Iqaluit inmate found guilty of multiple jail guard assaults
Iola Lucassie convicted of charges including assault, aggravated assault, making death threats
An inmate at the Baffin Correctional Centre in Iqaluit has been found guilty of multiple assaults on corrections officers, including one incident where he punched three guards in the face and hit one with a chair.
Iola Lucassie was convicted this week of charges including assault, aggravated assault, making death threats and mischief, resulting from seven separate incidents.
In September, Lucassie's lawyer argued that much of his behavioural problems were due to spending too much time in segregation.
In one incident on Dec 5, 2013, Lucassie was ordered to leave a dormitory and report to a secure hallway inside the jail to be questioned about a suspected contraband incident, court documents show.
When Lucassie refused to comply, four guards entered the dormitory. Lucassie threw a game board at them, then removed his shirt and socks and "took up a fighting pose," according to court documents.
When the guards advanced on him, he punched three of them in the face, causing one guard's shoulder to separate.
Lucassie also threw a chair at the officers, which the Crown said struck a guard who was lying on the ground, cutting his head. Lucassie argued the laceration was caused by another officer's boot in the melee.
Video surveillance evidence was unclear.
Justice Earl Johnson ruled that a boot couldn't have cut the skin, and it had to have been the chair that caused the wound. He then ruled that causing a wound that broke the skin constituted the more serious charge of aggravated assault.
Lucassie was also found guilty of assaulting another guard in a March 2014 incident where Lucassie spat on the officer.
Lucassie has previously pleaded guilty to five other incidents of assault against corrections officers, a police officer, and another prisoner in an RCMP cell.