Quebecois Cop Used Excessive Force, Made Racial Slurr

The Quebec Police Ethics Committee has found a former Montreal police officer guilty of using excessive force and calling a black suspect a racial epithet while arresting him.
The committee, which functions as a tribunal, cleared Constable Nicolas Morin of other complaints because of contradictory testimony.
This was not Morin's first run-in with the law. He was suspended for 60 days without pay in 2007 for using excessive force and falsely accusing a suspect. Six months later, he was fired for various human resources issues and is appealing. He is also appealing the ethics committee ruling before the Quebec Court of Appeal.
The latest complaints were launched by Jean-Éric Clervil in connection with his arrest on Jan. 30, 2005, by Morin and his partner, Constable Frédéric Paquet. They were first heard by a Quebec Police Ethics Commissioner. (Paquet, in February 2008, agreed he had intimidated Clervil and the ethics commissioner withdraw two other charges. He remains on the force.)
The incident began when the two officers, patrolling Ste. Catherine St. E., smelled pot and noticed two men and two women, both black, smoking in front of a massage parlour.
The cops entered the building, the suspects withdrew to an inside courtyard, and Clervil was seen bending over something in the snow. A police sniffer dog later found 13 rocks of crack. Morin said he ordered Clervil to put his hands up against a wall, but Clervil did not comply. Clervil, and a second suspect, were then placed under arrest for illegal drugs possession. A scuffle ensued and Clervil tackled Morin. Paquet used pepper spray to subdue the second suspect and Morin put Clervil in a head lock, then a judo hold as he tried to handcuff him. Morin then hit him under the shoulder blade to attach the second handcuff. Clervil insisted he never resisted arrest.
A call for backup brought Sgt. Raymond Ménard to the scene. Ménard, who helped subdue a suspect, said Morin, while handcuffing Clervil, struck him three times and called him "a goddamned n-----."
Clervil alleged Morin struck him on the lip with a flashlight while in the police car, which Morin denied. The committee ruled that Morin used necessary force to subdue Clervil and rejected the accusation of being hit by a flashlight. But it accept Ménard's testimony about the racial epithet and Morin striking Clervil three times against a wall. The committee ordered a conditional stay of proceedings on the assault allegation against Morin. Morin has 30 days to launch an appeal.

Source : The Gazette