Crown seeking jail for guard who assaulted three inmates


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Assaulting three subdued inmates following a yard fight at the Calgary Remand Centre should land a fired guard a nine- to 12-month jail term, a prosecutor said Friday.

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But the lawyer for Heera Singh Chahal said there is no precedent for such a sentence.

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Defence counsel Jim Lutz provided provincial court Judge Allan Fradsham a litany of cases in which peace officers, mostly police officers, received anywhere from discharges to conditional sentences for committing assaults.

“There are no cases in Canada that supports my friend’s position,” Lutz said.

“There is no case that supports nine months, not even six months. Even if jail was appropriate in this case — which I submit it’s not — then a conditional sentence is appropriate.”

He also noted Chahal, 32, did not instigate the incident that led to inmates being ordered to lie down in prone positions in the jail’s yard.

“The whole incident occurred because of Mr. (William) McNabb and three other individuals attacking (another inmate),” Lutz said.

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“Police officers and peace officers . . . are sworn to serve and protect members of the community,” O’Connor said.

“The community is the inmates at the centre who, while incarcerated by order of the court, do not have any meaningful freedom.”

She said unlike in most cases involving officers — either police or correctional ones — where assaults are committed impulsively, Chahal made a considered decision to kick all three victims while they were subdued on the ground.

“Jail sentences are more typical when the officer takes a leap into criminality, as in this case,” O’Connor said.

Fradsham convicted Chahal of two counts of assault and one of assault causing bodily harm in connection with a Feb. 21, 2019, incident at the northwest Calgary jail.

The judge dismissed Chahal’s claims that he feared for his life while in the yard after the fight was broken up, noting video of the incident ran contrary to his claim as he wasn’t even watching the inmates for most of the time.

A date for his sentencing decision will be set Tuesday.

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Twitter: @KMartinCourts



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