STEPHENVILLE, N.L. — A trial began Tuesday for an RCMP officer accused of assaulting an unruly flight passenger after he was escorted off an international flight that had been diverted to an airport in western Newfoundland.
Const. Jeffrey Cormier was charged last year after a video circulated on social media appearing to show three officers escort a man with his hands restrained off a plane. The video shows the man's head being slammed into a police SUV before he is pushed into the vehicle.
A courtroom in Stephenville, N.L., heard Tuesday that the plane had been diverted because the passenger was drunk and causing a disturbance. As the officers led him across the tarmac, he began digging his heels into the ground and stiffening his body, making it harder for police to bring him to the vehicle, according to testimony from Stephenville RCMP Const. Evan Fraser, who was one of the officers escorting the man alongside Cormier.
"It wasn't a co-operative arrest," Fraser said. "(He) continued to be physically resistant. I don't know what his end goal was when he began to turn on that physical resistance."
When the officers reached the police vehicle, Cormier "took physical control" of the man so Fraser could open the SUV's back door, Fraser said. The open door obstructed his view of what was going on with Cormier and the man, but he was aware of "some thrashing around," he said.
Cpl. Jake Foran also took the stand and identified himself as one of the officers in the video. He said the man being arrested had fought with the plane's passengers and crew, who tried unsuccessfully to restrain him.
"Considering this person broke out of restraints and caused an international flight to land ... in this particular case, the risk assessment was high in terms of our safety and the safety of the passengers," he said.
The situation "increased in severity" as police led him to the police car, he added. Foran was on the other side of the police vehicle when Cormier is alleged to have assaulted the passenger.
Cormier's lawyer, Nick Avis, asked Foran if it is "absolutely essential" for an officer to gain physical control over someone putting up the kind of resistance exhibited by the passenger. Foran said yes.
He agreed that one way to maintain such control is to push a person against a wall or a vehicle, adding that police training advises officer "to put the person at a physical disadvantage."
The province's police oversight agency, known as SIRT-NL, announced in November that it had charged Cormier with assault. SIRT-NL inspector Tom Warren testified Tuesday that members of the agency saw the video of the incident on TikTok in June 2023.
In a hearing Monday to determine if the video would be part of the evidence in Cormier's trial, Avis noted that SIRT-NL did not subpoena the person who posted the video to obtain the original footage. He argued that without the original file, there was no way to be sure the video ultimately downloaded from TikTok by SIRT-NL hadn't been altered in some way.
Provincial court Judge Rolf Pritchard ultimately ruled that the video could be included in the evidence.
The RCMP said Tuesday that Const. Cormier remains in active duty with the force.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2024.
-- By Sarah Smellie in St. John's, N.L.
The Canadian Press
