Last Updated: Thursday, May 15, 2008 | 10:42 PM
CBC News
Jury rules police violated Willow Kinloch’s legal rights
A jury at a civil trial awarded a teenager $60,000 in punitive damages Thursday for the way two Victoria police officers treated her while she was in their custody.
Willow Kinloch was 15 when her hands were cuffed behind her back and her legs tied together before she was tethered to the door of a padded cell for four hours on May 7, 2005.
The jury ruled on Thursday it was “false imprisonment” on the part of the Victoria Police Department and found the two police officers involved — Const. Brian Asmussen and Const. Ryan O’Neil — had used “excessive force” on Kinloch.
The jury said the police officers violated Kinloch’s legal rights under Sections 7, 9 and 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, including the right not to be arbitrarily detained and not to be subjected to cruel and unusual treatment.
“I knew at the time that it wasn’t OK and people kept trying to tell me it wasn’t a big deal and I knew that it was,” Kinloch, now 18, said outside the Victoria courthouse.
A police surveillance tape shows Willow Kinloch, then 15, being tethered to a cell door.A police surveillance tape shows Willow Kinloch, then 15, being tethered to a cell door. (CBC)
Tammy Kinloch said she never doubted her daughter and supported her fight.
“I never saw the videotape until this year, and it was exactly like she told me it had happened that day,” the mother said.
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Stumble It!
The police have just been given a consequence for their actions-now where is hers? I hate the message this is sending out to youth of today.
I guess the police forgot to put on their kid gloves before dealing with this drunken little stinker. If you wanna act big, then thats what you get dahling.
The police have just been given a consequence for their actions-now where is hers? I hate the message this is sending out to youth of today.
What message is that? That you have a right to be treated with dignity by the police? Yea, that's a really horrible message. Kid gloves? They chained her to the floor in a padded room. That's excessive for almost anyone, let alone a 15 year-old girl. Act big? I can't even guess as to where you get that from.
She did nothing wrong. Nothing. There are no consequences when there are no actions. What do you think were her actions? What do you think should be the consequences?
Now, those punks who took baseball bats to the cop in the alley in Edmonton, should have been gunned down.