Scanned, recopied or Internet copy, if there are errors, please e-mail me with corrections: Opening comments: More at the end. The Record (KITCHENER) - Apr. 23, 2010 - By Brian Caldwell, Record staff - bcaldwell@therecord.com Small claims court judge grills police Police came under fire in court Friday for the gunpoint arrest of a Kitchener man during a fruitless search for a handgun. Deputy Judge Daniel Fife reserved his decision in a lawsuit against Waterloo Regional Police in connection with a raid on an Ottawa Street North house in April 2007. But in comments in small claims court in Kitchener, Fife sharply questioned the actions of officers who broke down the door, threw in flash grenades and arrested 28-year-old Jason Lamka of Kitchener. Lamka was ordered onto the floor by a tactical officer with a rifle, handcuffed, strip-searched and put in a cell before being released without charges. “Why arrest him?” Fife asked. “Why do a strip search? Why hold him for eight hours or so? Why do any of that?” Lamka, 28, is seeking $25,000 in damages — the maximum awarded in small claims court. Lamka alleges he was unlawfully arrested and imprisoned by police who trespassed and used excessive force. Police maintain they had a valid warrant to search for a handgun and properly arrested Lamka for possession of an unauthorized firearm because he was in the house when they burst in unannounced. The raid was the culmination of an investigation into a street gang called the Stick-Up Kids stemming from a violent brawl five months earlier at a Waterloo house party in which a teenager was almost killed. Sgt. Steve Schmelzle said police had gathered information from confidential sources about the gang’s involvement in drugs, assaults, robberies and other organized crimes. “It’s not a YMCA club,” he said. Schmelzle said a youth related to Lamka was the suspected leader of the gang and police were told by several sources that he had a handgun. Although the youth was then in custody, he had recently moved his possessions to the Ottawa Street North house and was expected to move in there when he was released. Concerned about public safety, Schmelzle completed a 20-page application, drove to the home of a justice of the peace in Guelph and got approval for a search warrant at a meeting that lasted just 17 minutes. The next day, detectives, patrol officers and a tactical team assembled, made a surprise raid on the house and searched it. No gun was found. Schmelzle said police had no evidence to suggest Lamka, who rented a room at the house, had anything to do with a gun or knew one existed. But the lead investigators decided before the raid, he said, to immediately arrest anyone found in the house for possession of a firearm. Schmelzle said they were “presumed” to have knowledge of an illegal gun until it was “proven otherwise.” In the case of Lamka, police abandoned their presumption of guilt only after he had been questioned in custody and the search had come up empty. Fife said he was “troubled” by that approach and the arrest of Lamka even though there was no evidence linking him to a gun beyond his mere presence in the house. If safety was the concern, he suggested, police officers could have patted down Lamka and ushered him out while the search was done. “Did you give some consideration to just asking Jason to leave the home?” Fife asked. “No, sir,” Schmelzle said. Filipe Mendes, the lawyer for police, said there should be only “nominal” damages of about $200 even if officers did unlawfully arrest, strip-search and detain Lamka. He argued he didn’t miss any work, didn’t have a reputation to protect and was used to being arrested after several previous run-ins with the law. “It’s not a shock to his system,” Mendes said. Fife was incredulous at the suggestion it wouldn’t have been an upsetting experience for Lamka. “You don’t think there should be any compensatory damages for having a gun pointed at your head?” he asked. Davin Charney, the lawyer representing Lamka, urged at least $10,000 in damages or “it would be encouragement to police that they can do whatever they want.” The owner of the house — Lamka’s cousin, Joel Elliott — was also arrested when he came home while the raid was in progress. Elliott is suing police for $100,000 in Superior Court over the same incident. There was no indication when Fife will release his ruling. Home Page - Main Table of Contents - Back up a page - Back to Top [COMMENTS BY DON B. - ] |
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