A corrections officer who was working the night a Vancouver man died after police dumped him in an alley has come forward with new information about the case, claiming the internal police investigation was a sham.

Greg Firlotte helped drag Frank Paul to a police van in December 1998. Paul, a Mi'kmaq man from New Brunswick, was later found in an alley. He died of exposure.

An internal police review concluded that a police-van driver dumped Paul, 47, in the alley. The van driver was suspended for a day.

Firlotte said the Vancouver Police Department didn't want to find the truth.

"I've never been interviewed by the VPD," he told CBC News Monday. "How can you have somebody die who was in the custody of the VPD … and I'm one of the principals, and I've never been interviewed?

"I think they did what they felt they had to do to protect the department's reputation."

But the Vancouver police department stands by its investigation.

"I'm confident our members would have interviewed and spoken to all witnesses they felt were pertinent at that time," police spokesman Howard Chow said.

Bothered by death

Firlotte insists he should have been interviewed.

He said Paul's death has been bothering him for the more than eight years since it happened, and he recently decided to go public with his concerns.

He said he took his information to the police complaints commissioner in 2003, and as a result, Dirk Ryneveld recommended a public inquiry into the case, but his recommendation was rejected by the provincial government.

Firlotte said he feels responsible for Paul's death because he recommended to the officer in charge that night that Paul be taken home rather than put in jail.

He said Paul had been in the police drunk tank all day, and had been out for only two hours when he was picked up. Firlotte didn't think he could have got drunk that quickly, and thought he was just sick.

A coroner's inquest later found he had 3.5 times the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

"If I had kept my mouth shut, he would have either expired in jail — and there would have been a full investigation — or we would have caught it, and he would have gone to the hospital, and would have lived."

Instead, he helped drag Paul to the police van and lift him inside.

"I told Frank, 'I'm going to take care of you. This guy's going to drive you home.'"

It was later that night when he heard that Paul had been found dead in the alley.

"When I read the wagon driver, in discussion with other police, felt it was reasonable to leave Paul in a back alley when he's immobile is ridiculous. I don't believe it."

In June 2004, the British Columbia Crown attorney's office decided not to lay charges in the death of Paul. Solicitor General Rich Coleman had forwarded the case to Crown lawyers for review.