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Story - My daughter's encounter with the Ottawa Police
My daughter's name is Holly and her boyfriend is Ed.
On October 3, 2004, Holly and Ed were spending time with friends prior to going out around 2:30am
for pizza. Ed, a current university political student, was having a discussion/debate with his buddies about laws, Aristole,
Plato, etc just before the young couple left for the Pizza Pizza on corner of Elgin and Cooper. When they arrived at
the Pizza Pizza, there were a couple of police officers, Michael Deshaw and Vince Arlotta, taking information from
the staff with respect to a previous incident whereby a scuffle outside sent one person into the window and breaking the glass. As
Ed and Holly entered the Pizza Pizza, Holly immediately when to the left side of the restaurant to view the menu; however,
Ed, noticing the officers, immediately approached one officer, Michael Deshaw, in an attempt to continue the conversation/debate
about laws. Ed began asking Const. Deshaw questions but the officer was not interested in engaging in the topic of Ed's
choice. Holly, noticing Ed, whet to be with him and was now embraced in his arms as the the conversation continued.
At some point, it was suggested that Ed could be arrested for being intoxicated in public; neither Holly nor Ed believed
this was possible given Elgin street is littered, at a minimum 3 nights per week, with intoxicated people. Holly
indicated this information to the officers, and Ed, truly didn't believe this was possible, requested the officer's badge
number. During this time of exchange of opinions between Ed, Deshaw, and Holly, the other officer, Arlotta, also became
engaged in the conversation. Deshaw provided the badge number, and shortly thereafter, left the restaurant. Ed
decided that he wanted to continue his conversation and proceeded attempts to engage Arlotta in the discussion. These
comments were not in any way rude, but they were possibly aggravating to the officer since Ed may have told the officer that
he, Arlotta, worked for the city, therefore he worked for him. During this time, Arlotta was also engaged in a conversation
with a couple of buddies. From the Pizza Pizza video, a perception of Ed's continued pursuit of conversation with Arlotta
gives the impression that the officer now had a couple of buddies which he wanted to show who was in charge. Finally,
the officer, deciding that he was going to show Ed who was boss, pushed through the two buddies and grabbed Ed.
As Arlotta pulled Ed outside, the Pizza Pizza video shows a confused and shocked Ed not understanding what was going on - Ed's
face says it all. After Arlotta brings Ed outside to the cruiser, he punches him and slams his head against the
hood of the car. Holly, seeing this abusive action and the blood from her parter, begins yelling at the numerous witnesses
to do something. No one was stopping the illegal activity so Holly decided, with her 5 foot 105 lbs frame, she needed
to do something. She hit the officer to get him to stop the abuse, and in turn, Arlotta punched her in the face.
This action caused an abrasion above her eye due to the impact of the punch and her glasses. Immediately thereafter, she
began looking for her lense while yelling at the witnesses to take note of what they just saw. Later, other police
arrived on the scene and both Holly and Ed were arrested. On route, Holly was able to remove her handcuffs and
showed the officer that she was no longer secured in them. The officer pulled over and re-applied the cuffs. Before
proceeding to the police station, both officers engaged in a conversation outside the cruisers. Holly was not allowed
to call her mother and was only allowed to contact a lawyer from a list provided by the police; however, for some reason,
Ed was allowed to contact his mom rather than a lawyer. Also, Holly had mentioned that she felt something wrong with
the area of her face which was punched but the officers ignored her and indicated that there was nothing wrong. Both
Holly and Ed were incarsarated for 12 hours in a cold cell without matresses, blankets, or heat. When Holly was released
and secure at home, she contacted me, her mom, and I immediately when to see her and took pictures of the abrasions as well
as Ed's blood covered shirt.
We are now going through the court system and there are many other things which have happened since
October 3rd in which I have made many attempts to get resolution without court costs, for both myself and the city, unsuccessfully.
I will provide more details as to actions taken when more time permits.
Photo taken after 12 hours of incarseration
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Update - May 1, 2005
It seems that I have not kept the site up-to-date given various reasons and circumstances.
My appologies.
In the end, the charges for both my daughter and Ed were dropped in January.
You have to wonder exactly why this was done given one of the charges against my daughter was extremely serious - assaulting
a police officer! I believe the end result was due to my tenacity at the time in getting as many political people involved;
this makes me believe that the charges were dropped because of political reasons....politics! My city councillor
was questioning Chief Vince Bevan on my behalf.
Anyhow, I was pleased that there would be no more criminal charges, however,
I'm still upset at the fact that we had to spend so much time and money on getting this end result when it should not have
gone to the courts if the officer had better skills and training. Like most of society, I'm not sure if spending more
time on this issue is worth the effort since people are not willing to get involved. As long as does not it affect you,
it doesn't matter. Right? Or if you are not going to get anything out of assisting someone, then why bother?
There were many people who witnessed the event that evening, and I posted many, many signs requesting information and assistance,
yet no one came forward. The people who work at the Pizza Pizza are afraid of the police and don't want to do anything
that would cause the police to stop them for nothing more often than they already do now.
I had fully intended on pursuing action against the police but since there
is not much support from witnesses, I haven't gone down this road yet. This does not mean that I have given up that
avenue, it just means that I have put it aside for a while to concentrate on other matters in my life. Pursuing a civil
law suit is a big undertaken and I am not completely sure that I have either the energy or the time...mostly the energy!
It seems that people, although faced with similar wrongdoings by the police, do not want to get involved and fight the battle
to make a change and without support, it is a hard fight to win.
Now that this site is coming up in a google search, I ask that anyone who was
there that evening to come forward and at least let me know your reasons for not getting involved.
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Encouragement
The justice system is a slow and painful process, but in the end, if you believe
the police used excessive force causing you bodily harm, the time put in will be worth the effort. Don't let the system
bring you down!
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