Stayed charge against Mountie who kneeled on man's neck 'erodes trust' in police, justice system: expert

The recent stay of an assault charge against a Mountie who put his knee on a man's neck for more than three minutes during an arrest as the man cried "I can't breathe" exemplifies unfair double standards that seem to be at play when police are accused of wrongdoing, says a law professor who studies officers charged with crimes.

"It signals to the public that police officers can act with a certain level of impunity," said Danardo Jones, a criminal defence lawyer and assistant professor of law at the University of Windsor.

"It erodes trust in our criminal justice system. It erodes trust in the police."

An assault charge against Manitoba RCMP Const. Eric Gerein was stayed on Nov. 3 following an incident at Winnipeg's airport caught on cellphone video.

That Aug. 1, 2019, video showed Gerein kneeling on Nathan Lasuik's neck and placing the man's face against the ground during an arrest, as Lasuik pleaded with the officer to let him breathe.

Gerein was charged with assault in 2022 after the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba found there were reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offence had happened.

While the arrest was in August 2019, Mounties didn't notify the police watchdog about it until more than two years later — after the video was entered as evidence during Lasuik's trial.

WATCH | WARNING — this video may be disturbing to viewers:

Jones said he's seen cases involving members of the public where "there was still an appetite" from the Crown to prosecute, even though they don't appear to have any chance of ending in conviction.

They stand in stark contrast to cases like Gerein's, Jones said, where prosecutors didn't seem to have that same hunger.

"We want officers to be held to the same standard," he said.

"That's what my research advocates for. It's not for officers to be treated, you know, harsher than the rest of us. It's for officers to be treated the same way everybody else is treated."

Prosecutors in Gerein's case said there were two reasons they stayed the charge against him — meaning while it's not dropped, it's no longer proceeding through courts.

One was the judge in Lasuik's own trial on assault charges had issues with his credibility. The other was that surveillance footage submitted as evidence showed Lasuik behaving aggressively before police took him to the ground.