Taser use on woman like torture, lawyer says

January 25, 2006
CBC News

A prosecutor suggests a woman was tortured when two Halifax police officers used a stun gun on her.

Constables John Hope and Mark Galloway are on trial, charged with assault after using a Taser on Suzanne Silver while she was in a police holding cell in September 2004.

The officers arrested Silver in Eastern Passage, then took her to the holding cell at the Halifax police station. Silver was furious and unleashed a stream of profanity laden invective.

Then, in the cell, when she wouldn't let police take her handcuffs off, Hope used the Taser on Silver three times.

"She was lying on her back with both of her hands handcuffed behind her back and in that position she was burned, shocked with a Taser more than once. Was that reasonable?" prosecutor Darrell Carmichael said Tuesday as the trial wrapped up.

Carmichael said not only was it not reasonable, it bordered on torture.

"The torture section of the Criminal Code defines torture as intentionally inflicting suffering on another person in order to coerce or intimidate them," he said.

Pat Duncan, the defence lawyer representing Hope, said any talk of torture is "absurd."

"They weren't charged with torture. Torture had no application whatsoever in this case. The Taser is an approved instrument," Duncan said.

The defence argues the police officers did everything by the book and they were just trying to control an unruly prisoner. The Crown maintains the arrest was illegal in the first place and that police used excessive force.

It's now up to Judge Carole Beaton to decide. She'll bring down her decision in March.