Fredericton Police officer’s actions ‘over the top’: expert

A Fredericton Police officer’s repeated kneeing of a soldier in the back outside a nightclub was “over the top,” a RCMP expert testified on Tuesday.

Fredericton Const. Stephen Stafford is facing assault charges stemming from an incident with Luc Begin outside a Fredericton nightclub on July 18, 2009.

RCMP Sgt. Rich Walkinshaw, who teaches use of force techniques for the national police force, said he reviewed the video of the altercation, when he saw Stafford striking Begin in the back with is knee.

Walkinshaw testified that what he found “troubling” was three strikes being given to Begin and that punishment appeared to be an “over the top” reaction given the amount of resistance he was encountering.

At one point the Crown prosecutor asked the RCMP expert about whether he teaches other police officers to deliver knee strikes in the same fashion as Stafford.

“No. I have never taught a police officer to do this,” Walkinshaw said.

“Because there is a risk of personal injury. To do serious harm to an individual, like cracking a vertebrae in his back.”

Video of the night was recorded by local blogger Charles LeBlanc and it was entered into evidence during the first week of the trial in November. Multiple witnesses testified to seeing an officer knee Begin repeatedly.

In the fall, Begin testified that he had had two vertebrae in his back damaged.

Begin was in Fredericton celebrating his engagement that evening. After the incident, Begin said he was worried that his injury could cause him to miss a tour of Afghanistan.

Walkinshaw said although he has taught knee strikes to RCMP police, he teaches that they be delivered when the person is standing. That officers aim to hit the peroneal nerve, a nerve that runs along the back of the leg.

T.J. Burke, Stafford’s defence lawyer, brought up another assessment done by a different RCMP officer who found that the use of force by Stephen Stafford had been acceptable.

Burke also questioned whether or not Stafford was left with no options other than delivering the knee strikes.

Begin himself will stand trial later this year on two charges of obstruction of justice related to that night.

He was also charged with four counts stemming from an incident with police two days after the nightclub incident.