Cop who stepped on man's neck for 2 minutes found guilty of assault
Sentencing of Ottawa police Const. Goran Beric to happen at later date
UPDATE: Const. Goran Beric was suspended with pay by the Ottawa Police Service on Oct. 11, 2023.
An Ottawa police officer has been found guilty of assault and assault with a weapon for stepping on a man's neck for more than two minutes and jabbing him with a closed baton in August of 2021.
Const. Goran Beric had been charged by Waterloo police in 2022 after their investigation. The officer, who has been a member of the Ottawa Police Service since 2006, was assigned to administrative duties.
On the night of Aug. 4, 2021, Beric and four other officers responded to reports of a man covered in blood and screaming inside an Ottawa Community Housing building on Bronson Avenue.
Ontario court Justice Janet O'Brien ruled on Wednesday that the force Beric used to jab Derrick Weyman's head with a baton while he was lying on his side in the lobby was unlawful and unnecessary.
Weyman wasn't struggling at that point, she said, and Beric had control.
Officer failed to stop and reassess
O'Brien also ruled that Beric stepping on Weyman's "very vulnerable" head and neck for more than two minutes — caught on surveillance video shown during the trial — was excessive and unnecessary.
He didn't stop and reassess the situation, as his training dictated, Weyman was intoxicated and not resisting, and Beric was much larger, she found.
Recounting the video evidence, O'Brien said it shows Weyman stumbling, then taking a few steps and leaning toward Beric, who kicks Weyman's chest to push him back. Weyman catches Beric's foot, Beric appears to try to strike Weyman and misses, and then another officer takes Weyman to the ground, O'Brien said.
Beric then steps on Weyman's neck and head with his heavy work boot, and keeps it there for two minutes and five seconds. Weyman never loses consciousness, but sometimes goes limp.
Testimony sometimes inconsistent, not believable
Beric, who attended Wednesday's proceeding virtually with his lawyer, was wearing a black face mask and long-sleeved black shirt. He shifted in his seat and furrowed his brow as the judgment was being read.
In her decision, O'Brien said Beric admitted bringing his baton in contact with Weyman's head and putting his foot on Weyman's head, and that "neither of these actions was in accordance with his training." But Beric maintained that force was necessary and reasonable under the circumstances, she said.
O'Brien found Beric — who testified in his own defence — to be an unreliable witness, and pointed out several discrepancies between his notes, his two days of testimony, and the surveillance video.
Ontario's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit, did not handle the case because Weyman was not seriously injured by the officer. The SIU's mandate is only invoked in cases of serious injury, death and sexual assault involving police, or when shots are fired by police.
Crown had argued Beric was angry at lack of co-operation
Closing arguments in Beric's judge-alone trial were heard in August.
Crown lawyer Vlatko Karadzic cast Beric's acts as retribution borne out of anger.
"The reason he delivered those strikes is as a retaliatory measure for this individual who wasn't listening to him and is getting blood all over him," said Karadzic.
Karadzic said it might have been reasonable to take brief action to guard against the threat of blood, but in his view, that isn't what Beric did when he kept his foot planted on Weyman.
"You're not entitled to do that for two minutes and five seconds while the person is struggling to get your foot off their neck," he said.
"At a certain point, that foot on that man's head becomes unnecessary, unreasonable and completely disproportionate to his arms that are flopping by his side."
Defence blamed COVID fears
Beric's defence lawyer, Karin Stein, argued that the video evidence looks worse than the reality, and that Beric was acting reasonably in an attempt to control Weyman, who was rambling incoherently and covered in blood.
She cited a security guard who said the man was acting like a "zombie" or "possessed," and argued he was a threat to the public, to police and to himself.
While Stein acknowledged the baton use was clearly offside with police training, she called it a "light touch" intended to get Weyman's attention.
"He's not held to the standard of perfection," she said. "There's a lot of things that he could have done better, and he acknowledges that."
Stein argued stepping on Weyman was a reasonable attempt to redirect his head away, as Beric attempted to protect himself against spit, blood and disease.
"Nobody wanted to really get close to this man, who was bleeding profusely," she said, "not just because of communicable disease, but there was the concern about COVID at the time."
Sentencing date not yet determined
Sentencing submissions will take place at a later date.
Beric is next scheduled to appear in court later in October to set dates.
Ottawa Police Association president Matthew Cox said he needs time to review the judgment. As for Beric, Cox wrote the union will support him.
Reached by phone after the proceeding Wednesday, Stein said she had no comment to make and doesn't yet know whether Beric intends to appeal the judgment.
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