Police officer Daniel Dulac was found guilty on Wednesday in Kuujjuaq of pointing his firearm at a native of Kangirsuk while he was being held in a cell. However, the peace officer was acquitted of the assault charges against him.
Sean Kudluk was arrested in Kangirsuk on the night of September 21 to 22 for intoxication on the public highway. As he refused to hand over his bottle of alcohol and resisted his arrest, the police officers Daniel Dulac and Pierre-Olivier Paiement decided to detain him for a few hours, the time to let him sober up, reports the judge of the Court of Quebec Paul Chevalier in its decision rendered Wednesday.
In his cell, the man was making a noise by knocking on the door. Police officer Dulac, who was alone with the detainee at the time, went to his cell several times, shouting and sacred words. According to the complainant, the police officer entered at least once and kicked him three times on the leg. Subsequently, he would have pointed his gun at him, through the glass of the cell door.
He confesses to his colleague
Judge Chevalier disagreed with Mr. Kudluk’s version of the kicking, but believed him regarding the firearm. It is because the accused himself confessed to his colleague to have pointed his gun at the detainee, recalls the judge, who heard agent Pierre-Olivier Paiement on the witness stand during the trial which took place. in Kuujjuaq last September.
“On returning to the station around 6 am, the agent Paiement asks his colleague how the custody of the detainee went, writes the magistrate in his judgment. The answer given by the accused was that the detainee made a noise until 5 a.m. after which there was no sound. What’s more, [il affirme que] the accused pointed his gun through the door at the inmate and hoped the camera wasn’t working, but anyway, since the inmate was intoxicated, he probably wouldn’t remember what had happened. past because he must have been on drugs or something. “
At the time, the Payment agent thought it was a joke, says the judge, because he had only known the accused for a few days. The latter, a retiree from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, had just joined the ranks of the Kativik police force two weeks earlier.
Later, when Officer Paiement returned to see the complainant, he told him that Officer Dulac was “racist” and complained that he had kicked him twice and pointed his gun at him. its direction. The Payment agent then realizes the scope of what his colleague told him earlier and advises his supervisor of the situation.
Not very credible
Judge Chevalier found the testimony of the accused and the complainant to be unreliable, the first because of his evasive nature on the events with which he is accused, and the second because of numerous contradictions and his state of intoxication. But the court said it was “convinced of the sincerity of Mr. Paiement and the reliability of his testimony” in connection with the facts in dispute.
Lawyer Jonathan Tondreau Lord, for the prosecution, and his colleague Genesis Rondon Diaz, for the defense, will return before Judge Chevalier on January 12 for sentencing representations.
Daniel Dulac is one of the police officers accused by natives and identified as part of an investigation by the To have to.