Officer's sentence for assault upheld on appeal

          ETOBICOKE
THE GUARDIAN

BY TAMARA SHEPHARD
July 02, 2008

Const. Roy Prestone

The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a jail sentence for an Etobicoke police officer convicted of assault on a Somali refugee caught on videotape.

A 30-day sentence for Const. Roy Preston was "if anything, on the lenient side," as the officer "took part in a serious unprovoked assault on a civilian and then to cover up his involvement attempted to fabricate evidence that could have led to the conviction of an innocent man," the court said in a written judgment Monday, June 30.

The court called Preston's conduct "an appalling breach of trust".

Preston was convicted in 2005 in a provincial court of assaulting Somali refugee Said Jama Jama in August 2003 in a Rexdale parking lot. In 2007, the sentence was upheld by an Ontario Superior Court judge.

The court said a Superior Court of Justice judge made no error in law in dismissing an appeal of Preston's conviction last November.

Earlier this week, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed the argument of Preston's lawyer, Gary Clewley, that the 10 days Preston has served is sufficient.

The appeal court also rejected Clewley's argument that the trial judge did not adequately take into account the impact that imprisonment would have on Preston's career as a police officer.

"There is no merit to this submission," the court said.

It also rejected an "unusual" argument by Clewley that the court should not have sentenced the constable, who was suspended with pay after the assault, to jail so that Police Chief Bill Blair could decide whether the officer would keep his job.

"We do not agree," the appeal court said.

"It was not open to a sentencing court to so abdicate its responsibility in imposing sentence."

Source: Etobicoke Guardian, July 02, 2008