Prosecutor accuses Edmonton police officer of fabricating story to justify excessive force
Officer captured on cellphone video violently kneeing Indigenous man in the back
A prosecutor on Friday accused an Edmonton police officer of fabricating a story to justify an alleged assault, after learning a bystander had recorded him violently kneeing an Indigenous man in the back while he was held on the ground by another officer.
Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail levelled the allegation in Edmonton provincial court on the final day of Const. Michael Partington's trial.
Partington was charged in June 2020 for allegedly assaulting Eliot McLeod during an arrest in 2019. The charges were laid four days after a bystander's cell phone video of the March 27, 2019, arrest was posted on social media.
The video shows Partington striding to where another officer is holding McLeod face first on the ground, with both of his hands behind his back. McLeod is quiet and not moving.
Partington then abruptly drives his knee between McLeod's shoulder blades. The man screams in pain and pleads for the beating to stop.
WATCH | Crown investigating Edmonton Police Service arrest video:
Const. Curtis McCargar, the arresting officer, testified he had chased down McLeod because he gave a false name and fled on his bike after being stopped for not having a bell on the bike, which is a bylaw infraction.
The officer used the police cruiser to cut him off.
McLeod said he put his hands behind his back because he knew he was caught, then McCargar jumped on his back as he lay face first on the ground.
McCargar testified he repeatedly punched McLeod to gain compliance and because he feared for his safety.
Defence lawyer Mike Danyluk catalogued multiple discrepancies in McLeod's testimony.
"He outright lied to this court," Danyluk told Provincial Court judge Peter Ayotte.
McLeod was "still an active risk for fight or flight" when Partington arrived at the scene, he said. Partington had seconds to make a decision and, in his mind, he had to act immediately.
Danyluk referenced previous cases in which judges ruled police officers can't be expected to use exactly the correct amount of force in dynamic, sometimes dangerous situations.
It must be expected that, in hindsight, officers will sometimes be seen to have used too much force, he said. But the law allows a "buffer" for those "misjudgments."
Danyluk also accused McLeod of "playing to the crowd" when he screamed after being kneed.
No use of force report filed
But Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail said there was no emergency and no reason for Partington to use any force on McLeod.
The testimony from the person who recorded the arrest, and the video itself, showed McCargar had one knee on McLeod's back and was holding both his hands. McLeod was quiet and not moving.
McCargar had told dispatch he was waiting for another officer to arrive so they could handcuff McLeod, a common practice according to testimony from another officer.
McCargar had not referenced the police codes for officer-in-trouble over the radio, MacPhail said.
MacPhail ticked off an interconnected chain of facts related to Partington's behaviour after the incident:
- He never filed a use-of-force report because he said he didn't realize how much force he had used.
- In response to a direct question from a superior officer, he said he didn't need to file a use-of-force report.
- He didn't disclose in a witness statement that he knew he had been recorded because he said he didn't realize it might have evidentiary value.
- He testified McCargar told him during the arrest that they were being recorded — even though McCargar had previously testified he didn't know they were being recorded.
"The only reasonable conclusion was that he did not know about the video and that calls into serious question why he didn't report the use of force," MacPhail said.
MacPhail ended by again playing the video of the knee strike and McLeod's screams of pain.
"That was not a person playing to the crowd," she said "There was no crowd."
The judge will issue his decision on Aug. 26.
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