Police paint a different picture than the mayor of Surrey over the altercation

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Statements in court documents related to the mischief trial of Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum appear to refute the mayor’s version of an altercation with opponents on September 4, 2021 in a Surrey Save-On-Foods car park.

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McCallum reported a hit and run to Surrey RCMP outside the Save-On-Foods store on 152nd Street and told police he was ‘trapped between’ two vehicles, according to the documents, which were released to GlobalNews.

The mayor was later charged with public mischief for his statement to police about the altercation, which involved members of a group collecting signatures on a petition that opposes one of McCallum’s pet political projects. .

In the statement, McCallum told police the driver of the vehicle, a prominent member of Keep the RCMP in Surrey, a citizens’ group opposed to the mayor’s plan to turn Surrey into a municipal police force, pulled over around him after parking his car.

McCallum told police the female driver then “planed” her car to leave and ran over her foot as she drove away, according to the document.

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However, the police document, an information to obtain evidence through search warrants, filed as part of the investigation, notes that “CCTV shows that McCallum was not pinned against a vehicle”, when the other driver pulled up to him.

Instead, he said the video shows McCallum crossing the parking lot and shows “McCallum turned around and walked towards (Debra Johnstone’s) car.”

As for McCallum’s statement that she got “ripped off,” the video “shows Johnstone driving slowly through the right-hand bend and then moving at normal speed through the parking lot,” the police document states.

Global News successfully challenged a court order that sealed disclosure documents to be obtained about the risk that disclosure “would compromise the conduct of the investigation”.

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Last week, a judge granted Global’s request to unseal a set of redacted documents, copies of which the outlet included in its coverage of the story.

Media lawyer Dan Burnett, who represented Global News, told the outlet that the release of such documents was a matter of public interest in a high-profile case.

The case, which is due to go to trial on October 31, two weeks after the next municipal elections, has not been proven in court, but in the information for evidence, investigators are asking for a search warrant to obtain the running shoe that McCallum wore to search for physical evidence.

Then there are six production orders to get the Save-On-Foods surveillance video, the Save-On-Foods mayor’s reward points record, the Peace Arch Memorial Hospital surveillance video, the hospital medical records and the raw video of two media interviews. McCallum granted after the event as well as statements provided to other outlets.

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McCallum declined to comment on the case, but the case has been a source of acrimony in Surrey.

The mayor refused to resign as chairman of the Surrey Police Board while the case was in court and citizens demanded to stop the town from paying McCallum’s legal costs during the case.

depenner@postmedia.com

twitter.com/derrickpenner

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