Law firm doubts cop’s claim of memory loss through contentious arrest

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A Calgary law enforcement officer’s assertion that a professional medical condition prevented him from recalling a contentious arrest is preposterous and must be investigated, a law firm explained to a panel reviewing police carry out on Monday.

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On the bitterly cold early early morning of Dec. 28, 2013, Godfred Addai-Nyamekye was with two good friends whose automobile was trapped in the snow in the Ramsay region when Const. Kyle Kwasnica and two other officers confirmed up.

At the man’s demo for assaulting a police officer in June 2015, just one of Kwasnica’s duty companions informed court docket Addai-Nyamekye had been physically intense and was taken to the ground.

In what Addai-Nyamekye contends was illegal confinement in a actual physical confrontation in the course of which his lip was reduce, he was hauled into a law enforcement automobile and driven to the East Village, in which he was dropped off in -17C temperatures.

The flippantly dressed gentleman then named 911, which led to Const. Trevor Lindsay responding. Video clip taken from a HAWCS police helicopter confirmed the officer roughing up a handcuffed Addai-Nyamekye — aspect of an incident for which the Calgary male reported he’s however searching for justice.

In the preliminary come across in Ramsay, it’s been determined Kwasnica didn’t preserve notes of the incident and that he could not recall the incident owing to slumber apnea.

Roger Chaffin, Calgary’s law enforcement main at the time, identified there was insufficient evidence to demand Kwasnica for deceitful conduct, a discovering Addai-Nyamekye’s law firm called “baffling.”

“There was no investigation into this rationalization that Const. Kwasnica gave,” Tom Engel said in his charm to the Legislation Enforcement Evaluate Board Monday.

“No member of the general public really should appear to the summary that (claim of rest apnea) has any trustworthiness … I obtain it pretty astonishing the chief wouldn’t purchase an evaluation.”

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He said it is hard to consider the law enforcement company would hire an officer with a extreme incapacity to remember important situations.

“This is an officer in the industry building arrests,” claimed Engel.

Addai-Nyamekye was acquitted of assault, though Kwasnica obtained interior self-discipline for failing to maintain notes.

In dropping the case from Kwasnica, Chaffin manufactured the only conclusion he could, explained Michael Mysak, lawyer for the Calgary police chief’s place of work.

“There was no proof, there was no corroborating or contradictory proof of what Const. Kwasnica claimed (in courtroom),” reported Mysak.

“Not each individual grievance justifies an investigation … just simply because an investigation doesn’t overturn each and every stone doesn’t make it unreasonable.”

It would be difficult to carry out a appropriate health-related evaluation of Kwasnica a long time soon after the preliminary incident, he additional.

“It destinations an unattainable typical on an difficult concentrate on,” explained Mysak.

Kwasnica’s law firm Paul Brunnen agreed, saying there has under no circumstances been any evidence countering his client’s variation.

In a individual matter, Lindsay was convicted in June 2019 of aggravated assault in connection with a May perhaps 25, 2015, incident in which he regularly punched Daniel Haworth in the confront though eliminating him from a law enforcement vehicle at the arrest processing device, before grabbing him and flipping him upside down.

The former law enforcement officer was sentenced to 90 times in jail to be served on weekends and just one 12 months of probation.

In that trial, Courtroom of Queen’s Bench Justice Michael Lema agreed with the prosecutor that the Dec. 28, 2013, incident in which Lindsay was captured on HAWCS video punching and kneeing a handcuffed Addai-Nyamekye, amounted to assaultive behaviour.

The incidents involving Addai-Nyamekye are underneath investigation by the Alberta Significant Incident Reaction Crew, while the assessment board is also probing no matter whether the man’s grievances have been adequately processed.

The board did not give a day for when it’ll difficulty a conclusion on Monday’s hearing.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn