The family of the late Raymond Silverfox says the Yukon's chief coroner was biased in her oversight of last month's inquest into the Little Salmon-Carmacks man's death. They want the jury's verdict thrown out and a public inquiry held.

On Thursday, 12 members of the Silverfox family, including the deceased man's daughter and his siblings, filed an application for judicial review in Yukon Supreme Court.

Silverfox died in police custody in 2008 after spending more than 13 hours in a cell covered in his own vomit.

The 43-year-old man threw up 26 times during his time in custody, but it was not until an officer noticed he wasn't moving that he was given any sort of medical assistance. By the time Silverfox was dragged out of his filthy cell, he was not breathing and had no heartbeat.

The inquest revealed that the officers and guards who were tasked with caring for Silverfox laughed at and mocked the man, and failed to follow RCMP policy which dictates the care of prisoners.

Silverfox's family was deeply disappointed by the jury's verdict that he died of natural causes.

Following the inquest, several members of the family and Carmacks community said they believed his death should have been labelled a homicide due to the fact the guards and officers failed to help Silverfox before he stopped breathing.

In a coroner's inquest, a verdict of homicide does not carry any blame; it is simply an acknowledgment that the person died by another's actions.

The Supreme Court petition outlines a host of problems the family had with the way the inquest was handled by chief coroner Sharon Hanley.

Among the complaints is the fact the jury was never allowed to hear the audio recording taken from the cell block the day Silverfox died, and only saw an edited transcript of the recording.

Nor did they see the real-time video surveillance tape, instead watching the 13-hour recording on fast-forward. Both of those decisions were based on objections from the RCMP's lawyers.

Furthermore, the pathologist who did the autopsy on Silverfox, and who determined the cause of death to be a blood and lung infection likely caused by inhaling vomit, never saw her video, nor heard the audio surveillance tape.

More subtly, the family notes the coroner repeatedly accepted objections from the RCMP's lawyers and the coroner's counsel who halted lines of questioning from the family's lawyer, Susan Roothman.

At one point in the proceedings, the coroner prevented Roothman from asking questions of one of the officers without an objection even being made.

Hanley also permitted an expert witness to give evidence outside his area of expertise, the petition claims.

Finally, the petition states: "The coroner was seen by a member of the public to engage in hugging the federal Crown's counsel in the court building just after the jury delivered its verdict.”

Such behaviour on the part of a judge could be grounds for a review.

The Silverfox family is requesting a public inquiry, which would have a wider scope than the coroner's inquest and would be overseen by a judge.

They are not asking that any of their costs be paid "on the basis of the public interest nature of this application,” the petition reads.