Scanned, recopied or Internet copy, if there are errors, please e-mail me with corrections: Opening comments: More at the end.The_Record_June_2-10_-_police_face_another_small_claims_Court_challenge.htm The Record (KITCHENER) - June 2, 2010 - By Brian Caldwell, Record staff - bcaldwell@therecord.com Police face another small claims court Local police are back on the defence over allegations a Kitchener man was unlawfully arrested and beaten after refusing to identify himself or answer questions. “I would say it messed me up,” Matthew Probert testified Wednesday. “I guess I feel I lost some brain cells from the incident.” A short, slight man with a shaved head and a learning disability who grew up in foster care, Probert is suing Waterloo Regional Police for $25,000 in small claims court over the April 2009 incident. It’s the latest in a string of lawsuits launched by Davin Charney, a social-activist-turned-lawyer who had numerous run-ins with police himself while staging protests. Probert, 26, testified he was walking along Ahrens Street West after going to a convenience store near his home one afternoon when Const. Troy Chessell pulled up in a cruiser. When the officer requested his name and what he was doing, Probert said, he asked him if he was being detained or arrested. Chessell told him he wasn’t, so Probert refused to co-operate. “I said ‘Have a nice day’ and continued walking,” he said. Probert — who had difficulty understanding many of the questions he was asked in court — testified Chessell then jumped out of his car and blocked his way on the sidewalk. When the officer grabbed his arms, he said, he got angry and began yelling and swearing. Probert said he was then put against the cruiser and arrested for causing a disturbance, resisting the whole time because he had done nothing wrong. He said he was then thrown to the ground face-first and repeatedly punched, kicked and kneed by Chessell and two other officers who arrived. “It gets a little blurry after I got my head smashed into the ground,” Probert said. He was handcuffed and taken to the Kitchener police detachment, where he was strip-searched and put in a cell naked from the waist down before his pants and underwear were returned. Probert was released on bail the next day. A month later, charges of causing a disturbance, assaulting police and resisting arrest were withdrawn in court. He described the incident as “humiliating” and said injuries to his head — shown in photographs entered as evidence — affected his already poor memory. Chessell testified Probert was immediately aggressive when he tried to talk to him because he thought he recognized him as a member of a street gang called the Stick-Up Kids. He said other gang members lived in the area and he was suspicious of Probert because he tried to avoid eye contact when he first drove by. Chessell agreed he got out of his car and stood on the sidewalk, but testified the incident only escalated because Probert was so agitated and swearing so loudly. He said he had grounds to arrest Probert for causing a disturbance and forced him onto the ground when Probert cocked a fist as if he was about to punch him. Probert was kicking and biting as he resisted, Chessell said, then spit in the face of one of the other officers. At that point, to prevent him from spitting again, he testified he punched Probert once in the face and pushed his head down against the pavement. In cross-examination by Charney, he acknowledged his notes indicated there were “several punches.” “I was just trying to have a conversation with Mr. Probert to tell him what I was thinking,” Chessell said of how the incident began. The case went to trial despite offers from police to settle it out of court. Terms of the offers weren’t disclosed. Home Page - Main Table of Contents - Back up a page - Back to Top [COMMENTS BY DON B. - ] |
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