Former Edmonton police officer found not guilty of assault in arrest caught on video
Jury returns verdict after about two hours of deliberation at the end of a five-day trial
A jury has found former Edmonton police officer Oli Olason not guilty of assault in a 2021 arrest where video shows him with his boot on a man's head.
After hearing four days of witnesses, including Olason testifying in his own defence, the jury entered deliberations Friday afternoon and returned with a verdict about two hours later.
Olason put his head in his hands and started to cry as the verdict was announced. After Court of King's Bench Justice Eric Macklin told him he was free to go, he stood up and hugged supporters who were watching in the gallery.
The former officer left the Edmonton Police Service in 2021. He told the jury this week that he has since moved back to Iceland, the country where he was born, and no longer works in law enforcement.
Police officers can legally use force in the course of their duties. The jury was tasked in this case with determining whether the force Olason used was reasonable, proportionate and necessary in the circumstances. Jury deliberations and the reasons leading to a verdict are secret.
Olason was charged after an Alberta Serious Incident Response Team investigation of the arrest of 43-year-old Lee Van Beaver shortly after midnight on March 23, 2021.
He and his then-EPS partner Const. Dan Fedechko pursued Beaver into a Ritchie Market alley because they said they'd seen him pointing a canister of bear spray at their unmarked police vehicle. They intended to arrest him for possession of a dangerous weapon.
Beaver, who is Indigenous, testified that he was living on the streets and dealing with drug addiction at the time, and he carried the bear spray for protection.
He said he held the canister by his side, displaying it to the passing unmarked EPS vehicle, not knowing police were inside, because he'd been robbed by people wielding machetes in the same area years before.
Beaver told the court he thought he needed to ward off "robbers, jackers or gangsters" that he feared could be following him.
Beaver was complying with police, Crown argues
Crown prosecutor Michelle Kai told the jury before they left to consider their decision Friday that the video evidence shows Olason stepping on, stomping and kicking Beaver's head, constituting an unreasonable use of force.
Olason testified that he put his boot on Beaver's upper back and it "slid" onto his head because Beaver was resisting. The former constable denied that he stomped Beaver, and said the kick was a "distractionary technique" to force the man to show his hands, fearing that he was deploying the bear spray, which was still in his pocket.
Beaver told the court he was complying with police instructions to get on the ground. The arrest video shows him putting his hands up and lowering himself to his hands and knees. He said he never tried to reach for the bear spray or use it during the arrest.
Kai pointed to a portion of the video where Fedechko is holding Beaver's right arm. That officer testified during the trial that he was trying to get both Beaver's hands to put him in handcuffs.
Olason was, by then, stepping on Beaver's left arm, preventing him from surrendering, Kai said.
"It is Mr. Olason's continued application of excessive force on Mr. Beaver that formed Const. Fedechko's perception that he was resisting, that he had to fight for Mr. Beaver's hand," she said.
Sgt. Dustin Adsett, who arrived in the middle of the arrest, also used a Taser on Beaver because Olason's use of force led to a perception that Beaver was resisting, Kai argued.
"In the course of their duties [police] are expected to defuse a situation. They cannot create a situation that makes it impossible for a subject to comply and then use that subject's reaction as justification for use of force."
Adsett was also charged with assault with a weapon in the case. He was acquitted last year after a judge-alone trial, with Justice Kent Davidson concluding that while Beaver deserved "more compassion, dignity, respect and empathy" than he was treated with, Adsett shouldn't be the one held responsible for what happened.
Davidson found that Beaver was moving his hands while on the ground in an effort to protect his face, and Adsett, who didn't see the beginning of the interaction, couldn't have known the movement was a result of another officer's behaviour.
The jury heard references to the "Adsett trial" during this week's proceedings, but did not hear about its outcome or what Davidson said in his decision because it wasn't evidence specific to Olason's case.
Defence lawyer Brian Beresh told the jury in his closing arguments Friday that numerous factors show Olason's use of force was reasonable.
Beresh said the video of the arrest is "misleading" in terms of deciding the case. He told the jury that it's missing key information that gives rise to reasonable doubt, meaning Olason must be acquitted.
The officers knew Beaver had a weapon, and during the arrest, they began to smell the bear spray, adding to their perception of danger, Beresh said.
"This scenario was not safe for any officer, for any member of the public until the handcuffs were securely on, whether Mr. Beaver wanted it or not," Beresh said.
"I suggest that officer Olason did not commit the crime of assault and he was acting to protect himself, to protect you and to protect the public. I ask you to find him not guilty."
Beresh pointed the jury to testimony from the EMS paramedic who assessed Beaver minutes after the arrest. He gave evidence that his only injuries he found were a cut on the inside of Beaver's lip and "pinch marks" from the Taser darts on his back.
"I would have expected some rash on the side of the face if the face came in contact with the brick, or some injury consistent with the suggestion of kicking — nothing," Beresh said.
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