BY KEITH LACEY
Two eyewitnesses say a man charged with assaulting police officers following a routine traffic incident testified Thursday the accused never grabbed at an officer?s handgun.
Haddlam Robinson, 45, is on trial for two counts of assaulting police, resisting arrest, assaulting a former girlfriend and breaching court orders. The handgun issue is at the heart of the trial.
Three officers testified Robinson was confrontational when they arrived after Robinson was involved in a minor accident the afternoon of Feb. 5, 2003.
When he got verbally aggressive, wouldn?t leave the roadway when asked to and threatened to physically assault an officer, they brought him to the ground. He continued to resist and then grabbed at the handgun of Const. Greg Smuland, the officers? testified.
Robinson?s testimony was much different. He said Smuland was the one who was verbally aggressive, and Smuland and Const. Victor Leroux assaulted him without just cause.
Seconds after lighting a cigarette, he was tackled to the ground and hit in the head twice. He remembers nothing until waking up in a jail cell at police headquarters the next morning, he said.
Norbert Burdzell, Robinson?s stepfather, said when he arrived on the scene Const. Mark Kovala was very nice to him and his stepson. He was told by Kovala the car accident was minor and there was no reason to be worried. However, when Smuland arrived after talking to two witnesses down the road, things got out of control, said Burdzell.
Smuland exited his cruiser and started swearing at Robinson, repeatedly accusing him of being a liar about the car accident, said Burdzell.
Robinson was never verbally or physically aggressive until Smuland knocked a cigarette out of his mouth, Burdzell said.
Smuland then told Robinson he was going to place one of Robinson?s hands behind his back. Robinson then became very upset and told the officer if
he touched him, he would kick him, he said.
That?s when Leroux grabbed Robinson and flipped him forcefully forward. Smuland grabbed Robinson?s head and smashed him face-first into the pavement, Burdzell said.
Leroux then kneed Robinson three times in the head, and between six and 12 times to the ribs, while Smuland started to punch him in the head, he said. Kovala joined the fray and held Robinson?s legs, he said.
When asked by defence counsel Victor Vere if Robinson ever grabbed an officer?s gun, Burdzell said it was ?impossible? and never it happened.
Robinson?s hands were pinned at all times between Smuland?s legs and he did grab the string from the officer?s sunglasses, but never grabbed his service revolver, he said.
Madeleine Chester, who lives across the street from where the incident took place on the corner of Laforest and King Streets, said she witnessed Robinson shovelling his car out of a snowbank when the first officer arrived.
She said things got louder and confrontational only when two other officers joined the original officer. She watched the incident unfold from her window 30 to 50 feet away, with a clear view, when officers grabbed a man she didn?t know and shoved him violently to the ground, said Chester.
One officer was holding the man?s legs, while another officer kneed him in the ribs and head, and another officer landed punches to the head, she said.
At no time did the man grab at an officer?s gun that she could see, she said. She was not interviewed by police following the incident.
She was so concerned about how badly the man was being beaten by police she tried to videotape the incident, but the battery on her recorder wasn?t working, she said.
At no time did the man strike at or hit any police officer, and he only appeared to be trying to protect himself from being hit. Several more officers arrived on the scene and the man was escorted into the back of a police cruiser and taken away, she said.
During Burdzell?s cross-examination, Bruce repeatedly suggested it was Robinson who was verbally and physically aggressive, resisted arrest and grabbed the gun. Burdzell did not budge and insisted that?s not what happened.
The trial will continue with closing submissions when it resumes in June.
Justice Guy Mahaffy is expected to take some time to make a decision to review the large amount of evidence presented at trial.
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