Susan Clairmont: Hamilton police face $500,000 lawsuit for racially profiling young Black men during traffic stop
A Black man profiled in a traffic stop by Hamilton police is suing the service for $500,000.
Trevon Bryan filed his claim in September, four months after an Ontario Court judge ruled the Brampton man was stopped because he was Black and driving a BMW.
As a result of Justice George Gage's scathing ruling, key evidence gathered by police related to a handgun found in the car was ruled inadmissible. Therefore Bryan and his passenger Monroe Blackwood, who is also Black, were found not guilty of all five charges they faced.
I find it more probable than not that the detention of Trevon Bryan and Monroe Blackwood on February 11, 2020, was based on a belief, held by one or more of the officers, that was based on the assumption that two young Black males driving a BMW were likely up to no good," wrote Gage in his ruling released in May.
Gage said the traffic stop, failure to acknowledge the right to a lawyer, the search of the vehicle, the arrests and the strip searches of the men were illegal and violated their Charter rights.
The lawsuit filed by Bryan with the Superior Court of Justice makes the same claim, though it has not yet been tested by that court.
The suit names the Hamilton police services board, former chief Eric Girt and officers David Tsushima, Jason Little, Jeff Forrest, Amanda Reid and Mark Steeds as defendants.
Lawyer Barry Edson, representing Bryan, says he is also acting for Blackwood, who will soon file his own statement of claim.
The defendants have filed a notice of intent to defend against the lawsuit.
The claim is for general, special, punitive, exemplary and mental distress damages for assault, seizure of property, invasion of privacy, unlawful detention and arrest, false imprisonment, negligence, breaches of the Ontario Human Rights Code and breaches of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
The illegal traffic stop of (Bryan) was used as a pretext for an illegal criminal investigation of (Bryan) and his passenger," the claim states.
Bryan and Blackwood were driving on Barton Street in the middle of the afternoon when they were spotted by Reid, Forrest, Little and Steeds, all members of the police ACTION team (Addressing Crime Trends in Our Neighbourhoods). They were driving together in one unmarked car.
In criminal court, Reid testified the 2013 BMW caught her eye because it was a luxury car" in a high crime area." She said she didn't see who was in the car.
She ran the plates and it came back as belonging to a man in his 40s. The car was not reported stolen.
The officers tailed the BMW and watched it stop at a restaurant. Two men got out to pick up food.
Reid testified that because they were too young to be the registered car owner, she pulled it over. Bryan was 20, Blackwood was 22.
But Gage said the BMW - which made no traffic violations - wasn't the red flag. It was its Black occupants.
The statement of claim says Bryan recently purchased the car.
Reid approached the car and later said she could smell fresh, unburnt" marijuana. The judge didn't buy that Reid could smell the small amount of weed, in a plastic bag, on a cold day.
The men were ordered out of the car. Blackwood bolted. Little chased and tackled him and a handgun was found in Blackwood's waistband.
Blackwood and Bryan were arrested for possession of a loaded gun.
They were not immediately cautioned or advised of their right to counsel, according to Gage.
At the police station, Blackwood was strip searched with the authorization of Tsushima, the custody sergeant. Nothing was found.
Bryan was strip searched too, although police admitted at trial to having no foundation to do so. They found a bag of fentanyl in his underwear.
Little then conducted an unauthorized inspection of Bryan's genitals and anus, which the claim calls embarrassing, intrusive and illegal."
Lawyers were not called until after the searches.
There are 35 individual breaches of rights listed in the statement of claim.
As well, Bryan was incarcerated at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre for 14 months awaiting trial, sometimes under strict COVID-19 lockdown conditions.
Bryan says in his claim that he now has anxiety, PTSD and depression, for which he takes medication.
And he has developed a fear of police officers."
Susan Clairmont is a Hamilton-based crime, court and social justice columnist at The Spectator. Reach her via email: sclairmont@thespec.com