Comments made by a lawyer at the public hearing into the police beating of Firoz Khan have attracted the ire of former solicitor general Kash Heed.

David Butcher, counsel for West Vancouver Const. Griffin Gillan, suggested to a witness Monday that West Vancouver's police chief at the time had invited media to the meeting at which he suspended Gillan for his role in the attack.

Butcher asked the witness, Vancouver police Sgt. Mark Andrews, what he thought of Heed's "(arranging) for television cameras to record the suspension of my client."

"Making the suspension of an officer public like that, I personally didn't agree with it," Andrews replied. "I didn't think it was fair to Mr. Gillan."

The exchange was reported in the Wednesday issue of the North Shore News.

"Even the reporter (who shot it) will tell you it's complete bullshit," said Heed in a phone call to the News Wednesday morning. "This has to be corrected, because now there's this allegation out there, . . . people thinking that I set this thing up which is far from the truth."

The meeting between Heed and Gillan took place Jan. 27, 2009, a week after Gillan and two other police officers allegedly set upon Khan after a night of drinking in downtown Vancouver. Gillan was arrested and later pleaded guilty to assault.

Heed was at a meeting on drug policy in New York at the time of the attack. An officer in West Vancouver called him to tell him the news, and after wrapping up his commitments in the States, Heed flew home to deal with it.

The former chief said that at the Jan. 27 meeting with Gillan, he handed the constable a letter informing him that he was suspended for 30 days with pay, after which time the police board would decide whether he would stay on the payroll.

Gillan ultimately remained off the payroll for 11 months while a disciplinary hearing reached a conclusion -- it recommended he be demoted and suspended for an additional 10 days.

Heed told the News that, unbeknownst to him, his exchange with Gillan had been caught on film by a cameraman for Global BC, who had shot it through the chief's closed office window from across the street. No comments made in the meeting were audible. The clip featured in a story by Global BC reporter Catherine Urquhart.

Heed said he had not tipped Urquhart or any other member of the media to the fact the meeting would be taking place. The union representing West Vancouver officers and some members of the Vancouver force later suggested otherwise, according to Heed, but those allegations were eventually cleared up.

"For this to come out in a public hearing and the OPCC's lawyer not to object to the relevancy of this, I have to respond publicly in the media," he said. "It clouds my integrity; it clouds my ethics around dealing with this individual in a fair and impartial manner."

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Urquhart corroborated Heed's story.

On the day of the Global broadcast, Urquhart and other members of the media had descended on the West Vancouver police station in the hope of getting a shot of Gillan entering or leaving the building. When a police spokesman informed them the constable wouldn't be making an appearance, it occurred to Urquhart she might be able to get a shot another way.

As a regular visitor to the area, she recalled that the chief's office was clearly visible from the other side of the station. She and her cameraman went to a spot across the road from the rear of the building, climbed on to a low wall and found that, with the blinds open, they could see right into the room.

They got a clear shot of Gillan entering the office, speaking with Heed and leaving.

"It was really brief," said Urquhart. "You could tell from our images he was crying, and I think that's really what pissed people off. They thought that was an invasion of privacy."

When allegations of a tip-off started flying, no one ever asked Urqhart how she had come to be in that spot at that moment, she said.

"It was quick thinking and luck basically that we got it," said Urquhart. "I 100-per-cent was not tipped off. In fact, I would testify in court to that. It pisses me off that everybody thinks that, because basically we get no credit for the fact we came up with the idea."

Heed resigned about a month after the Gillan incident to go into provincial politics, eventually becoming solicitor general before giving up the post in an election scandal. He remains MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview.

jweldon@nsnews.com