A Penticton judge has dismissed a defence claim an RCMP arrest caused damage to a man’s wrist, while sentencing him to about seven months in jail for charges including possession of stolen property, possession of a controlled substance and flight from a police officer.
Simon Bell was facing a laundry list of charges over a variety of incidents, which culminated in his arrest in late November, an arrest defence lawyer Norm Yates said caused an injury to Bell’s wrist.
“Mr. Bell injured his right wrist while he was mountain biking in the summer of 2017. The wrist was compromised, but it was not diagnosed with having any fractured bones. He re-injured his wrist a couple of days prior to his arrest that sees him in custody now,” Yates said.
“He advises me that his wrist was still functional, yet was painful and quite compromised.”
During the arrest, a struggle had ensued, something Crown agreed to, but Bell said his wrist was more seriously injured while he covered his head from the police officers.
“After he was arrested, he received medical attention for his injured wrist. He’s prepared to accept the narrative, the chronological narrative of how the police dealt with him by taking him to the hospital,” Yates said.
“He says that he received an X-ray and as a result of his X-ray they discovered a fracture in his wrist. And in the result he had surgery to repair his broken wrist.”
Yates said he couldn’t prove the broken wrist was a result of the arrest, but said it had exacerbated the issues he has had with his wrist, adding he has had some frustrations getting into physiotherapy for his wrist.
But Crown lawyer Kurt Froelich said the officer Bell named as the aggressor had not arrived on scene until afterwards to help take him into custody.
“There was a struggle to get him to put his hands behind his back. (The officers) observed his wrist appeared to be dislocated. THat was immediately to their attention,” he said.
“As soon as the handcuffs were put on (an officer) asked Mr. Bell if this had just occurred and if the police had did this and if he required medical attention. Mr. Bell told (the officer) no, this injury occurred the previous day. Mr. Bell said he had seen a doctor and he was supposed to have the wrist fixed that week.”
Froelich said it wasn’t until the booking process that Bell began to bring attention to his wrist, and after Bell goes into the phone room to contact his lawyer he is transported to hospital.
While Judge Michelle Daneliuk said she was sorry to hear about Bell’s struggles, she was not holding the police responsible for the injury.
Bell was sentenced to a total of 60 days for possession of stolen property over $5,000 and flight from a police officer, from March last year.
He received another 90 days for possession of stolen property and fraud from a Nov. 10 incident, as well as another 90 days for possession of stolen property and possession of a controlled substance from a Nov. 27 incident.
Finally, Bell received a 14-day sentence for being unlawfully at large, a count that was added to a file on which Bell has another 80 days to serve from charges from the summer.
With 107 days enhanced credit for time served, Bell will spend the next 227 days in jail — about seven-and-a-half months.
Following her sentencing, Daneliuk noted Bell had only fallen down this path in the past year or so, since getting into drugs, and suggested the 37-year-old fix up his life with programming available in jail.
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dustin.godfrey@pentictonwesternnews.com
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