He was in crisis and needed help. When he reached out, he was assaulted by a Hamilton police officer

They let him down.

Police and doctors, who were supposed to aid the man in his time of need, instead made his crisis worse.

He was handcuffed. Assaulted. Degraded. Charged. Dismissed.

After he asked for help.

C.H., 34, has mental-health issues and is sometimes homeless. He needs care - even when he is difficult to care for.

His mom says he was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. He has learning and speech challenges and ADHD. In his teens, mental-health issues developed.

The mom says her son has borderline personality disorder.

Much of what went wrong lands at the feet of Const. Ryan Cole. He is a specially trained Hamilton police officer with the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team (MCRRT). It was his job to help people in emotional distress, sometimes apprehending them under the Mental Health Act.

He admits to assaulting C.H., including grabbing and squeezing his genitals in an attempt to control him.

Cole's behaviour triggered an investigation by the Special Investigations Unit, which probes deaths, serious injuries and allegations of sexual assault involving police. He was charged with sexual assault, but pleaded guilty to assault in criminal court.

The Spectator is choosing not to identify the victim in this case, referring to him as C.H. - as he was in the Police Services Act hearing.

At a police act hearing, Cole pleaded guilty to discreditable conduct. He was cleared of his desk assignment to return to regular police work.

Is he going back to the MCRRT?

Hamilton police refuse to say.

He will be returning to active duty," says spokesperson Jackie Penman. We do not disclose the deployment of our police officers."

That secrecy feeds C.H.'s greatest fear - that he reaches out for help again and is confronted by the person he sees in his nightmares.

I suffer from extreme nightmares, reliving the assault on a regular basis," C.H. wrote in a victim impact statement. I find myself waking up screaming in fear."

Neither police nor mental-health advocates believe police are the best way to respond to mental-health crisis situations. Hybrid units like the MCRRT are meant to address that problem.

Repeatedly, here and beyond, police have met people in crisis with force. Sometimes Hamilton police were called to save a person and ended up killing them.

Steve Mesic. Robyn Garlow. Quinn MacDougall.

On Nov. 6, 2020, not only did C.H. require help, he recognized he needed it and set out to do all the right things.

First, he spoke with his mother.

It took everything I had inside of me to encourage my son to seek medical help for his mental-health issues," she says. A long history of being seen at hospital and quickly discharged discouraged C.H. from trying again.

They made an appointment with a family physician. C.H. was committed to the appointment and - despite being homeless - took a cab to the Main Street office, meeting his mom there.

C.H. was agitated and behaving strangely, his mom says. He was having paranoid thoughts. He drew looks in the waiting room, but wasn't aggressive or violent. Thinking she was contributing to her son's state, his mom went to wait in her car while he saw the doctor.

Soon, six police officers arrived at the clinic. They were led by Cole, who was working with his partner, a civilian mental-health expert.

An agreed statement of facts from the disciplinary hearing said police were called at 1 p.m. by the doctor to deal with a psychotic" patient. The doctor ordered a Form 1" to send C.H. for a psychiatric evaluation at the hospital without his consent.

C.H.'s mom says he was terrified" by what happened next.

C.H. didn't want to get into the police cruiser. So officers wrangled him.

According to his mom, C.H. refused to walk. She also says he was in handcuffs.

Everyone agrees during the struggle C.H.'s face was cut and his body bruised.

C.H. ripped weather stripping off the cruiser and, again according to the agreed facts, created legitimate safety concerns" for himself, which entitled officers to use reasonable force in restraining and securing him."

Eventually, C.H. was driven to hospital, but he didn't want to get out of the cruiser. Cole and three officers tried to de-escalate" the situation, according to the agreed facts, but C.H. clung to the cruiser as officers tried to pull him out.

Cole grabbed C.H.'s genitals.

He says he did it to intentionally cause C.H. pain so he would release his grip.

It worked. C.H. let go. As he was carried into the hospital, he yelled he had been sexually assaulted.

The SIU agreed with him. The watchdog laid a sexual assault charge against Cole.

Cole, however, doesn't seem to understand what sexual assault is. The agreed facts say he later explained to his partner that what he did to C.H. wasn't sexual assault because he didn't get off" on it.

Grabbing a person by their genitals is not sanctioned by any police policy or training, Hamilton police say.

Inside the hospital, things didn't get better for C.H.

He was restrained on a bed and sedated.

Despite his request for help, and being so psychotic" he needed to be formed," despite being so out of control" he needed to be grabbed by the crotch, and despite being so unmanageable he needed to be restrained and sedated ... St. Joe's released him at 7 p.m. with no home to go to.

The Spectator asked St. Joe's about C.H.'s care.

Responding to these questions would require sharing personal health information," replied spokesperson Maria Hayes. We are unable to do this."

Once C.H. was released, he was charged with mischief under $5,000 for damaging the cruiser. The charge was later dropped.

Groggy from sedatives, he couldn't sign the necessary papers to be released and was locked in a cell overnight. He told a sergeant he was in pain because he had been grabbed by the genitals. This lead to the SIU being called.

Meanwhile, C.H. was distressed, drugged and injured - possibly with a concussion. His mom says he was urinating blood.

The next morning, at the suggestion of an SIU investigator, she took her son to Joseph Brant Hospital.

C.H. went in alone because it was during the pandemic. He told the doctor he had been sexually assaulted by a police officer. The agreed facts say the doctor did not examine him.

The emergency room doctor had a very difficult time believing my story, making me feel embarrassed, humiliated, ignored and further victimized" C.H. said in his victim impact statement for court.

When asked about this, Joseph Brant emailed a response: We are unable to respond to patient-specific questions as we are prohibited by privacy legislation from disclosing any personal and confidential patient health information."

As for Cole, he lied.

At first he told his partner he grabbed C.H.'s crotch to get him out of the car. Then he said he grabbed him there accidentally. Then he said he intentionally grabbed C.H.'s testicles as a use of force technique." He told the SIU he didn't touch C.H.'s genitals.

In April 2021, the SIU charged him with sexual assault causing bodily harm.

In July 2022, Cole pleaded guilty to assault and was handed a conditional discharge, 18 months probation and 80 hours of community service.

On April 28, 2023, he pleaded guilty at his Police Service Act hearing and was given an agreed upon penalty of 120 hours of lost pay.

Cole apologized each time he was sentenced. Most recently, he said: I failed (the patient), my police colleagues and the people of Hamilton ... The entire experience has been humbling."

I look forward to being an officer again."

C.H. described in court the lasting effects of being assaulted by Cole.

It has left me with post-traumatic stress disorder and my anxiety is overwhelming at times."

As long as Officer Ryan Cole is with the Hamilton police department, I will not feel safe by the one agency that should be there to protect and serve the public."

Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com