A charge of assault for excessive use of force has been dropped against a former North Vancouver RCMP officer.
The charge against Const. Quentin Frewing was dropped Wednesday, partway through a trial, after an expert Crown witness changed his mind about what had happened in the case.
Crown prosecutor Ross Fahrni said outside court the change came about because of testimony concerning when and how Frewing had identified himself as a police officer, as well as the level of force involved.
Frewing, who has been a Mountie for five years, was charged in November 2010 for an incident in June of that year when he tried to detain a woman in Lower Lonsdale who he suspected of concealing alcohol. At the time, Frewing was in plain clothes and was with two other plainclothes officers in dark area of Carrie Cates Court. When the woman refused to stop for him, Frewing grabbed her and brought her down to the ground. But it turned out the woman was not carrying alcohol or doing anything illegal. Instead, she was trying to catch the SeaBus and was recovering from a broken arm.
The woman, Sandra Gibb, later filed a complaint against Frewing.
In court Wednesday morning, Gibb - manager of an engineering group - testified that she was trying to catch the 11 p.m. SeaBus home after having dinner at a friend's house that night when she noticed three young men walking towards her and appearing to size her up on a dark street near to Lonsdale Quay.
"I overheard one of them whisper to the others 'I think she has something,'" she told the judge.
Gibb said the men made her feel uncomfortable and she started hurrying towards a lighted area, holding on to her broken arm, which was in a plastic cast and sling, underneath her jacket.
Gibb said once the men had passed her, one of them called out, asking if she had any alcohol. She said she didn't respond, hoping they would leave her alone.
Soon after the same man shouted at her to stop, saying, "'We're the police,'" she said.
But Gibb said she didn't believe them. "In my mind, because they were asking me for alcohol and sizing me up, I thought they were drunk and looking for more alcohol," she told the judge. "I thought it was just a ruse to keep me in the dark street."
Gibb said she then felt someone grab her by the shoulder from behind and she started screaming. Seconds later, "I was taken down to the ground," she said.
"I felt like I was tackled. I hit the ground hard." In cross-examination, defence lawyer David Butcher suggested Frewing had showed Gibb a police badge when he first approached her. "Could you agree that's possible and you just didn't see it?" he asked.
Const. Maxwell Shook, who was one of the plainclothes officers with Frewing that night, told the judge he saw Frewing walking backwards, trying to keep up with Gibb and show her his badge.
When Frewing dropped Gibb to the ground, "It wasn't a hard drop," he said. "It was more of an escort. To me it looked like it was fairly gentle."
Outside of court, Frewing appeared relieved and said it had been hard waiting for the case to get to court. "It would have been better if we could have dealt with it out of court," he said.
"It's always a bit of a body blow when someone says you've done something improper - especially when you haven't," added Butcher.
Frewing now works at another RCMP detachment. Fahrni called what happened a "very unfortunate situation," adding at the time police were enforcing a program of zero tolerance for liquor in Lower Lonsdale and had been encouraged to be "vigorous."
Gibb declined to speak to a reporter about the case.
jseyd@nsnews.com
