Eric Omeasoo is seen in an undated family handout photo. Supplied by family
A distraught aunt of a teen killed on an Edmonton transit platform yelled profanities at a judge Wednesday, as he dismissed the family’s request to review a decision not to lay charges in the death.
“There was never a chance in this court!” Chasity Phillips shouted at Court of King’s Bench Justice Wayne Renke. “You are corrupt.”
The family of 13-year-old Eric Omeasoo requested a judicial review of the police decision not to charge a man in the stabbing of the teen at the MacEwan light rail platform in February of last year.
The family was also denied a judicial review of the decision by Crown prosecutors.
Court heard that Michael Lucier stabbed Eric in the chest after an altercation with a group of youth. While several of them were charged with attacking Lucier and his wife, police didn’t pursue charges against the man, saying evidence pointed to him acting in self-defence.
Renke dismissed the request for a judicial review, saying the boy’s family didn’t provide evidence of abuse of process in the case.
He said the family would have to prove police used unreasonable discretion in deciding not to pursue charges against Lucier.
The judge said evidence investigators had, including video surveillance from the transit station that partially showed what happened, was enough to support that police exercised reasonable discretion.
For his decision to dismiss the request for a review against the Crown, Renke said prosecutors only provided an opinion to police that chances of a conviction were low based on the evidence at the time.
“It is a general rule in Alberta that police, not the Crown, decide to lay charges,” the judge said. “The Crown cannot direct the police not to lay any charge.”
Renke said there was no evidence that prosecutors acted with “flagrant impropriety” or engaged in conduct “bordering on corruption” in providing their recommendation to police.
The boy’s family said outside court that they would continue to fight for justice.
“(The decision) sends a message that it’s OK to kill our children, it’s OK for the police and the Crown to do whatever they want,” Phillips said.
“I realized today that no matter what we provided to the court, there was never a chance at justice for Eric in this courtroom.”
She said she wasn’t sure what more legally her family could do, but “we will not rest until the world knows Eric’s truth.”
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