Kelowna dishes
(KATHY MICHAELS / iNFOnews.ca)
April 14, 2021 – 2:29 p.m.
A Kelowna Mountie was charged with assault related to the arrest of a suspected disabled driver in 2020.
RCMP Const. Siggy Emmit-Steven Pietrzak was charged today over an incident that allegedly took place on May 30, 2020. His first appearance in court on the matter is scheduled for May 3rd.
“The charges were approved by an experienced Crown Attorney with no prior or current connection with the officer,” the BC prosecutor said in a press release. “With this matter now on trial, the BCPS will not release any additional information or make any further comments at this point.”
The incident attracted widespread attention after a 12-second video showing part of the arrest in a parking lot on 200-block Bernard Avenue was circulated and both legal and internal investigations into the incident began. The results of this investigation were independently verified by an outside law enforcement agency before being presented to the BC prosecutor for assessment.
The video showed a man who appeared to be drunk and was struggling with two officers trying to arrest him.
Then a third officer was called in and when he arrived he hit the man several times and took him into custody. The man later went to Kelowna General Hospital for non-life threatening injuries.
In addition to filing the criminal complaint, Tyler Russell, a Kelowna resident who identified himself as the person in the video, filed a civil lawsuit against Const on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. Pietrzak, Attorney General of Canada and Attorney General of British Columbia, alleges causing physical and mental harm.
“The violent attack by the RCMP officers left the plaintiff suffering from nightmares, anxiety, tenderness on the face and constant migraines,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit alleges that Russell was sitting in his work vehicle on the passenger side with his vehicle turned off when he was approached by two RCMP officers asking him to get out of the vehicle. He declined and was then asked to provide a breath sample, which he also declined because he was not operating the vehicle and the lawsuit said the keys were not in his possession or in his vicinity.
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