Hearing begins for officer who used Taser on teen

The disciplinary hearing for an Edmonton police officer accused of deploying a Taser on a 16-year-old boy eight times in one minute in 2002 got underway Monday.

Const. Mike Wasylyshen faces five charges under the Police Service Regulation of the Police Act, including two counts of unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority and three counts of insubordination.

At a disciplinary hearing before a senior officer from the Calgary Police Service on Monday, Randy Fryingpan, 25, said he remembers little about Oct. 5, 2002, the day Wasylyshen hit him with the stun gun.

Fryingpan said he was drunk and high and had passed out in the back of a friend's car. The next thing he remembers, he said, he was being handcuffed and spitting up blood.

He felt weak as he was brought to police headquarters in downtown Edmonton, Fryingpan recalled, and had a sore head, broken tooth and sharp back pain that still recurs today.

In 2005, a provincial court judge ruled the police officers had violated the teen's rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Judge Jack Easton called the officers' actions "cruel and unusual" treatment.

Acting police chief Darryl da Costa dismissed allegations of abuse against Wasylyshen later that year and said the officer wouldn't face any charges because the accusations were unfounded.

Last year, after a lengthy appeal by Fryingpan's mother, the Law Enforcement Review Board ordered Chief Mike Boyd to lay new charges against Wasylyshen, the son of a former Edmonton police chief.

The hearing continues Tuesday.