Lead officer testifies in civil court as Sault family seeks $1.5 M in damages
Daniel Knox, his 2 adult children allege they were unlawfully arrested, assaulted in June 2014
Angela Gemmill · CBC News · Posted: Oct 03, 2022 7:45 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 3, 2022
A civil court case resumed Monday between a Sault Ste. Marie business owner and his family, and the Ontario Provincial Police.
It involves an incident from 2014 in a parking lot north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
Daniel Knox, his daughter Sherry Cole and son Harrison Knox allege they were unlawfully arrested and assaulted by police officers.
The family members gave their testimony in February.
Monday’s testimony was from lead investigator and the first officer on scene, Staff Sgt. Keith Nicolle, with the Sault Ste. Marie OPP detachment.
He described how the incident began as a traffic complaint.
A statement of claim said the OPP were called on June 11, 2014, after a traffic complaint. The complainant said that a company vehicle was driving erratically along Highway 17. Two other vehicles had forced the vehicle into a gas station parking lot and blocked it in.
Testimony in February revealed that vehicle was a company truck with Tree Men & a Chainsaw, which is Daniel Knox’s company. It also found that once the vehicle was blocked in, Harrison Knox got into the driver’s seat and tried to use the truck to ram one of the other vehicles.
One of the officers arrested Harrison for dangerous driving, then handcuffed him and put him into the back of a police cruiser. That’s when his father and sister arrived at the scene in another pick-up truck.
Staff Sgt. Nicolle testified that Dan Knox opened the back door to the cruiser to let his son out. Nicolle told court the court that he tried to de-escalate the situation with the elder Knox. That didn’t work.
Taser deployed twice
Nicolle testified that another officer, Const. Mario Posteraro had been taking statements from other witnesses when he heard the commotion and came to assist. It was Posteraro who deployed the taser on Knox twice.
During his testimony Nicolle said that prior to the tasering he told Daniel Knox to get down on the ground “to avoid injury or physical confrontation.” When that didn’t happen Posteraro deployed his taser.
“It was becoming really obvious that we weren’t going to be able to take, uh, to arrest Mr. Knox without some use of physical force or use of force option,” he told court.
“[Tasering] would have been the least physical force we could use.”
When he was asked to describe the scene around him at this point, Nicolle called it chaotic.
“It was chaos; so you’re focusing your attention on the person you’re trying to arrest, but you’re fully, I was fully aware at the time that there were people surrounding us, so it’s a bit unnerving knowing that there’s potential for conflict behind you,” he told the court.
[Tasering] would have been the least physical force we could use.
– OPP Staff Sergeant Keith Nicolle, Sault Ste Marie detachment
Nicolle said that after Daniel Knox was put into a cruiser, his daughter continued yelling and swearing at the officers.
He said he warned her to stop, or she would be arrested for obstructing police.
“She was relentless and being in our face and swearing at us so we arrested her,” Nicolle said.
Discrepancies between notes, video
Much of the incident was caught on video by a witness.
During cross-examination, the lawyer for the plaintiffs questioned Nicolle on the discrepancies between his notes from the scene and the video.
“Isn’t it true that after watching the video that you made significant changes to your version of events?” lawyer Davin Charney asked.
“I did at one point yes, when I realized that I had made an error when I write my notes, but I don’t think I noticed that right away,” Nicolle said.
Charney also asked the officer about how his notes indicated a two-handed push to the chest by Daniel Knox to Constable Posteraro.
The video does not show any such push.
“I honestly don’t know if I ever noticed that mistake. It’s unfortunate cause I wish I had,” Nicole replied.
Charney continued to question Nicolle for the rest of the afternoon until court adjourned. He is expected back on the witness stand again on Tuesday.
The civil trial is expected to last another two weeks, with other OPP officers set to be called as witnesses, along with several experts.
The Knox family is seeking $1.5 million in general damages, along with $250,000 for breaches of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and $250,000 for punitive damages.