Cop off hook for assault!

Gets conditional discharge for pushing prisoner who taunted him with racial slurs


By TRACY MCLAUGHLIN, SPECIAL TO SUN MEDIA

ORILLIA -- An OPP officer was given a conditional discharge yesterday after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a prisoner who called him a "f---ing n----er" while in a fit of drunken rage in his cell.

Const. Carl Nowlin, 33, was charged with assault after the incident occurred in the cells of the Orillia OPP detachment April 9, 2008.

Court heard Nowlin, a member of the OPP Emergency Response Team, was assisting in transporting a prisoner from London, Ont., to Orillia when another intoxicated prisoner started yelling a slew of degrading racial remarks and banging wildly on the cell bars.

Nowlin admitted he entered the prisoner's cell and shoved him, causing the man to stagger backward a couple of inches.

"Mr. Nowlin was treated that way because he was born black ... I can't imagine being yelled at just because I am a white guy," said Nowlin's lawyer, Leo Kinahan.

He said the inmate, Terry Mosses, who had been arrested for theft, was extremely intoxicated. "He was acting like an orangutan," said Kinahan.

Kinahan said Nowlin has an "outstanding" record as a cop, and worked on the front lines in the Caledonia dispute and also helped take down a man who shot and killed a person on Dundas Square in Toronto during the Caribana festival in 2005.

"Const. Nowlin made a two-second lapse in judgment," said Kinahan, who asked the judge for an absolute discharge. "This is not a man who deserves a criminal record."

In court, Nowlin stood before the judge in a suit and tie and apologized.

"This will never happen again," said Nowlin. "I have embarrassed my family and my unit." He also apologized to Mosses (who has since passed away) and his family.

Justice Robert McCreary agreed the shove was a low-end assault, but added Nowlin was not entitled to go into that cell. He sentenced him to a six-month conditional discharge, which will leave Nowlin without a criminal record in six months.

Outside of court, Kinahan said he did not think the incident should have led to criminal charges.

"I think we tend to forget that police officers are human beings who have feelings just like the rest of us," he said. "I mean the entire incident took two seconds. But I guess the Police Services Act people decided it should be handled this way."

The Toronto Sun

Judge blasts Niagara police for "abuse" of authority

Tasered man awarded $50,000

By KARENA WALTER, SUN MEDIA

ST. CATHARINES, Ont. — Blasting Niagara Regional Police officers for flouting the law and abusing their authority, a judge has sided with a St. Catharines man who claimed he was falsely arrested and Tasered multiple times.

In his civil court ruling, Judge Raymond Harris said the officers who stopped Michael Parsons in 2003 on the outskirts of Niagara Falls weren’t in danger from Parsons. But Parsons was in danger from them.

“The actions of the officers in this case are very troubling and offensive and I suspect would deeply sadden and shock the community in which they were perpetrated,” Harris wrote in his 80-page decision released earlier this week. “Each of these officers abused their position of authority in a manner which cannot be condoned.”

The judge found there were no reasonable grounds to stop Parsons, a passenger in a Jeep, and that he was Tasered more than three times without justification.

Harris considered the assault on Parsons so “offensive and egregious,” he awarded punitive damages, noting they are rare and exceptional.

And although the 30-year-old was awarded $50,000 in total damages, the judge indicated he would have given more if Parsons had asked for more.

He said the events were deserving of strong condemnation from the court.

“Each of the officers that night decided to flout the law for their own purposes,” Harris wrote.

Parsons said he was pleased with the outcome.

“It wasn’t about monetary gain, it was about justice,” he said Tuesday.

Parsons sued the Niagara police service and five officers — Michael Woodfine, Dino Cirillo, Todd Priddle, James Tallevi and Darren Forbes — for negligence, false arrest, assault, malicious prosecution and breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The civil trial was held in Welland Superior Court in March.

Court heard that on Dec. 18, 2003, Parsons, who was known to police, was a passenger in a Jeep being driven by his fiancee. He testified he yelled “Hey Baby” out the window at a police officer he recognized. A short time later, the Jeep was pulled over.

Parsons said he was dragged out of the Jeep onto the ground, assaulted, choked, pulled into a ditch and repeatedly Tasered. He estimated he was shocked 10 to 15 times on his legs, throat, buttocks, scrotum, back and handcuffs.

Officers took Parsons to a police station, where he was charged with assaulting police and resisting arrest.

Those charges were later withdrawn by the Crown.

Toronto Sun

Police officer charged with impaired driving!

Precious Yutangco
staff reporter
A rookie Toronto police officer faces impaired driving charges after he allegedly crashed his vehicle into a parked car while off duty.

Police were initially called to 443 Adelaide St. W., near Bathurst and King Sts., at 6 a.m. today after they were told a vehicle had driven into a parked car.

They arrested the driver of the vehicle and charged him with impaired driving.

Charged is Const. Chaitanya Joshi, 24, who has been part of Toronto Police Services for 18 months.

Joshi currently works out of 23 Division, which covers the northern half of Etobicoke.

He is scheduled to appear in court at Old City Hall on Aug. 11 at 3 p.m.

Toronto Star