HALIFAX -- Nova Scotia's highest court has ordered a new trial for a former Halifax police officer found guilty last year of assaulting a homeless man.
A three-member panel of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal issued a decision Monday quashing the conviction, saying they agreed that the lower court judge should not have used the victim's interpretation of a security video showing the altercation on Feb. 25, 2018.
During the trial in provincial court, Patrice Simard repeatedly said he had almost no memory of what happened the night he was confronted by Const. Laurence Gary Basso.
Simard said his testimony was based on what he could see in the video.
Basso testified that he struck Simard in the head in response to a punch Simard landed on the officer's leg -- a punch the officer said can't been seen on the video because of the camera angle.
On June 12, 2019, provincial court Judge Laurie Halfpenny-MacQuarrie decided that Basso had used excessive force when he struck Simard while attempting to remove him from the parking lot of the Metro Turning Point shelter.
The officer was sentenced to three months in jail and he was fired by Halifax Regional Police.
Basso's lawyer, James Giacomantonio, said that as the appeal hearing was about to get underway Monday, the Crown agreed that a new trial was needed because the trial judge was incorrect in using Simard's interpretation of what he saw in the video.
"We appreciate the Crown exercising their office reasonably and conceding a ground that they believed was decisive of the appeal," Giacomantonio said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2020
