'Absolutely not': HMP officer denies wrongdoing against Nelson Hart
A correctional officer at Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's said he and other officers followed the rules when they stormed Nelson Hart's cell and took him down to the ground during a disturbance inside the jail two summers ago.
The trial for Hart, a central Newfoundland man who had his murder conviction thrown out after a ruling from Canada's top court, continued Wednesday in St. John's.
Hart is accused of threatening three guards and smashing a television in June 2013, while he was in custody.
At the time of the incident, Hart was appealing a double murder conviction that would later be overturned when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the RCMP had wrongfully used a so-called "Mr. Big" scenario to extract a confession. Hart had been charged with killing his twin three-year-old daughters at Gander Lake in 2002.
Hart's trial began in mid-February, just several days after he was found guilty of uttering threats against prison guards in relation to a separate incident.
At the resumption of Hart's trial Wednesday in provincial court, correctional officer Ryan Preston said Hart refused to put his shirt on that day, as per protocol at mealtime, and was insubordinate.
Hart swung a kettle in the unit to smash a television, then proceeded to threaten to kill the guards, Preston testified.
The officer said Hart's outburst was brought on after officers stopped him from eating another inmate's meal.
Preston said Hart's food accidentally fell on the floor when his tray was slid into his unit.
Surveillance video introduced to the court at the start of Hart's trial shows correctional officers flooding into Hart's cell, pulling him to the floor and then taking him away to a segregation cell.
Hart wouldn't cooperate in getting handcuffed, so it was necessary to forcibly remove him from the cell, Preston said.
When asked if he punched, struck or said anything degrading to Hart, the officer replied, "Absolutely not."
Hart told CBC News following the first day of this trial that he wanted the case to go to trial, so that the video would be made public.
Hart also said he felt he was being treated like a dog by officers, and got angry.
Jeff Brace, Hart's defence lawyer, suggested that Preston treated Hart unfairly, pointing out that fellow inmate Kenny Green wasn't told to put his shirt back on, but Hart was.
Preston had written up Hart several times while he was incarcerated and denied treating him any different.
Brace said Hart told him that Preston mistreated him, even suggesting that Preston had beaten Hart.
Those allegations were false, Preston said, during cross-examination.
The Crown has rested its case. The trial is expected to resume May 15.
