(Vancouver Province) – Two Mounties are suing the RCMP after suffering what they claim was intimidation and harassment arising from their complaints about what they say was excessive force used by police on their son.
David Goodyear and Kristina Mikkelsen say their son, then-19-year-old Niall Hamill, was arrested after police investigated a disturbance at a house party in Comox on Nov. 24, 2006.
In a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, the parents say Hamill, the son of Mikkelsen and stepson of Goodyear, was taken to a police cell in handcuffs.
At the booking station, he was struck across the face by an officer, propelling him into a concrete wall and then thrown to the ground, rendering him unconscious, says the notice of civil claim.
Hamill’s mouth was duct-taped shut by an officer and he was strapped into a chair and taunted by several members of the Comox Valley detachment for several hours, it says.
The teen filed a police complaint alleging unlawful arrest, failure to advise him of his right to counsel and “general excessive force.”
The complaint was dismissed by the officer in charge of the detachment, Insp. Tom Gray, says the suit.
Goodyear filed a second police complaint, which was also denied by Gray.
An application to have the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP review the case resulted in 2009 in findings that the decision to terminate the first two complaints was unreasonable.
The use of duct tape on Hamill was not reasonable and constituted an excessive use of force and the use of the restraint chair was unreasonable, the Commission found.
Following the complaints and the Commission review, the two Mounties experienced harasssment, intimidation, and intentional and negligent infliction of mental suffering, says the suit.
Goodyear claims that at one point, after receiving a request from a superior officer to attend a meeting and asking for a third party to attend, he was verbally abused.
“S/Sgt. Lewis stamped his left foot down and loudly exclaimed, ‘You get your g.ddamned attitude in my office right now! This is a direct order!” says the suit.
On several occasions, the two parents were posted to detachments far apart from each other “causing tremendous family and financial hardship,” it says.
No statements of defence have been filed. The ministry of public safety and solicitor-general and Gray are named as defendants.
A government official said the matter was being looked into but as the case was before the courts, there would be no comment.
A civil claim contains allegations that have not been proven in court.
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