(CBC News) – The Crown is appealing the acquittal of a Labrador RCMP officer who arrested a woman and locked her in a police cell in Nain after a drunken disagreement at his house while he was off duty.
A judge ruled that RCMP Const. James Woodrow didn’t break the law but the Crown is arguing the judge erred in his decision.
In May 2009, while Woodrow was off duty, he and a woman had a few drinks and went back to his home. After a friend interrupted them, Woodrow told the woman to leave.
She stripped naked on the porch of his home.
Eventually once she put her clothes back on, Woodrow arrested her and took her back to a cell in Nain.
She accused him of sexual assault but later recanted, but said the officer had assaulted her.
Woodrow was charged with assault and forcible confinement.
In his court decision, Judge John Joy agreed with the defence’s assertion that Woodrow was lawful in making an arrest.
However, Joy lambasted the police, saying the criminal operations division in St. John’s ordered the arrest even though the investigating sergeant didn’t feel there were grounds to lay the charges.
The crown is arguing the judge erred in several other areas of the verdict.
In court documents the Crown wrote:
“The learned trial judge’s reasons for acquitting the respondent on the charge of unlawful confinement (if indeed he did acquit on this charge) are so deficient that they do not permit for meaningful appellate review.”
Among other arguments the document says:
“The learned trial judge erred in law by considering a charter application after the trail had ended, with no notice to the Crown and without the Crown having had the opportunity to respond to the application.”
The case will now go before the Supreme Court.
[Source]
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