was not directed to ASIRT. There are also discrepancies in each organization's account of how soon authorities were informed of the death.

“This was a decision that was made by the director of law enforcement. It was a decision that was made before my time [in office]. And so ultimately I can’t speak to that at all," said Alberta Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Kathleen Ganley. (Peter Evans/CBC) Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley would not talk about the Proudman case specifically. She explained that in general, the decision of whether or not to refer serious incident investigations to ASIRT is made by the director of law enforcement, a position designated within the justice department.

"Generally more serious factors will weigh in favour of that [referring the investigation to ASIRT]. But there will be other factors that will of course weigh in other directions."

I think the police should not investigate themselves. - Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht

For his part, the chief of EPS said while he thinks his team is capable of executing internal criminal investigations fairly, he believes the police service should not be investigating its own officers.

"I've gone on record many many times that I think the police should not investigate themselves. Particularly, anything of a criminal nature," Chief Rod Knecht said.

"An independent body such as ASIRT should do all criminal investigations. And I fully support that and I'll continue to support it into the future."

Representatives for ASIRT would not comment, saying their review was strictly to look at the process of the investigation and offered no input into whether the officers should be criminally charged.

According to Alberta Justice, in 2015 there were four serious incident cases where police investigated themselves and ASIRT reviewed them. Two of those cases involved deaths after "possible pursuits." Another involved discharge of a firearm no injury, and the other was a use of force with serious injury.

In 2016 to date, there are currently six "review-only" ASIRT investigations in Alberta. None of those cases involve deaths.

If you have information on this story, or others like it please email, in confidence: marion.warnica@cbc.ca

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