Police officer found not guilty for pepper spray assault

Video evidence showed Gabriel Ross, who was detained in a detention cell, yelling and displaying resistance as police dragged him to his cell. Once put into his cell, Ross continued yelling and kicking on the cell door.

While lodging another prisoner, the video shows Snell walking up to Ross’ cell, and speaking to him for an instance before deploying the pepper spray. Audio, which was separate from the video, verified Snell’s encounter with Ross.

Snell testified on Thursday that Ross had been calling her obscene names as well as spitting at her through a small slit in his jail cell door.

After lodging her prisoner, Snell walked towards Ross’ cell to attempt to talk him down. Snell saw Ross’ face go into “spit mode” and at that time she deployed the pepper spray.

Testifying on Wednesday, Ross admitted to being extremely intoxicated the night of the incident and although he remembered being pepper sprayed, he did not fully remember his conversation with Snell and could not confirm nor deny he was spitting from his cell.

During the trial, Crown prosecutor Bryce Pashovitz brought forward that Snell had assaulted Ross punitively and other measures could have been taken by Snell to calm Ross down and avoid deploying the pepper spray.

He also brought forward the Police Service’s pepper spray policy which calls for a one metre buffer zone between the officer and the target which was not adhered to as evident in the video and from the testimonials.

The Crown also brought forward the fact that Ross was never decontaminated after being sprayed which Snell told the acting Sergeant she would do.

However in the final call, the Judge ignored those points preferring to focus on the assault itself. Although he raised concerns preceding and ensuing the assault, the judge ultimately acquitted Snell of the charge.

After the trial, Snell’s lawyer, Aaron Fox spoke to the media outside of the Provincial Court House about what is next for the Prince Albert Police officer.

“There can be repercussions under the police act for what took place but those are employment issues, those don’t have anything to do with the courts or criminal proceedings,” said Fox. “I’m sure the Prince Albert Police Service (PAPS) will take what happened here and make some decision on what they want to do.

“Policy issues, some problems identified with the facilities, the cells at the PAPS—created this situation to occur.”

After being charged, Snell was put on administrative leave with pay. Fox said she has been on sick leave, unrelated to the incident, and will address the issue of position with the PAPS in a few months.

“It’s been hanging over her head,” Fox said. “It’s a 20-year police officer with a completely unblemished record so it hasn’t been easy to deal with this and obviously (she’s) glad it’s over.”

knguyen@jpbg.ca

Follow on Twitter: @khangvnguyen

by Khang Nguyen

Police officer found not guilty for pepper spray assault

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