Edmonton police withheld video of officer assault on Indigenous man for 4 months
CBC
For four months, Edmonton police withheld from prosecutors a private citizen's cellphone video showing a violent assault by an officer on an Indigenous man.
The video showed a police officer driving his knee into the back of a prone, defenceless Elliot McLeod during an August 2019 arrest.
Both Edmonton police and Mcleod's lawyer confirmed to CBC News in recent weeks that the video was withheld from prosecutors following McLeod's violent arrest.
After the video was disclosed, prosecutors stayed four criminal charges against McLeod, including resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.
The Crown instead charged, and a judge subsequently convicted, one of the arresting officers for what the judge called a "gratuitous" assault.
Police arrested McLeod on Aug. 27, 2019. The Edmonton Police Service (EPS) received the video the next day from a private citizen. But EPS did not disclose it to Crown prosecutors until late December 2019, about two weeks before McLeod's trial.
Legal experts say police should have disclosed the video to the Crown and McLeod's defence lawyer as soon as possible. A former Crown prosecutor said the failure by EPS to immediately disclose the video violated the law and undermined McLeod's rights.
"The law is very clear that all relevant evidence gathered by the police has to be turned over to the Crown immediately, and then has to be disclosed by the Crown to the defence," said Paul Moreau, who is now a criminal defence lawyer.
"That is even more important in a case like this, where the video was not only the best evidence of the events, but also exculpatory," he said.
"It saved the accused. They should have turned it over instantly."
About six weeks before police disclosed the video, prosecutors offered McLeod a plea deal of 65 days in jail and 12 months of probation. McLeod's former lawyer, Nicole Sissons, said he turned down the offer because he insisted he was innocent.
University of Alberta criminal law professor Steven Penney said full disclosure should be provided before a plea is offered.
"If there is a big piece of the puzzle missing — and this video is obviously a huge piece of that puzzle — you wouldn't want to see someone, for example, pleading guilty to something that they very likely were innocent of because that evidence was absent at the time," Penney said.
Edmonton police Chief Dale McFee declined several interview requests.
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