A Merritt RCMP officer has been acquitted of assaulting a man in May of 2017.
Judge Dennis Morgan rendered his verdict in via video call in Kamloops provincial court on Monday, finding Sgt. Norm Flemming’s arrest of one Patrick Tent was reasonable.
Tent entered the foyer of the police detachment on May 15, 2017, for an ongoing complaint he had expressed to police regarding his neighbour’s chicken coop.
According to Crown prosecutor James Whiting, Flemming lost his temper with Tent during a heated verbal exchange and grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket before placing him under arrest.
“The Crown says there’s no justification for the arrest and, even if there was, the force used was unreasonable,” Morgan said.
Defence lawyer David Butcher said given Flemming’s knowledge of Tent and his behaviour, it wasn’t unreasonable force considering the circumstances.
Flemming testified he tried to reason with Tent, who Flemming said shouted over him.
Flemming said Tent didn’t heed a warning he may be arrested if he continued to tell Flemming he would use a chainsaw to cut down a tree that would then fall on his neighbour’s chicken coop. Flemming believed he had grounds to arrest Tent for threatening and disturbing the peace.
Morgan’s written judgement stated Tent complained about the odour from the neighbour’s chicken coop, built partially on Crown land about 250 feet away from Tent’s house.
Tent also owned a chicken coop, but believed the odour wasn’t from his operation because he kept it clean and only had six chickens as per the city’s bylaw. The neighbour, Tent estimated, had approximately 50 chickens — a number he was permitted as his property was grandfathered in zoning as a farm.
Despite not being a police matter, Flemming directed an officer to meet with the neighbours to come to a resolution, acting on information that Tent had threatened to burn down the coop. That meeting occurred in October of 2016 and they agreed to give the neighbour until the May 2017 long weekend — May 22 — to do something about the coop.
Tent, however, entered the detachment on May 15, upset the coop hadn’t yet been moved. He thought it should have been removed on May 1. Tent didn’t dispute the agreement was to wait until the long weekend, but believed that would have been on May 1.
The court document stated Tent launched into a loud rant, asking why the chicken coop was still there when he met with Flemming, who tried to tell him the agreed-upon date hadn’t yet arrived.
Tent twice said he was going to go home, sharpen his chainsaw and fall a tree and that if it fell on the chicken coop, it would not be his fault — a statement Morgan felt was reasonable for Flemming to conclude was a threat to damage property or animals.
Morgan said surveillance footage of the interaction — which has no sound — shows Tent becoming more agitated as he continued the rant, hitting a counter that separated the two men.
Flemming told Tent not to make threats, to which Tent held his hands out and said, “Arrest me, then.”
Though Flemming said he didn’t want to do so, when Tent repeated his threat, Flemming determined he had to, so he instructed Tent to shut up, grabbed him by the lapels and told him he was under arrest.
Flemming held Tent in place while another officer who heard the commotion handcuffed Tent, who was compliant.
After being cuffed, the video shows Flemming releasing Tent with what Morgan described as a slight push that didn’t constitute excessive force.
About 79 seconds passed from the time the two started talking to Flemming grabbing Tent.
Morgan found the amount of time Tent was yelling was more than enough for Flemming to conclude he needed to arrest the man.
Morgan stated the Crown did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the level of force used by Flemming to arrest Tent was excessive.
“The fact the incident took place in an RCMP detachment and that Tent was not brandishing a weapon does not negate the reasonableness of taking control of Mr. Tent, who was verbally unruly, not responding to commands and was not only causing a disturbance, but was committing the indictable offence of threatening,” Morgan said.
In his written decision, Morgan noted that following the altercation with Flemming, Tent took a chainsaw to the tree in question, cutting partially through it and leaving it standing until the wind blew it over — a move Morgan described as “remarkably irresponsible.”
The tree missed the chicken coop and landed on Crown land.
