Appeal dismissed for former Calgary police officer who assaulted prisoner

The Alberta Court of Appeal has upheld a jail sentence for a former Calgary police officer who assaulted a prisoner in 2017.

Const. Alex Dunn, who was dismissed by the CPS last November, was found guilty in 2020 for assaulting Dalia Kafi, a woman who had been arrested for breaking her curfew.

In December 2017, Kafi was brought handcuffed into the Calgary police headquarters by Dunn.

A security camera inside the facility showed Dunn throwing the woman to the floor, injuring her face.

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Dunn was originally given a 30-day conditional sentence by a trial judge, but that was later overturned on appeal, with that judge sentencing him to 30 days in jail to be served intermittently, followed by six months' probation and 75 hours of community service.

Another appeal, heard in March, by Dunn as the appellant and the Calgary Police Association as an intervenor, attempted to suggest the custodial sentence was inappropriate.

"This appeal raises questions about the fitness of sentence imposed by the appeal judge. Both the appellant and the intervenor argue that a non-custodial sentence was appropriate; and that a custodial sentence was inappropriate," the appeal court said.

"We disagree."

During the original trial, Dunn testified he acted against Kafi out of fear that she had slipped one hand out of her handcuffs and could use them as a weapon against him.

He then engaged her in a "dynamic takedown" – a judo-like throw onto the floor.

It was only when she was on the floor that he realized she was still properly handcuffed.

"The appellant’s explanation was disbelieved and rejected by the trial judge, who noted that

it was contradicted by the video and the complainant’s evidence," the court said.

That video, the court said, was viewed more than 11 million times on social media.

"The trial judge concluded the appellant had simply lost his temper and that his 'dynamic takedown' of the complainant was unjustified and excessive.

"Accordingly, he was convicted as charged."

At the March hearing, Justice Peter Martin and Justice Jolaine Antonio of the Alberta Court of Appeal called Dunn's actions an "unprovoked assault of a defenceless person" and required a term of imprisonment.

The Calgary Police Association submitted that it was worried that a "momentary lapse in judgement or mistake" by any police officer could lead to a jail sentence, but the appeal court said it would be "wrong" to think the court would offer leniency to police officers in Dunn's position.

"(We) do not accept that members of a professional police force like the Calgary Police Service would shirk their oath and their duty for fear that if they were found guilty of having committed a gratuitous or unprovoked assault, they may be punished according to law.

"Surely the answer is to refrain from such conduct."

The third appeal judge, Justice Frans Slatter, dissented with the decision, calling the new appeal "moot" given that the original sentence was already served and the court stayed the revised sentence.

"The proper sentence to be imposed when police officers assault detained persons will have to be developed under the common law tradition, on a case-by-case basis," Slatter wrote.

"Sentencing remains an individualized process, and there is no fixed tariff in these cases. There is no rule that a custodial sentence is always mandatory, but there is also no rule that a custodial sentence is never appropriate."