Man gets $66,000 in damages after sheriff’s takedown

A man has been awarded more than $66,000 in damages for injuries he suffered during a takedown by a sheriff at the Victoria courthouse.

On Sept. 5, 2014, Richard Sweeney showed up at the courthouse to file some papers about a residential tenancy matter, but within a minute of entering the building and following an interaction with two sheriffs, he was forcibly escorted to the exit.

As he was being removed, one of the sheriffs forced Sweeney to the ground. He suffered a cut to his forehead, a concussion and exacerbation of old injuries to his right arm and shoulder and a rotator cuff tear to his right shoulder.

While he was on the ground, his hands were put behind his back and he was placed in handcuffs.

He was assisted to his feet by two sheriffs, but was very unsteady and there was a pool of blood on the ground and blood on his forehead.

Victoria police arrived and arrested Sweeney, a 60-year-old father of two, before taking him to the hospital. No charges were laid.

In a ruling posted online on Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Sharon Matthews said that many of the facts about the interactions between Sweeney and the sheriffs were in dispute.

Sweeney testified that shortly after his arrival at the courthouse, a sheriff asked him if he minded if he searched his backpack. He testified that he replied that he did mind, but that it was the sheriff’s job, so he could go ahead and took his backpack off, unzipped it and put it on a chair.

The sheriff in question, Deputy Sheriff Christian Bergen, testified that he told Sweeney he could leave the backpack in the sheriff ’s office or consent to a search of weapons.

Bergen also testified that Sweeney was irritated, removed his backpack and put it aggressively on a chair, opened it and began pointing at items inside.

According to Sweeney, after Bergen asked him a third time if he minded if his backpack was searched, a second sheriff, acting Sgt. Andrew Kain, arrived and asked him to move away from his backpack so that it could be searched.

He told the court that he refused to move away and said he told the sheriffs that if his backpack was going to be searched he was going to stay with it. After that exchange, Sweeney said that Kain told him that that was an obstruction of a sheriff in the course of his duties and took him by the right arm and the two sheriffs proceeded to march him toward the exit.

He claimed that neither sheriff gave him the option of leaving the backpack in the sheriff ’s office.

Kain testified that when he approached, Sweeney was swearing and talking loudly.

The judge found that the sheriffs’ use of force was not authorized by the sheriff policy manual and was “excessive” when national use of force guidelines were considered.