She was helping a mugging victim - and an Ontario cop beat her up for it
Wednesday, December 31, 2014 | Categories: Features 66
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 Tonie Farrell and her granddaughter/Facebook
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Tonie Farrell is a grandmother, and the sort of person who posts messages on her Facebook page that say, "be an encourager. The world has enough critics already." So why was she beaten and permanently maimed by an Ontario Provincial Police officer when she'd stopped to help a mugging victim?
That's the question she and her lawyer, Angela McLeod, are trying to answer after a judge this month issued a blistering judgement against OPP Sergeant Russell Watson, saying his attack on the 49-year-old caused "catastrophic injuries."
Ironically, the judge issued his statement while categorically dismissing charges of obstructing a police officer laid against Ms. Farrell by Sgt. Watson.
In April, 2013, Ms. Farrell was out walking when she heard a woman screaming. The woman was being beaten by three people, who fled when Ms. Farrell ran toward them. She then consoled the victim, who was clearly distraught, Ms. Farrell tells As It Happens guest host Helen Mann.
Then Sgt. Watson showed up. Ms. Farrell said she wanted to give him a description of the woman's assailants, and tell them which way they had run. When she tried to do so, she says, he put his face into hers and shouted, 'shut the f--k up.' "I was actually shocked," she says. "I asked him, 'Is that the way you talk to people?'"
After she asked for his name and badge number, things got really ugly. Ms. Farrell says Sgt. Watson kicked her in the side of her knee, breaking her leg and sending her to the ground. He then punched her in the face and climbed on top of her, pressing her face into the concrete, she adds. "I thought I was going to die."
Then, he and two other officers dragged her, broken leg and all, to a police car, and had to struggle to get her in the car because her leg wouldn't bend properly, her lawyer, Angela McLeod, adds.
In hospital, she was charged with assaulting and obstructing a police officer.
At the trial, however, the judge would have none of Sgt. Watson's case. He suffered no injuries, the judge wrote, but Ms. Farrell suffered "catastrophic injuries." Indeed, Ms. Farrell has been unable to work since the incident, and her leg is permanently maimed.
Although Ontario's Special Investigations Unit was said to have investigated the case, no disciplinary action has been taken against Sgt. Watson and he remains on the job in Orillia, Ms. McLeod adds.
That may change, however, as news of the beating gets out. Yesterday, former SIU director and current Ontario Ombudsman André Marin said the case should be re-opened.
Ms. McLeod said they've received letters and calls of support from people all over Ontario. "I think people are scared," she says. "Scared that this can happen to someone who's only trying to help."
Neither the Orillia OPP nor the Special Investigations Unit responded to requests for interviews prior to us going to air, although in a statement, OPP spokesperson Sergeant Peter Leon said, "A statement made by a judge or a justice during a trial of an accused is not a finding against an officer." |
