Pubdate: Sat, 09 Aug 2003
Source: Kingston Whig-Standard (CN ON)
Copyright: 2003 The Kingston Whig-Standard
Contact:  http://www.kingstonwhigstandard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/224
Author: Greg McArthur

OFFICER BEAT ME IN BACK SEAT OF CRUISER, TEEN ALLEGES

Local News - A Kingston Police officer charged with assault repeatedly 
punched a 16-year-old boy while the teen was handcuffed and helpless in the 
back seat of a police cruiser, the teen told police.

Kingston Police have been tight-lipped about their five-month investigation 
into the conduct of Const. Michael Seymour, a 27-year-old officer.

When Seymour was charged in December, police provided a scant explanation 
of what took place outside La Salle Secondary School on July 4, 2002.

Documents obtained by The Whig-Standard, including police statements from 
Seymour, the teenager and witnesses, provide detailed descriptions of a 
violent encounter between the officer and the teen.

The teenager told investigators that Seymour drove him behind the high 
school to a secluded parking lot and punched him in the head five to six 
times and called him "dumb" after the boy told the officer he suffered from 
a learning disability.

"I had the cuffs on in the back seat and he jumped in the back seat with me 
leaving the back door open, half opened and then he gave me about five to 
six punches. Five or six punches to the head and then he got out, jumped in 
the front=85," the teen told Kingston Police Staff Sgt. Antje McNeely, the 
force's professional standards officer, in an interview on July 11, 2002.

The teen's comments are captured in a 34-page transcript of the interview.

The teenager, who has been convicted of underage drinking, can't be 
identified because of legal provisions for young offenders. He was on 
probation on July 4, 2002.

Three other men recently arrested by Seymour who were located by The Whig 
also allege the officer used excessive force. Two of them are teenagers.

None of them has filed complaints with Kingston Police, explaining that 
they didn't know how to complain and were afraid to make an accusation of 
abuse by a police officer to another police officer.

Those reasons are typical, says an academic who studies the complaints 
procedure in Ontario.

"There has to be some method for someone to register complaints, have them 
heard and have them investigated by someone who's not a police officer," 
said Tammy Landau, a criminologist at Ryerson University who has 
interviewed more than 100 people who have lodged complaints against police.

"Right now there's no place like that. They have to go to a police station."

On the night of the encounter between Seymour and the 16-year-old, two 
witnesses told police they saw Seymour slam the teenager into his cruiser. 
One witness also told investigators that Seymour hit the teen while he was 
struggling with the youngster on the ground.

Photographs taken by the boy's father after the altercation, which were 
submitted to police as evidence, show injuries to the teen's face: a 
swollen, bruised eye and a coating of blood over the white area of the 
teen's left eyeball.

Seymour, a former Bayridge Secondary School student who was hired by 
Kingston Police in 2001, didn't return repeated phone calls from the The 
Whig and declined a request for an interview.

He's still working as an officer =AD sometimes patrolling the city, 
sometimes working behind a desk =AD but is forbidden to contact the teen, 
his family or any of the witnesses.

Kingston Police Staff Sgt. Chris Scott told The Whig that Seymour isn't 
permitted to comment on any allegations of excessive use of force.

Three witnesses to the altercation last summer provided statements to 
investigators: George Wright, a janitor at the high school, his wife Sharon 
Wright and Elise Jamieson, an employee with the school's alarm company.

By 11:30 p.m. that night, Jamieson responded to an alarm that had been 
triggered in the middle of the school.

George and Sharon Wright also attended because he had a key to unlock the 
school doors.

A squirrel that had been playing havoc with the school's security system 
had triggered the alarm again, Jamieson and Wright told police 
investigators in their interviews conducted on July 15, 2002 and July 17, 
2002 respectively.

After checking out the alarm, George Wright was leaving in his car on the 
north side of the school when he saw Const. Seymour speaking to the 
teenager, George Wright said.

"So I stopped to let the officer know that me and the alarm lady checked 
the school and everything was OK =AD there was a squirrel," he told 
investigators.

The teen was walking home, taking a short cut across the La Salle grounds, 
when Seymour stopped him, the teen told investigators.

Seymour told the youngster to put his hands on the hood of his cruiser, the 
teen said.

When Wright got out of his car to tell Seymour about the squirrel, the teen 
called out to the janitor, asking if a police officer had the right to 
search him, Wright told investigators.

The youngster, who was carrying a small amount of marijuana in a plastic 
baggie, tried to throw his pot near a ditch next to the high school, he 
told investigators.

When he turned around to discard the pot, Seymour jumped him, the boy said.

"I took my weed out of my pocket like as he was tackling me I threw, I 
threw the weed into the ditch and then he started choking me when he was on 
top of me and then he stuck his fingers up my nose and like pulled it up 
like," he said.

In his statement from July 7, 2002, Seymour said he saw what looked like 
part of a plastic Ziplock bag sticking out of the teen's pocket and he 
asked the youngster what was in the bag.

The teen threw the bag and tried to run, but Seymour grabbed his arm, the 
officer said.

The high school student pushed Seymour to the ground and began running 
again, said Seymour, a stocky man who stands a little bit under six feet.

The teen weighed about 140 pounds at the time.

"I got up took hold of his left arm and pulled him to the ground. The 
momentum carried me with him and I landed on top of the accused," Seymour 
said in the statement.

Seymour's statement doesn't say how, or if, he restrained the teen while 
they were on the ground.

Seymour called out for help and George Wright went over to the ditch, the 
janitor told police.

He sat on the teen's legs while Seymour handcuffed the youngster, George 
Wright said.

Sharon Wright stood and watched the incident from the roadway, she told 
police on July 17, 2002.

She retreated to the car after her husband told her to get back in the 
vehicle, but not before she saw Seymour swat the teenager while the two 
were on the ground, she said.

"The officer had a hold of the kid's hands behind his back. He did hit him 
a couple of times in the side of the head with his hand and he kept saying 
Relax Relax," Sharon Wright said.

George Wright told police the youngster was calm and co-operative when 
Seymour got the handcuffed teen on his feet.

"I am very reluctant to put the following information in my statement 
because I don't need the hassle. I deal with you guys all the time,"George 
Wright told police.

"But as a concerned citizen I think this should be spoken about."

The janitor said that Seymour placed his hands on the teen's shoulders and 
slammed the youngster's head off the metal hood of the police cruiser.

"The first time the kids [sic] head bounced up and that's when the officer 
slammed his head on the cruiser a second time and he kept his head down and 
lay there."

George Wright declined to comment on the incident when contacted by The Whig.

Sharon Wright told police that Seymour shoved the teen against the rear 
part of the cruiser a couple of times.

Seymour's statement doesn't address the allegation that he shoved the boy 
into the cruiser or slammed his head off the hood.

The third witness, Jamieson, told police that she saw the teenager try to 
flee when the altercation started.

"The officer was trying to search him. The kid jerked and they went into 
the ditch," Jamieson told police.

When asked if she remembered the teen's head hitting the cruiser, Jamieson 
said she "didn't really notice."

"I was in a bit of shock because I've never seen anything like this," she 
told investigators.

Sharon Wright also told police she saw Seymour throw what she thought was a 
cellphone on the hood of the cruiser.

The device was a Walkman, which Seymour broke when he ripped it off the 
teen, the youngster said.

It is unclear from the statements how the area was lit that night.

After Seymour put the teen in the back seat, the youngster said the officer 
threatened him before shutting the door.

"Told me that I was gonna get beat. That I'll go for a little ride after I 
find your weed," the teen told police.

While the teen was in the back seat, Kingston Police Const. Geoff Dempster 
and another Kingston officer, Greg Sands, arrived at La Salle.

According to Seymour's statement, he found the bag of pot in the ditch, 
read the teen his rights and took him back to police headquarters.

But the teenager claims they made a stop before they arrived at 11 Queen St.

"He was really mad. He was angry at the time," the boy said.

Seymour parked the cruiser behind a small hill in a parking lot behind the 
school, the teen said.

"So, so this is when he jumped into the back seat and gives [sic] you five 
or six punches?" Staff Sgt. McNeely asked the boy in the interview.

"Five, pretty much six. I'm pretty sure. I counted with my fists kind of," 
the teen replied.

All of the witnesses, except for Const. Dempster, said Seymour drove behind 
the school with the teen.

Dempster told police on July 21, 2002, that he didn't remember which 
direction Seymour went when he drove away with the teen.

McNeely asked the boy about his injuries, still visible at the interview 
seven days after the alleged beating.

"I noticed you've got some bruising on the left side of your face," McNeely 
told the youngster.

"Yeah," the teen replied.

The teen told police they exited the school grounds on the south side of La 
Salle, driving over a construction area lined with gravel.

Seymour did a background check on the youngster with his computer, the teen 
told police.

When Seymour discovered the teen was on probation because of an underage 
drinking conviction, he threatened him again, the teen said.

"He's like, are you asking for another beating? I'm like, no, sir."

The youngster said he told Seymour that he suffers from attention deficit 
disorder, a learning disability that causes impulsive behaviour and 
distractibility, commonly known as ADD.

Sometimes people don't understand him, so he wanted Seymour to know about 
the condition, the boy explained to police.

"Okay. So that's why you told him that you had A.D.D.?" McNeely asked the 
teen in the interview.

"Yeah," the teen replied.

"Then you mentioned that the officer then called you dumb after that?" 
McNeely asked.

"Yeah."

Seymour's statement says nothing about the trip to police headquarters, 
what was said between the two or if they stopped anywhere.

In his interview with McNeely, the teen talked about waking up in the 
morning in a jail cell, his jaw hurting too much to chew his breakfast.

He got down half his meal and gave the rest of his food to another 
prisoner, he said.

Wrapping up her interview with the teen, McNeely asked him if he had any 
concerns about what happened at the high school.

"I don't know. I know I can be killed. Like a cop can kill you. A cop can 
kill you like nothing. They could =85 like all they got to do is shank you 
and they've got their gloves and their two cops=85 system," he said.

"I think the systems [sic] a mess."

The teen was charged with violating probation, possession of a controlled 
substance and assaulting a peace officer.

All three charges were withdrawn by a Crown attorney on July 14, 2003.

"The charges weren't withdrawn because of the charges against Const. 
Seymour. They were withdrawn because he didn't use the appropriate grounds 
to stop and search the offender," Clyde Smith, the lawyer who represented 
the teen, said in an interview.

On Tuesday, Seymour made a brief appearance in court, where his case was 
put over until Sept. 9.

The teen's mother sat two rows behind Seymour, staring at him through dark 
sunglasses while the officer, wearing a dark suit and tie, chatted with 
another man before the judge entered the room.

In an interview with The Whig, the boy's parents talked about how angry 
they were when their son told them his side of the story.

When the teen's mother received a call from Seymour explaining her son had 
been arrested that night, she and her husband weren't prepared to see him 
with bloodshot eyes and fresh purple bruises obscuring his face the next 
day, they said.

"My son weighs 100 and friggin' 40 pounds. I was in shock. I thought, `How 
the hell could this happen,' " the boy's father said.

His parents are furious it's been more than a year and there's still no 
trial date set.

Most of all, the teen's family is appalled that since the incident Seymour 
has patrolled the city, wielding the same power and weapons =AD including a 
gun, a retractable baton and pepper spray=AD as any other police officer.

Seymour deserves an opportunity to prove his innocence in court, but his 
power as a police officer should be limited, they said.

"The way I look at it, if I did that to somebody at work, I'd be fired 
instantly," said the boy's father.

"Not one year later, have my job and receive full pay."

Both parents are happy with the outcome of the internal police 
investigation, but they said the complaint procedure is poorly advertised.

They also believe complaints should be investigated by someone other than a 
police officer.

"I was always skeptical about whether [the complaint process] was real or 
not. No group can police themselves," the father said.

Daniel Plumton said it never occurred to him to file a complaint against 
Seymour, even though he accuses Seymour of challenging him to a fight while 
he was handcuffed as well as smacking him unnecessarily with his 
retractable baton =AD a weapon that officers refer to as an asp.

In the early afternoon of July 14, Plumton, 36, was at his home on Redwood 
Crescent, a suburban street in the city's west end.

The small business owner, who runs a home renovation company, was drunk. 
Upset over problems with his marriage, he polished off a 26-ounce bottle of 
whisky in about an hour, he said.

An animal control bylaw officer arrived at his house because someone 
complained about Plumton's pet rottweiler, police allege.

Plumton, who has convictions ranging from mischief to breaking and 
entering, swore at the woman.

Kingston Police allege that he threatened to sic the dog on her and threw 
the dog in her direction.

When the bylaw officer left, he tried to get behind the wheel of his truck, 
Plumton told The Whig.

Plumton's 26-year-old nephew intervened and the two began fighting on the 
front lawn and on a neighbour's lawn across the street.

That's when Const. Seymour arrived in response to the bylaw officer's 
complaint, said Staff Sgt. Chris Scott.

Scott said Plumton tried to tackle Seymour.

When Seymour told Plumton to stop and he didn't respond, Seymour followed 
the police use-of-force protocol and struck the man with his asp, Scott said.

Although he was very drunk and doesn't remember much from the ordeal, 
Plumton said he's positive he didn't try to tackle Seymour.

"I didn't say anything to him," Plumton said.

A neighbour who saw the altercation between Plumton and Seymour declined to 
comment.

Plumton said he was smacked with the asp twice across the leg and once in 
the back.

He retreated to his house and locked the door, while more officers arrived 
at his house, Plumton said.

Plumton realized he was going to have to surrender, so he finally opened 
the door, he said.

The officers handcuffed him, tied his legs and put him in Seymour's 
cruiser, Plumton said.

Plumton acknowledged that his memory of the ride with Seymour is hazy =AD 
he was drunk and dazed =AD but he said there's one part he remembers vividly.

He dozed off, but woke up to Seymour slamming on the brakes and yelling at 
him not to sleep in his car, he said.

They were in a secluded area =AD Plumton's not entirely sure where =AD when 
Seymour parked the cruiser, he alleges, and taunted him.

Plumton acknowledges he was in the wrong that afternoon, drunk and 
belligerent. He described his actions as embarrassing.

But Plumton said that doesn't justify the degree of force used by the 
officer and the taunt he alleges Seymour made while he was handcuffed.

"I'm going to court and take my lumps and apologize for what I did, but 
that doesn't take away from what [Seymour] did to me," he said.

Plumton was charged with resisting arrest, causing a disturbance and 
assault with a weapon, a charge that stems from his alleged threats with 
the dog.

He said he's contacted a Toronto lawyer who will file a complaint to 
Kingston Police, but it wasn't until he discussed the incident with friends 
that he started to feel that his rights had been violated, he said.

When asked why he didn't complain immediately, Plumton said, "I don't know 
how to do that and I didn't want to get in trouble."

Matt Polk, an 18-year-old from Smiths Falls, said he thought he had to pay 
a lawyer if he wanted to complain about an officer, so he never told 
Kingston Police about his claim that Seymour cut open his forehead when he 
allegedly smacked him with a flashlight.

On May 4, Polk was partying at an acquaintance's house in the student 
ghetto near Queen's University.

He and a group of about six friends went to Pizza Pizza at the intersection 
of Division and Princess streets right around the same time bargoers were 
spilling out of the nearby nightclubs and pubs, Polk said.

He acknowledged that he was drinking that night and had finished off about 
six beers by the time they got to the restaurant.

When Polk's friend Jeff Hinton began talking to another man's girlfriend, 
an argument broke out.

A friend of Polk's began fighting with another man in the parking lot and 
another friend of Polk's jumped in, Polk said.

Polk insisted he wasn't involved in the fight and stood back and watched.

Kingston Police allege that Polk was the third man who joined the fight, 
said Mike Weaver, a spokesman for the force.

When the police arrived, everyone in the parking lot scattered, Polk said, 
and he followed one of his friends who had been fighting.

With the police chasing after them, the two ran down Princess Street, 
darted south across the A&P parking lot on Barrie Street and ran behind the 
Skyline apartment buildings on Brock Street, Polk said.

Polk split up from his friend and ended up hiding behind a house on 
Division Street by himself, he said.

An officer saw him and told him to get on the ground, Polk said.

"Obviously I obeyed him. That guy was nice about it," Polk said.

He lay on the paved ground and was handcuffed by another officer, Polk said.

One officer shoved his face into the pavement and cut the side of his head, 
Polk claims.

Seymour approached with his flashlight shining on Polk's face, the teen said.

Polk alleges that Seymour asked him where his friend ran before smacking 
the butt end of his flashlight off Polk's head, creating a small gash on 
his forehead above his left eyebrow.

"For sure I was in the wrong for running, but it wasn't like I was trying 
to fight them or anything," Polk said.

He was placed in a cruiser and driven back to the Pizza Pizza parking lot 
where he was charged with causing a disturbance, Polk said.

While police held Polk in a cruiser, his friend Hinton said he was 
wandering back to the parking lot.

"He was bleeding really badly. I saw him through the cop car window," 
Hinton told The Whig.

Polk said he's fighting the charges. He's starting the law and security 
program at St. Lawrence College in September and has aspirations of 
becoming a police officer himself, so he wants to prove that he wasn't 
fighting that night, he said.

"I have five guys who say I wasn't in the fight. I wasn't cut when I ran, 
so why'd I come back with blood all over my face?" Polk said.

He appears in court in Kingston on Feb. 19, 2004.

Another teenager arrested by Seymour claims that when he was handcuffed by 
the officer, his arms were swollen for days.

On May 13, Seymour went to a Lancaster Drive home in the west end after a 
man caught 18-year-old Jeff Wilson, who had egged his home.

In an interview with The Whig, Wilson said he realized he had been caught, 
gave himself up and sat inside the house while the homeowner called the police.

He says he was throwing eggs at the home because of an argument he had with 
a person who lives there.

When Seymour arrived at the home, Wilson said he was compliant and admitted 
to egging the house.

He said he was shocked when he was placed in handcuffs.

"He had the handcuffs on so tight my hands were turning blue. When I asked 
if he could loosen them he said, `They're not for comfort,' " Wilson said.

"I didn't think you could get handcuffed for egging."

Wilson said when he went into work the next day his arms were still swollen.

"I had red marks all up my wrist," he said.

Wilson was granted a conditional discharge for two counts of mischief under 
$5,000 and placed on probation for 12 months.

When asked why he didn't complain to Kingston Police about the handcuffs, 
Wilson said he wasn't sure if Seymour had done anything wrong.

"I thought that's what [police] did. You see them throwing guys around on 
TV, so I thought it was just normal."

That is the most frightening excuse for not lodging a complaint against a 
police officer, said criminologist Landau.

"People assume they can expect a certain amount of violence or brutality on 
the part of police," said Landau, who interviewed complainants for her 1996 
study When Police Investigate Police: A View From Complainants.

"It's really disturbing."

Landau said the obstacles to lodging a complaint against a police officer 
are "enormous."

Like Plumton and Polk, most people aren't aware what recourse they have if 
they're upset about the way they were treated by an officer, Landau said.

Even if alleged victims know to go to a professional standards officer, 
they're often embarrassed and think their opinion has little merit, she said.

"This is the battle. You're dealing with people who think because they are 
guilty of a crime or are suspected of crime by police, that they're 
actually undeserving of rights," Landau said.

If a charge is laid against an officer because of a complaint, the justice 
system stacks the odds against the complainant, Landau said.

Because most complainants were being arrested at the time they felt they 
were treated unfairly, their credibility is reduced in front of a judge, 
she said.

A young offender with a gripe about police brutality is no match for an 
officer in a courtroom, she said.

"Police officers are professional witnesses. They speak the language of the 
courtroom. They have good suits. They have good lawyers. They have 25 guys 
in the back of the courtroom supporting them," she said.

For the complaint process to improve it has to be more transparent and, 
most importantly, the province has to create an independent body to 
investigate complaints, Landau said.

The provincial NDP government of the early 1990s established such a body, 
which eventually evolved into the Police Complaints Commission.

When the Progressive Conservatives were elected in the mid-1990s, the body 
was replaced by the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services, which 
will only review a case if someone is dissatisfied with the result of their 
complaint.

In order for the public to have any confidence in police accountability, 
the province needs to set up a "genuine independent civilian review," 
Landau said.

Kingston Police have said that anyone who is afraid to come to 11 Queen St. 
to complain about an officer can call a force in another city, who will 
forward the allegation to Kingston.

But the idea that a Kingstonian upset about a city officer would think to 
phone another force, such as the ones in Belleville or Gananoque, is 
ridiculous, Landau said.

"It's really idiotic," she said.

In 2002, Kingston Police investigated 21 public complaints. Three resulted 
in three different types of disciplinary action: a criminal charge, a 
reprimand and an informal resolution.

Six of the complaints were found to have not enough evidence to support the 
allegation of wrongdoing by an officer and 12 complaints are still under 
investigation.

Seymour still may be disciplined by Kingston Police after his case goes 
through criminal court.

Staff Sgt. McNeely wouldn't comment specifically on Seymour's case, but 
said criminal trials are usually allowed to proceed before an officer is 
charged under the Police Services Act.

The parents of the boy who claims he was beaten last summer said they hope 
justice will prevail.

"I must admit, some of the cops in Kingston are extremely good," the teen's 
father said.

"All you need is a couple to make the whole bunch look bad."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart