Miss-Delectable
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No charges for sheriff's "unjust" force | Calgary | News | Calgary Sun
The sheriff who physically accosted a sick and deaf Red Deer man at a court house will not be criminally charged, the Sun has learned.
Bill Berry, a 52-year-old cancer survivor, who is deaf and mute, was left unable to breathe and collapsed on the floor after being carried out of the Red Deer court house Dec. 9 by a sheriff.
Berry, who uses a neck tube to breathe, was trying to pay a traffic ticket when the sheriff, identified as Thomas Bounds, told him he didn’t go through proper security screening when he entered through an open door.
Berry tried to communicate to the sheriff, at which point the sheriff picked him up in a bear hug and carried him to the door.
An investigation by the Solicitor General Office’s Law Enforcement and Oversight Professional Standards Unit found the sheriff, identified as Bounds, used unjustified and excessive force that led directly to Berry’s neck tube being dislodged.
But further review of the incident by chief Crown prosecutor Robert Coleman has determined Bounds will not face criminal charges.
“I completed my review on 12.01.17, and have concluded, on the basis of that evidence, that it would not be possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, as against Sheriff Bounds, all of the elements of the offence of assault,” he wrote in an e-mail obtained by the Sun.
“Therefore, Sheriff Bounds will not be charged with any Criminal Offence as a result of this very unfortunate incident.”
Berry, who the Solicitor General Office's report had found was not acting aggressively according to video footage, is outraged.
“I’m rather disappointed — it was his actions that placed me on the floor going into convulsions,” he wrote through e-mail.
“Why was he found to have used unjust force ... but yet not charged?
“A man walks through a fully opened door in a public building, gets thrown on the floor nearly dies ... and no one is held accountable — I sure didn’t trip over my own feet."
An RCMP investigation into the matter is also concluded.
Berry plans to launch a lawsuit.
The sheriff who physically accosted a sick and deaf Red Deer man at a court house will not be criminally charged, the Sun has learned.
Bill Berry, a 52-year-old cancer survivor, who is deaf and mute, was left unable to breathe and collapsed on the floor after being carried out of the Red Deer court house Dec. 9 by a sheriff.
Berry, who uses a neck tube to breathe, was trying to pay a traffic ticket when the sheriff, identified as Thomas Bounds, told him he didn’t go through proper security screening when he entered through an open door.
Berry tried to communicate to the sheriff, at which point the sheriff picked him up in a bear hug and carried him to the door.
An investigation by the Solicitor General Office’s Law Enforcement and Oversight Professional Standards Unit found the sheriff, identified as Bounds, used unjustified and excessive force that led directly to Berry’s neck tube being dislodged.
But further review of the incident by chief Crown prosecutor Robert Coleman has determined Bounds will not face criminal charges.
“I completed my review on 12.01.17, and have concluded, on the basis of that evidence, that it would not be possible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, as against Sheriff Bounds, all of the elements of the offence of assault,” he wrote in an e-mail obtained by the Sun.
“Therefore, Sheriff Bounds will not be charged with any Criminal Offence as a result of this very unfortunate incident.”
Berry, who the Solicitor General Office's report had found was not acting aggressively according to video footage, is outraged.
“I’m rather disappointed — it was his actions that placed me on the floor going into convulsions,” he wrote through e-mail.
“Why was he found to have used unjust force ... but yet not charged?
“A man walks through a fully opened door in a public building, gets thrown on the floor nearly dies ... and no one is held accountable — I sure didn’t trip over my own feet."
An RCMP investigation into the matter is also concluded.
Berry plans to launch a lawsuit.