Police officer found not guilty of assault during 2021 arrest in Quebec City bar
Police officer Jacob Picard was found not guilty of assault in connection with the arrest of a man in a Quebec City bar in the fall of 2021.
The verdict came Friday, four-and-a-half months after the end of the trial against the officer with the Service de police de la Ville de Québec (SPVQ).
Picard was facing charges of assault causing bodily harm against Mathieu Gamache, who had refused the officer's request to wear his mask, which was mandatory at the time.
The events took place on the evening of Oct. 16, 2021, at the District bar on St-Joseph Street in Quebec City, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Images of the arrest showing the complainant being thrown into the wall of the establishment's washroom had circulated widely online in 2021. Gamache claimed to have suffered a concussion and several other injuries as a result of the intervention.
In support of her decision, Judge Rachel Gagnon stated that the plaintiff's memories were fragmented and his statements contradictory. He was intoxicated at the time of the event.
She said the accused described the intervention clearly and in detail, and was not shaken during his cross-examination.
"He acted within the scope of his duties as a peace officer on duty. A reasonable person would have acted in the same way under the circumstances," said Gagnon.
She said Picard showed proof of "rigorous but not excessive or unreasonable force."
The accusations against the 28-year-old officer came on the heels of a number of forceful arrests also reported by the media.
Picard was a member of the now-defunct GRIPP squad, responsible for monitoring the city's bars and restaurants.
The officer is facing another trial in connection with an intervention on Grande-Allée Street in November 2021, when he was accused of threatening a man with an irritant gas canister before pushing him onto a patrol car.
