The lawyer representing a man sentenced for assaulting a police officer is questioning how his client was handled when Winnipeg police officers arrested him.
The parking lot assault in February 2009 was caught on a store surveillance camera on Notre Dame Avenue. At one point it appears Cody Bousquet turns to officers but then is pushed back down. It appears officers strike and knee the man a number of times while he is on the ground.
Officials with the Winnipeg Police Association say the tape does not show everything that happened that night. There was a violent high speed chase where cars were rammed before the arrest in the parking lot of an auto parts store.
"The officers obviously don't have an opportunity to determine if this guy is completely defenceless, or without weapon," said Marc Pellerin with the police association. "So you do the appropriate and safe thing, which is take him down, take him down hard and be done with it."
At one point in the video officers remove an object from the suspect but CTV has not been able to confirm what that object was.
Although Bousquet pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer and dangerous driving his lawyer Daniel Manning says the tape raises issues in respect to the Crown being able to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
"There would have been credibility issues, one, and perhaps charter arguments down the road, unreasonable, excessive force," Manning said.
The Winnipeg Police Association says it was the officers themselves who realized the incident was caught on tape and obtained a warrant so the video could be turned over to the courts.
The video has impacted the outcome of the case according to the Director of Prosecutions at Manitoba Justice, Don Slough. Slough says normally the Crown asks for 24 to 30 months in this type of case but because of the tape, Bousquet's lawyer and the Crown came to a joint recommendation of 11 months which is essentially 22 months with two for one credit for time served.
Bousquet may consider filing a complaint about the conduct of the officers that night.
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