The Stratford Police Board and five Stratford police officers have been hit with a $3 million dollar lawsuit.
A 36-year-old man launched the lawsuit alleging that excessive force was used by officers who had no right to detain him.
A statement of claims says on Feb. 1, 2023, the man was at a bus station on Downie Street when police approached him and placed him under arrest with his hands behind his back to be handcuffed.
The lawsuit statement of claim alleges that a constable struck the plaintiff multiple times in the hamstrings before sweeping his legs out, which caused him to hit his face on the ground. This caused him to bleed from his mouth and nose, and also caused one of his teeth to fall out, according to the lawsuit.
The next day, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which is a civilian watchdog that investigates all cases of serious injury, death, gunfire, and allegations of sexual assault involving police was notified. The SIU charged the constable with assault causing bodily harm six months later, but the charges were later withdrawn in July of 2024.
Toronto lawyer David Shellnutt is representing the plaintiff in the lawsuit, and he calls on police to look at other ways of dealing with vulnerable members of society.
“This is another instance of police dealing with members of the public who are experiencing substance use issues or addiction,” said Shellnutt. “What you have are people in crisis and instead of having people trained to deal with folks experiencing those conditions, we send in armed officers who ought to be doing other things. They also don’t have skills or tools to properly address these situations, and we frequently get excessive force results.”
Shellnutt is a lawyer whose law firm represents many people who have experienced excessive force by the police. He is currently representing other clients in nearby Woodstock and St. Thomas who are dealing with similar lawsuits. He believes that society needs to rely less on police for every situation.
“Communities rely too heavily on the police to send the hammer in these situations,” Shellnutt said. “We have these expensive police forces that we pay so much for, so we think they should handle everything, but that results in people getting harmed. So what we are calling on is for police to focus on major crimes in the community. Things like people experiencing homelessness, or addiction issues should be handled by mental health workers and crisis intervention teams.”
Shellnutt hopes that it won’t go that far.
“My hope is the police recognize that their guy shouldn’t have used this force on someone who is cuffed and the injuries ought to be compensated for and hopefully everyone can avoid a lot of time and money,” he said. “$3 million is not a crazy amount of money to be asking for when it comes to civil cases. The reason it's so high is because we need to protect in case of any contingency, so we look at things like medical care not covered, the damage for the injuries whether it be psychological, dental or physical. We also take into consideration the plaintiffs ability to work, and if any time was or will be lost.”
None of the allegations in the case has been proven in court and no statement of defence has been filed.
Neither Stratford Police, nor Mayor Martin Ritsma who sits on the Stratford Police Board, responded to a request for comment.
