Kelowna police officer charged with assault

Cheryl Wierda (Kelowna Capital News) – Two different pictures of the situation surrounding the allegation a police officer punched a pregnant woman in the face unfolded in a Kelowna courtroom this week during the officer’s trial.

Kelowna RCMP Const. Steve Conlon is charged with assault causing the bodily harm of then 19-year-old Crystal Young back on Feb. 13, 2009.

The incident began earlier that night when Const. Kent Hall, in plain clothes, tried to arrest Mark Pauls on a parole violation warrant and was pepper sprayed by Pauls.

Hall, meanwhile, shot Pauls in the leg.

A woman who had been with Pauls in the driveway of a Thompson Road home when Hall confronted Pauls went into the house after suffering the effects of the spray, and police soon came looking for her, threatening to kick down the door if they didn’t open up.

Police officers testified that people inside the home were swearing and telling them they needed a warrant, and Young herself said, “I knew for a fact you needed a warrant to come into a house.”

When police burst into the house, the court was told the people inside, including the woman police were looking for, were ordered to the ground and Young, who was six months pregnant, was trying to hold back her angry pit bull dog.

Young testified that her first contact with Conlon was “being hit in the eye with a fist.”

She said the police officer walked past the snarling pit bull to hit her, and then the officer, who did not have a gun in his hand, dragged her to the ground.

At some point, the dog bit the officer.

Defence lawyer Jack Harris suggested that if the officer punched her with his full strength, she should have been knocked away from the couch she was leaning on, and suggested she was not hurt.

“I got hit very hard,” she said, at times seeming annoyed by the questioning.

She also disagreed with a defence assertion that the officer hit her dog and then her.

However, that defence assertion is similar to testimony given by a rookie officer.

Const. Elizabeth Paetz was recently out of the RCMP training facility in Regina and still undergoing field training when she was asked to join other Kelowna RCMP officers, with guns drawn, in entering the house.

Inside, she said Young’s dog was pulling at its leash as Young kneeled on the ground.

“I saw the dog lunge toward Const. Conlon. At the same time, I saw Const. Conlon’s arm go out, like backhand against the dog,” she said.

She didn’t see the officer make contact with the dog, and said then that Young cried out.

“Somehow, she became involved in the altercation,” said Paetz of Young, but added that she did not see the officer hit her.

The other officer near Conlon at the time testified he was looking away at the time of the alleged hit.

Const. Alexander Taggart, who currently has three years of service with the RCMP, said he considered shooting the snarling dog, but with all the people in the room, “it’s not a safe place to shoot the dog.”

He said he then decided to access his baton, which was on his left side and was usually grabbed with his right hand.

However, he had his gun in his right hand and didn’t feel the situation warranted putting the weapon away.

Taggart testified that he “saw the dog basically go for his (Conlon’s) arm” as he focused on getting his baton.

“I’m turning like this (twist to the left) to basically grab my baton and when I turn back, the female’s on the ground,” said Taggart.

Young or someone else then said she was pregnant, Taggart testified.

“You must be really tough, you hit a pregnant girl,” the officers were told.

Taggart noticed Young had a bump on her head and joined her in putting her dog in the bathroom before bringing her to the kitchen and calling the ambulance.

Taggart later noticed that Conlon had injured his hand.

The trial, expected to last five days, is scheduled to continue today.