Lawyers appointed for Don Dunphy shooting death Inquiry

Lawyers Sandra Chaytor and Kate O'Brien have been appointed as co-counsel for the Commission of Inquiry Respecting the Death of Donald Dunphy.

Dunphy was shot in his Mitchells Brook home on April 5, 2015 after a confrontation with police officer Joe Smyth, who was assigned to a police unit providing security for the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Chaytor has served as co-counsel for a Commission of Inquiry in this province before. In 2007 she was appointed co-counsel to the Commission of Inquiry on Hormone Receptor Testing, an inquiry which investigated errors in breast cancer testing in the province.

In 2010, she was appointed a Master and Taxing Officer of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Chaytor is Deputy Managing Partner of the St. John's office of Cox & Palmer. 

O'Brien has inquiry experience too

Kate O'Brien represented the families of the pilots of Cougar Flight 491 at the Offshore Helicopter Safety Inquiry. It was established after the tragic offshore helicopter crash of 2009 that took the lives of two pilots and 15 passengers. 

O'Brien is a partner at the law firm of O'Brien White.

The Commission of Inquiry Respecting the Death of Donald Dunphy was established by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador on September 23, 2016.

Justice Leo Barry, a Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court judge since 1989, has been tasked by the provincial government to lead the inquiry.