r v. BIANCA SABRINA CRUZ, 2021 QCCQ 8473

R. c. Cruz 2021 QCCQ 8473 COURT OF QUEBEC CANADA PROVINCE OF QUEBEC DISTRICT OF MONTREAL TOWN OF MONTREAL Criminal Division No: 500-01-178105-182 DATE: May 27 th , 2021 ______________________________________________________________________ BY THE HONOURABLE LINDA DESPOTS, J.C.Q ______________________________________________________________________ THE QUEEN Prosecutor v. BIANCA SABRINA CRUZ Accused ______________________________________________________________________ JUDGMENT ______________________________________________________________________ [ 1 ] The prosecution accuses Ms.

Cruz, the accused, of having committed an assault on a peace officer in the performance of his duties. [ 2 ] The Court is faced with contradictory versions which require the application of the rules decreed by the Supreme Court of Canada in R v. W .( D .) [1] .

Background [ 3 ] On April 11 th , 2018, at around 10:50 p.m., a call was received at the downtown police station concerning gunshots and an attempted murder at the corner of Sherbrooke and Victoria Street. [ 4 ] The officers Bruno Pierre Côté and Olivier Pelletier leave the station and barely have time to drive a few meters before a man throws himself in front of their patrol car with his arms in the air. [ 5 ] The officer Côté realizes that the man has blood on one hand.

The man informs the police that he tried to separate two people who were fighting in the alley and that one of them bit him. [ 6 ] The police enter the alley and see two people shoving each other and a third person trying to separate them. [ 7 ] The officers approach these individuals and notice that they are intoxicated and yelling at each other. [ 8 ] According to the police, they tell them to calm down and the accused, who is one of the two people, turns around and shouts “We’re fine, get the fuck out”. [ 9 ] In a second attempt, the police try to calm them down, but the two individuals keep distancing themselves from them.

At this point, the police ask them to stop yelling so that they could identify the person who bit the citizen that alerted them. [ 10 ] The officers grab the accused’s arms in order to restrain her. She struggles and ends up hitting the officer Côté on the head, knocking his headset off. [ 11 ] The officer puts her against the wall, but continues to struggle.

The officer puts the accused on the ground and manages to handcuff her, despite her having bitten him on the hand. [ 12 ] According to the officers, the accused is hysterical and restraints must be placed on her legs when she is placed in the patrol car. [ 13 ] On the other hand, the accused has a completely different version of the events. According to her, she spent the night at the bar with her bother Kevin and her friend Stelios Klapsis.

The evening came to an abrupt end when she got into an argument with the doorman of the bar when she went out to smoke a cigarette. [ 14 ] In the alley, the accused was arguing with her brother, when an unknown person aggressively intervened between them, taking a hold of Kevin. Kevin was struggling to get out of his grasp, when all of a sudden the individual lets go and runs away from the premises.

[ 15 ] They were gathering their belongings and were making their way to the car, when all of a sudden, they hear a police siren and see two officers heading their way. [ 16 ] In response to the police’s questions, the accused and Kevin told them that everything was okay and that they did not wish to press charges against this unknown person. The police insisted and told them not to leave the premises. [ 17 ] The accused told the officers that it was a complete misunderstanding and she started to walk away. It is at this moment that she felt the officers grab her by the arms.

She told the officers to stop because she did not like being touched by strangers. The officers mentioned that they wished to question her. [ 18 ] The accused’s tone started to rise and one of the officers attempted to handcuff her. She resisted and kept saying that she did not understand what they were doing and that she did not do anything wrong. In fact, her friend Stelios was trying to intervene by questioning the officers and convincing them to stop grabbing the accused. At the same time, her brother Kevin was arguing with the other officer. [ 19 ] The accused makes it clear that she is not happy.

She is screaming and pleading with the officers to let her go. According to the accused, the situation escalated and the officers became more aggressive towards them. [ 20 ] A few minutes later, 3 or 4 patrol cars show up as backup. The accused continues to tell them that she did nothing wrong, but she feels as if she is being ignored and that no one is understanding her. [ 21 ] At this moment, she feels multiple police officers holding her down and brutalizing her. She is then brought to the police station. [ 22 ] The accused denies having hit officer Côté.

Her intentions were simply to get out of the officer’s grasp.

Analysis [ 23 ] The Court must not choose between one version or another but rather, must evaluate the evidence, by reminding itself that the prosecution has the burden of demonstrating beyond a reasonable doubt the guilt of the accused, the latter being presumed innocent. [ 24 ] It is true, as underlined by the prosecution that certain contradictions arise from the accused’s testimony and that of her friend Stelios, particularly concerning the time of their arrival at the bar, the amount of drinks that were consumed and the presence of the accused’s boyfriend. [ 25 ] It remains that the versions of the accused and Stelios are similar, that is to say, that the police officers arrived on the scene and that the situation escalated quickly, that they tried to handcuff Kevin and the accused without answering any of their questions and that no reasons were provided for their intervention. [ 26 ] Stelios confirms the presence of the unknown third-party who intervened between the accused and her brother and that he attacked Kevin.

He also confirms the police officers’ aggressivity and the accused’s loud demeanor. [ 27 ] The accused recognizes that she raised her tone and that she refused to cooperate with the police by not allowing them to handcuff her.

She did not try to hide the fact that the situation escalated as a result, which led to the officers’ more or less violent behavior towards her. [ 28 ] It also remains that the accused’s version, assessed in the context of her defence and particularly the testimony of Stelios, contributes to raising a reasonable doubt in the mind of the Court. [ 29 ] By arriving at this conclusion, the Court does not reject the police officers’ version. [ 30 ] However, the Court cannot exclude the accused’s testimony, especially when analyzed in light of Stelios’s testimony. [ 31 ] FOR THESE REASONS , the Court : DECLARES the accused not guilty. __________________________________ LINDA DESPOTS, J.C.Q Me Luc Page For the Prosecution Me Arij Riahi For the Accused Date of hearing: November 20 th , 2020 and April 30 th , 2021