Prisoner apologizes for police station flood damage

A Niagara man who caused thousands of dollars in damage to several prison cells at the new Niagara Regional Police headquarters in Niagara Falls apologized in court Wednesday.

“I want to apologize for the damage I have done to the police station, and basically the whole way I was acting while I was incarcerated,” Matthew Persall told Judge Fergus O’Donnell in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines.

Persall, 29, was placed on probation for three years and ordered to perform 180 hours of community service as penalty for several offences including assault and mischief over $5,000.

The St. Catharines man was also ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution to the police service, even though the damage he caused was well in excess of $5,000.

The total damage amount, court heard, was unknown because the NRP did not provide the courts with a report on the damage.

Persall was arrested in St. Catharines in February following an altercation with his partner and transferred to the Niagara Falls police station.

Once inside the cell, court heard, the defendant damaged the fire sprinkler on the ceiling which caused the system to engage and flood the area.

He was placed in a second cell and attempted to damage the sprinkler system in that cell.

Police then transferred him to a third cell at which time he repeatedly threw his wet underwear at a surveillance camera which rendered the camera inoperable.