Pubdate: Tue, 18 Oct 2016
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2016 The Calgary Sun
Contact: http://www.calgarysun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Damien Wood
Page: 7

MAN RECOUNTS ARREST THAT LEFT HIM HOSPITALIZED

Panic, Clayton Prince says - flat out panic is what caused him to flee
from Calgary police officers one night last July.

The 34-year-old Calgary man doesn't deny he ran, and he doesn't deny
he had marijuana on him, but several months later he still doesn't
understand how that led to his being laid up in a hospital with broken
ribs, a collapsed lung and infected wounds.

Now three officers are accused of assaulting him and two of the three
are also accused of lying to see him charged with crimes he didn't
commit.

It's alleged that when the officers caught up to Prince after he ran
from a traffic stop over an obscured license plate they assaulted him
while he was prone on the ground, while he was cuffed and even after
he was secured in a cruiser. Prince was charged with resisting arrest
and possession of marijuana.

In a Facebook interview, Prince told Postmedia his version of
events.

"I went to Calgary to go watch Chasing Summer - I noticed a cop
(following) me so I went into a parking space in some (restaurant). I
panicked then ran (because) I had like eight grams of weed," Prince
said. "They saw me a couple minutes later ... I didn't resist and I
went to the ground right away with my hands behind my head," he claimed.

"One cop got to me and started hitting me in ribs then a couple other
cops got there and they were all hitting me when I was on ground,
(defenceless). They threw me into a cop car where I hit the side of
the door (and) cut my lip open got three stitches on my lip and two
broken ribs and a (collapsed) lung," he alleged.

"One stabbed me with a key in back of the ear (and that) got infected
. I was in (the) hospital for five days. They had a hose inside me
to drain all the blood from my lungs."

It was another week after he was released from hospital before he
could get out of bed, he said, and longer before he could hold his
newborn baby.

Prince no longer faces charges for anything he was alleged to have
done on that evening - all were stayed in court shortly before the
officers were charged.

Prince said he's happy charges have been laid and that what he claimed
happened to him won't happen to anyone else.

Calgary Police Service Constables Mike Sandalack, Kevin Humphrey and
James Othen each face a charge of assault causing bodily harm for the
July 30 incident.

Othen and Humphrey also face two charges each of public mischief for
allegedly lying about the incident after the fact, and Othen faces an
additional charge of assault with a weapon.

- - with files from Yolande Cole
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MAP posted-by: Matt