Man sues police for $5 million
Victim of mistaken arrest claims cops beat him up
A Woodbridge man is suing Toronto police for $5 million after being kneed and punched repeatedly during what they now acknowledge was a mistaken arrest.
Avideo of the incident shows police officers beating Santokh Bola, 21, on the morning of Nov. 1 as he pleads with them to let him go.
The lawsuit claims Bola was ordered at gunpoint to “get down or be shot” by officers with drawn guns.
Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash acknowledged that Bola was wrongly arrested but said the context of the arrest is important.
Just three minutes before his arrest, police received a 911 call about a man with a knife and that descrip- tion matched that of Bola, Pugash said in an interview. “I think that context is important,” Pugash said. “There’s always a context in which these things take place.”
Pugash disputed family claims that the two officers were responding to a call about an attempted burglary in the area. Bola’s lawyer, Michael Smitiuch, told a news conference Wednesday that the video shows police delivering 11 punches to Bola in quick succession and a total of 20 blows to his head.
“Officer, please, officer,” Bola can be heard saying in the video. “Let me go, please let me.”
The incident took place by Bola’s car in the rear parking lot of his family’s store on Islington Ave., according to the lawsuit. In the video, Bola can be heard begging to speak to his grandfather and twice says, “Let me talk to my parents.”
He also pleads, “Sir, I beg you.”
When the beating was over, Bola was held briefly in a police cruiser and then set free, Smitiuch said. No charges were laid. He was taken to Etobicoke General Hospital by his grandfather, where he was treated for head and facial injuries.
Bola sat alongside his lawyers and sister at the news conference but did not field questions.
“They (police) knew or ought to have known that Santokh was scared or frightened and despite this, they proceeded to restrain, detain, assault and arrest him in a violent and unlawful manner,” the lawsuit states.
“They failed to recognize that Santokh had an intellectual disability and therefore failed to handle the situation in an appropriate manner,” the lawsuit continues.
None of the allegations made in the statement of claim has been proven.
Bola’s sister Sonia said her brother has a mental disability and hand tremors, which have gotten worse since the attack.
“We see fear in his eyes,” Sonia said. “His shakes have gotten worse.”
She said she was totally unsatisfied when the family took its complaint to 23 Division. The video of the incident speaks for itself, his other lawyer, Kenneth Byers, said.
“Thank goodness in this case a bystander was there with his cellphone,” Byers said. “We can actually see it.” Byers said Bola wasn’t attempting to flee and didn’t have a weapon when he was arrested.
“No one stopped at any point in time to talk to him to say, ‘This is why we are here,’ ” Byers said.
The civilian agency that investigates cases of death or serious injury involving police said it had been unaware of the incident before watching the family’s news conference Wednesday.
The lawsuit names four police officers only as John and Jane Doe, as well as Chief Mark Saunders and the Toronto Police Services Board.
It claims the violent takedown came while police were investigating an attempted burglary.