New trial ordered in police assault case

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This article was published 12/10/2022 (816 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s highest court has ordered a new trial in the case of a family awarded more than $100,000 after they accused police of assaulting them during a confrontation in a Winnipeg hotel room.

Ola and Andrew Beaulieu, their two teenage children and a family friend were staying at the Clarion Hotel on Dec. 26, 2014, when police arrived at their room to investigate a disturbance complaint.

In a 39-page decision, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled “material evidence” was not before the trial judge in 2019, leading him to conclude police did not have just cause to enter the hotel room.

“This led him to misconstrue the evidence and make negative credibility findings against them, and resulted in his conclusion that the officers’ entry into the hotel room was unlawful,” Justice Janice leMaistre wrote on behalf of the high court.

The trial was told a woman in a neighbouring room had called 911 after hearing a man, who turned out to be Andrew Beaulieu, knocking on doors, yelling and trying to get into other rooms.

Four police officers who responded to the complaint testified that hotel staff told them they wanted Andrew Beaulieu removed from the hotel and that there were three teens in the room, all of whom had been smoking marijuana and appeared intoxicated. Officers testified they heard loud noises and yelling as they approached the family’s hotel room, and they smelled marijuana.

Officers testified they had grounds to enter the hotel room because they were concerned about the safety of minors inside. They told court Andrew Beaulieu assumed “an aggressive stance” when he answered the door and raised his fists, telling officers they were “making a big f—-ing mistake.”

Patrol Sgt. Darren Cote told court officers needed to enter the room to confirm the well-being of any minors inside.

Once inside, the occupants yelled and swore at officers, and charged at them with cellphones, demanding their badge numbers, officers testified.

Const. James Macumber, the lone police officer named as a defendant in the Beaulieus’ lawsuit, along with the City of Winnipeg, testified he shoved 18-year-old Kyra Beaulieu after she knocked his police radio from his duty belt. When Ola struck him in retaliation, Macumber hit her to fend off the attack, he testified.

Andrew Beaulieu tried to strike Macumber, but was restrained by other officers, he told court.

The Beaulieus described a very different scene, telling court they had been alerted by hotel staff about the disturbance complaint and waited quietly for police to arrive.

Ola Beaulieu said it was she who opened the door to police, after which the four officers walked into the room. Kyra began recording the event on her cellphone. The 10-second video shows Andrew Beaulieu standing passively with his hands on a kitchen counter, talking “in a firm but non-aggressive voice,” Justice Jeffrey Harris said in his May 2019 ruling.

The video ends with Macumber walking toward Kyra, at which point she alleged he seized her cellphone.

“There were no occupants yelling at the WPS officers, grabbing cellphones, and charging toward them, putting cellphones in their faces and demanding badge numbers,” Harris said. “The video contradicts, in a material and substantive way, the evidence given by the defendants as to what met them as they entered the room. The chaos that they described to the court simply did not exist.”

Another video recorded by family friend Cheyenne Mills, on her iPad, shows Macumber swinging his arm at Kyra, pushing her onto a table.

Macumber testified he was defending himself after Kyra had struck him on the arm. Kyra denied hitting Macumber, telling court she stepped in to prevent him from taking Cheyenne’s iPad.

Harris ruled Macumber and the other officers were intruders in the room, meaning Kyra was justified in acting as she did.

Ola Beaulieu testified she ran toward Macumber after he shoved Kyra. She said Macumber punched her in the face two to four times, causing her to lose consciousness.

Harris rejected Macumber’s claim Ola Beaulieu had punched him first, saying a picture tendered as evidence at trial showed no evidence he had been injured.

Harris described the conduct of police as “malicious and high-handed,” charging officers “backfilled” their version of events in police reports and court testimony to justify their “egregious conduct.”

Harris found there was no evidence to support officers’ claims they were concerned about the well-being of minors in the hotel room, seriously undermining their credibility.

LeMaistre said Harris’s conclusion that officers had fabricated being concerned about minors in the room was contradicted by Powell’s notes and Use of Force report, the contents of which were misrepresented at trial.

“In my view, the trial record… demonstrates that crucial evidence regarding the officers’ subjective intent supporting the reasonableness of the entry was not before the trial judge,” leMaistre said. “This evidence supports the position that he misconstrued material evidence when he concluded that the entry was unlawful.”

Officers’ claims they were concerned about children in the room were supported by 911 call history logs describing an intoxicated male causing a disturbance and being let into a room by his children, leMaistre said, as well as testimony at trial describing Andrew Beaulieu as drunk, rowdy and upset.

LeMaistre said Harris’s rejection of the officers’ testimony “led him to the erroneous conclusion” that the cellphone and iPad videos were inconsistent with their evidence.

The videos recorded only 30 seconds of a 10-minute interaction and did not capture officers as they entered the hotel room “and is of little value as to what happened before they entered during the time the officers said they were at the door trying to explain to Andrew why they were there,” leMaistre said.

Further, the videos contradict Harris’s conclusion family members were calm, and clearly depicted both Andrew, Ola and Kyra yelling at officers, leMaistre said.

“In my view, the trial judge failed to consider whether the videos fairly and accurately represented the events and his conclusion as to what the videos depict is not supported by the evidence,” she said.

A new trial date has not been set.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca