Police officer Stéphanie Dorval testified Thursday at her trial for assaulting an Aboriginal youth. According to his version, the actions he is accused of were taken to protect his teammates in the context of a difficult police intervention and also to seize evidence.
The criminal trial of this Val-d’Or Sûreté du Québec (SQ) police officer began on Monday.
The police intervention behind this charge dates back to September 14, 2019.
That day, the police officer who has 13 years of experience was called to go urgently to an apartment building in Val-d’Or in Abitibi. The reason for the “priority 1” call: a conflict is taking place there and a person is bleeding from the head, she reported to Judge Anne-Marie Jacques of the Court of Quebec who is presiding over the trial.
First arrival on the scene with the paramedics, she goes to an apartment where there is, she says, a lot of noise, a man who knocks very hard and a woman who screams and cries.
“I understand that there is an urgent need to act. It brews solid”.
Inside, a man and a woman are on the ground: they “Cry and growl”, describes the policewoman, in an apartment where furniture is knocked over and broken. The man squeezes the woman’s head, his fists are clenched around her neck. For her, this is a crisis situation and she decides to physically intervene to separate them and arrest the man.
During this time, other people present in the accommodation or in the adjacent corridor approach the police and protest against their intervention.
The plaintiff in this case, John Andrew Fedora, a young Cree man, “gets too close to me,” Ms. Dorval told the judge. He is a foot away, shouting loudly and gesturing with his hand. She claims to have asked those present to step back. They all comply, except the plaintiff, who clenches his fists. This merry-go-round happens more than once, she explains.
She adds that her police colleague also repeatedly asks Mr. Fedora to step back.
Outside, there are three of them trying to seat the suspect — who is Mr. Fedora’s brother — in the patrol car, which proves to be very difficult since he is struggling.
This is where the police officer sees the complainant “too close” to his partners who are performing a difficult maneuver, and too close to the police car. His police colleague told the complainant to back off, to no avail. Agent Dorval believes that her teammates do not see him because he is behind them.
“There is danger. If he initiates a movement, we don’t have time to react”.
She then rushes towards him, tries to grab his cell phone, drops it, and puts her other hand on the complainant’s shoulder, pushing him away.
Her goal was to protect her colleagues and seize the cell phone which contained a video that would serve as evidence against the arrested suspect, but also against the complainant, she argues. She will later ask that he be charged with obstructing the work of the police.
The trial will end on Friday with closing arguments from crown and defense attorneys.