Susan Quinn, Port Alberni, B.C. (Alberni Valley News) – Matthew Charleson spent Thursday night in the drunk tank at the Port Alberni RCMP station after going on a bender. It’s a place he admits he’s been before. Only this time when he woke up the next morning, he didn’t just have a hangover: he also had a broken collarbone.
Now, Charleson wants to find out why.
“I was drunk. They took me to the drunk tank. Before then I wasn’t beat up,” Charleson said.
After spending 12 hours in cells, Charleson was released. He tried to have his arm x-rayed on Friday, but said there was no one available to do it. So he waited until Saturday. He’s now in a sling.
“I have a family to look after right now and I can’t because I’m injured,” he said.
Charleson acknowledges the police have had to deal with him in this state before, and said he sometimes gets angry when he’s drunk. However, he believes things went too far and that’s how he ended up with a broken collarbone.
“They were saying I was being violent and threatening,” Charleson said.
“When they let me go I asked them what they did to me and they just told me to get out.”
Charleson said he called the RCMP several times on Saturday to speak to the watch commander, but never received a return phone call. He has made a complaint to the office of the police complaint commissioner.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Lee Omilusik said the RCMP will do a “complete and full investigation” into the complaint.
“I’m not going to comment until I get the nature of the complaint from the police complaints commission,” he said.
“The cells are all videotaped and it will come out on camera. The truth will come out.”
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