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The community-based sentence given to a Calgary police officer who body-slammed a handcuffed lady doesn’t match the crime, a prosecutor mentioned Friday.
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In looking for a nine-month time period for suspended Const. Alexander Dunn, Crown lawyer Michael Dunn (no relation) mentioned Provincial Court docket Decide Michelle Christopher made a number of errors in imposing a 30-day conditional sentence.
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“The appropriateness of the sentence is insufficient,” the prosecutor advised Calgary Court docket of King’s Bench Justice Nancy Dilts.
However protection lawyer Alain Hepner argued the decide ought to respect Christopher’s resolution and uphold the sentence, which incorporates 15 days of home arrest for the disgraced officer.
Prosecutor says earlier decide didn’t assess the impact of the crime on the Black group
Christopher convicted Dunn of assault inflicting bodily hurt in reference to a Dec. 13, 2017, incident wherein he threw Dalia Kafi, who was handcuffed behind her again, face-first onto the ground of the arrest processing unit.
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Prosecutor Dunn mentioned the decide erred in contemplating the officer’s good character and lack of a previous legal file as mitigating elements that weighed within the offender’s favor.
He additionally mentioned Christopher “misunderstood the seriousness of the offense,” together with the impact of the crime on the Black group. Kafi, who died of a drug overdose simply days earlier than the officer’s sentencing, was Black.
“I need to watch out right here to not counsel that the assault was racially motivated,” mentioned the prosecutor.
However he mentioned Christopher erred by not contemplating the impact of an assault by a big, white police officer on a petite Black lady, as a result of no group impression assertion was supplied.
“As a result of she did not have a group impression assertion, she did not put any weight on it,” Dunn mentioned.