Mike on Crime

By Mike McIntyre
Winnipeg Free Press

A Winnipeg man with a long history of criminal convictions claims he was sexually assaulted and seriously beaten by as many as eight city police officers after being arrested earlier this month for breaking into an elderly woman’s home.

Leon Vermette, 33, has filed a complaint with the Law Enforcement Review Agency and has now been joined by his lawyer, Martin Glazer, in calling for an independent investigation of Winnipeg police.

They’ve also contacted the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Justice Minister Dave Chomiak and police Chief Keith McCaskill with their concerns about the police conduct.

“I feel violated,” a sobbing Vermette told the Free Press in an interview at his lawyer’s office on Thursday.

He’s documented some of his physical injuries with photographs, including a large cut to his head that required a staple, a fractured elbow, a bruised cheek and a torn toenail.

Vermette claims the most painful and humiliating injury involved police shoving a piece of jewelry — he says officers told him it was a crucifix — into his rectum while holding him down on the ground and kicking and punching him inside an interview room at the Public Safety Building.

He said his feet were shackled to a table and his hands cuffed behind his back at the time.

“They said to me, ‘Do you want to see how it feels to rape an elderly woman?’ “ said Vermette.

Police deny sexually assaulting Vermette in a written summary provided to the Crown. They claim Vermette admitted to inserting a crucifix into his own rectum, then fought with officers while they were trying to search his pants and underwear for possible weapons or drugs.

Police say Vermette struggled with them and his pants and underwear accidentally came down as they tried to restrain him.

“I grabbed the underwear and pulled, ripping them in the process,” one officer writes in his report.

Police say they called an ambulance to have Vermette taken to hospital for examination, including an X-ray of his rectum to ensure nothing was concealed. The results were negative and no crucifix was found.

Vermette is not charged with assaulting any police officers.

Vermette was granted bail earlier this week. Glazer outlined his client’s allegations during the bail hearing and said he needed to get into a program to attend counselling for victims of sexual assault.

“This case illustrates a crucial need for an independent police commission in Manitoba,” said Glazer. He said Vermette’s options are limited to making a formal complaint to the police professional standards unit, which would then supersede the LERA probe.

“We want the truth to come out here about what happened,” said Glazer.

Crown attorney Scott Cooper told court this week police were called by a terrified woman about 3:15 p.m. on Saturday May 17. She said an unknown man had just burst into her Home Street residence through an unlocked screen door. She then fled the home and called 911.

Police arrived to find Vermette hiding inside a locked bathroom. He was armed with a butcher knife although the victim hadn’t seen the weapon. Vermette claims he grabbed it from inside the home for protection.

Vermette told police he was being chased by several gang members and sought refuge inside the home. Glazer told court the story makes sense, considering his client never threatened the homeowner, didn’t steal anything and didn’t attempt to flee when she screamed that she was calling police.

“He saw the open screen door and ran inside to hide. He was pleased she had called police, which is why he waited for them to arrive,” said Glazer.

Glazer believes police wrongly thought his client wanted to sexually assault the homeowner which prompted the degrading attack at the PSB.

“I was being chased. I had to get away. I did nothing wrong,” Vermette told police, according to the Crown.

Vermette was also found to be carrying more than $1,300 cash inside his pants, which police believe is stolen. He claims the money is rightfully his, earned by working as a security guard at a local treatment centre. No drugs or weapons were found.

Vermette has nine prior criminal convictions, including several for possession and trafficking. After his arrest, Glazer said, the street-tough Vermette broke down in tears when they met at the Remand Centre.

“The first thing he told me was that he’d been raped,” he said.

Glazer questioned why his client would make up such a humiliating claim — especially since he already had pictures to document the alleged physical assault and didn’t need to add the sex-assault allegations.

“I think the police are going to have to answer some tough questions,” he said.