Pubdate: Tue, 18 Oct 2016
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network
Contact:  http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Damien Wood
Page: A7

MAN TELLS OF INJURIES FROM ALLEGED BEATING

Three police officers charged with assault, two accused of
lying

Clayton Prince doesn't deny he ran and he doesn't deny he had
marijuana on him.

Photos provided by Clayton Prince show injuries the 34-year-old
Calgary man says he suffered at the hands of police.

But several months after he fled Calgary police officers one night
last July, the 34-year-old 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 licence 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 a few weeks more 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 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.

Their conduct, along with that of a fourth officer, was investigated
by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team in the wake of the
incident after video footage captured by the dashboard camera of one
of the police cars at the scene became a piece of evidence.

After the investigation, it was determined no criminal charges would
be laid against the fourth officer.

Chief Roger Chaffin has said he would likely return to active
duty.

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