An RCMP officer who repeatedly punched an “intoxicated and belligerent” prisoner in the head during a heated altercation on the side of a northern Alberta highway has been convicted of common assault.
Cpl. Mark Potts was given an 18-month conditional discharge after pleading guilty to the charge Tuesday in Peace River provincial court.
He had been suspended with pay since October 2016, when he was charged with assault causing bodily harm in relation to the April 2016 incident. It was reported by a fellow officer five days after it happened.
Potts, a 21-year RCMP veteran, remains suspended from duty. An internal disciplinary process will now begin, RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Chris Warren said Thursday.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Potts, another officer and a prisoner were in an altercation inside a police vehicle on the side of Highway 35, north of Peace River early on April 15, 2016.
RCMP video shows Potts entering the backseat of the vehicle, getting on top of the prisoner and repeatedly punching him “about the head.”
At some point the victim sustained a gash to the top of his head that required four stitches to close. But it isn’t clear if the injury occurred while Potts was assaulting him or while a second officer was struggling with him, according to the agreed statement of facts.
Drunk man found in yard
The incident began around 1:30 a.m. that morning when Potts, working overtime, responded to a complaint about a man trying to get into a home in Manning, 100 kilometres north of Peace River.
The man, a construction worker from Grimshaw, was working in Manning at the time. He had been drinking that night and mistakenly thought the home was the place he was staying.
Potts found him intoxicated in the home’s yard. The man said he was cold and asked if he could sit inside Potts’ police vehicle. Potts searched him and put him inside, then tried to find the place where the man was staying.
The man got upset with Potts and began yelling and kicking in the back of the police vehicle. Potts arrested him for causing a disturbance and decided to transfer him to the Peace River detachment because no cell guards were available in Manning.
‘Name-calling and swearing’
Potts arranged for another Peace River RCMP member to meet him halfway to Peace River so they could exchange the prisoner.
But as he drove, “intermittent name-calling and swearing occurred between the two,” the agreed statement of facts says.
At about 2:45 a.m., the two RCMP vehicles met on the side of Highway 35. A video system in the second RCMP vehicle captured most of what happened next.
The prisoner spat and swore at Potts as he was being ordered to get into the second police vehicle. The second officer stunned the prisoner “by hitting him on top of his head,” then grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him into the vehicle.
“Potts enters the backseat on top of [the prisoner] and repeatedly punches [him] about the head,” the agreed statement of facts says.
Not certain when prisoner suffered head gash
The document says it isn’t certain if the prisoner’s injury happened when Potts assaulted him or when the second officer stunned him or closed a door on his head.
The prisoner was treated in hospital and released from police custody the next morning.
Potts told a supervisor that although the prisoner had assaulted him, no charges were necessary because he had hit the man back.
Interviewed by RCMP two weeks later, the Grimshaw man said he suffered neck and wrist injuries that prevented him from working. But he later refused to co-operate with police so they couldn’t obtain his medical records.