Man alleges police violated his charter rights
Service facing $1M lawsuit for assault, false arrest
A Stoney Creek man says he was made to feel like trash when Hamilton police pulled him out of his car, pinned him to the cold pavement and falsely arrested him in February 2012.
Rikki Jeremiah, who is black, said he was just sitting in his car, talking to a friend he gave a lift home to, when a van of officers pulled up and one of them asked to see his licence.
When Jeremiah asked why, the officer started yelling at him, pulled him out of his car, pinned him to the ground and handcuffed him — all the while damaging his shoulder and back, he says.
Jeremiah was testifying in court Monday in the first day of his lawsuit trial in which he is seeking $1 million from Hamilton police for assault, false arrest and violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The allegations in the lawsuit have not yet been proven in court. The lawsuit claim is against Hamilton police, then chief Glenn De Caire, and five officers: Ian Milburn, Dave Pidgeon, Shawn Smith, Brent Gibson and Andrew Poustie.
The claim states Jeremiah was lawfully seated in his car at the corner of King Street East and West Avenue North at about 1:45 a.m. on February 13, when the officers, led by Milburn, surrounded him without just or reasonable cause.
Jeremiah, 50, and a leader in his Seventh Day Adventist Church, testified his friend Christian Lokofe had asked him for a ride for him and his girlfriend to Toronto for her to catch a bus to Montreal, at about midnight. When they returned, Lokofe asked to talk, says Jeremiah, because “he was going through a hard time and wanted some advice ... He knew I was religious.”
They talked in the car for about half an hour before the police van pulled up beside them and Milburn rolled down his window and asked what they were doing. Jeremiah, an auto mechanic and car dealership owner, said they were just talking. Milburn then asked him who owned the car and noted it had no front licence plate.
When Jeremiah said he is a car dealer and the car was one of his, Milburn “raised his voice and said “You? A car dealer?”
Milburn then got out of the van, went to his window and commanded Jeremiah to give him his licence, he said. When Jeremiah twice asked him why, “He put his head in my window and said give me your licence or I’ll punch you in the face, ” Jeremiah said.
“When I said ‘Officer, what have I done to you to want to punch me?’, he said ‘That’s it. You’re under arrest.’”
Milburn then started pulling on him to get him out of the car while Jeremiah tried to hold on to the steering wheel, he said.
“I’m a black man and when you have five officers surrounding your vehicle, and one is on a rampage ... I was afraid to get out of my car. I didn’t know what would happen if I got out. If I had to get shot that night, it was going to be in my car.”
When pulled out of the car, he heard two officers say he had dropped something in the car and warned that if they planted something, a lot of people would come to his defence.
“Next thing I know, I’m on my back on the road.”
“I felt like trash ... I felt like a worthless dog, laying on the ground that day with an officer’s knee in my groin.”
The ground was cold and he had no coat on. (The item dropped in the car turned out to be his Bluetooth ear piece).
When police searched him and found his wallet on him, they checked out his information and then removed the handcuffs and let him and Lokofe go, he said. He said Pidgeon “said to me he would like to apologize for what happened here tonight.”
Jeremiah said he suffered from back and shoulder pain for months, missed work, had to see a physiotherapist, and still feels pain in his shoulders, depending on what he’s doing. He also saw a psychologist. “There wasn’t any blood gushing on the ground that day, but they broke me inside,” he said. “Mentally, my mind was gone. I could not think. I could not function ... I could not operate ... (and) my best friend, God, was gone.”
He said he is now “a total wreck” when he sees a cruiser. His friend Lokofe, also black, said the police called him “boy” a couple of times and were very aggressive and rough with Jeremiah.