Native man wasn't drunk enough for jail, inquiry told

The man in charge of the Vancouver jail the night Frank Paul was left in the alley where he died nine years ago said he didn't believe Paul was intoxicated enough to be kept in the drunk tank.

Paul had been released from the jail only hours before, Russell Sanderson, now retired, told the public inquiry into Paul's death Monday.

Sanderson said he didn't believe the man had the time, money or mobility to be drunk again.

"Mr. Paul had difficulty getting around," Sanderson said of Paul's trouble walking. "He would not be sprinting to the nearest liquor store."

Sanderson, a former police sergeant, was one of the last people to see Paul alive and the senior officer in charge of the jail on Dec. 5, 1998.

It was his decision to turn away the man who was sprawled on the elevator floor when he last spoke with him, Sanderson said.

'I believed that Frank Paul had been arrested in error, that he was not intoxicated.' — Former police sergeant Russell Sanderson

"I asked if he had had anything to drink since he'd been released from jail and he replied, 'No,'" Sanderson said.

Paul, a former resident of the Big Cove First Nation in New Brunswick, died of hypothermia because of exposure due to alcohol intoxication. He was considered a regular at the Vancouver drunk tank, with visits once every few days.

The inquiry has heard Paul was released from the same jail just a few hours before the return visit because he was deemed sober enough to look after himself.

"I believed that Frank Paul had been arrested in error, that he was not intoxicated," Sanderson testified.

Sanderson testified he couldn't legally hold Paul under the Criminal Code or Vancouver police policies, so he ordered the police wagon driver to take him home.

Video played earlier to the inquiry shows officers dragging Paul's limp body into the jail's elevator. His soaking body left a long wet streak along the floor.

In hindsight, Sanderson said, he regrets his instructions to the police wagon driver, Const. David Instant, weren't more elaborate.

"I would have instructed him, especially, on what to do if he could not in fact find a place of shelter for Mr. Paul, how to contact a supervisor to make sure that at the end of it all that Mr. Paul was taken care of and had shelter for the night," he said.