Toronto Police Officers Charged With Assault
After the trial, Potts, Murphy and Elizabeth charged the arresting officers with assault. The charges were laid by the Crown after the three women produced evidence in the form of doctor's notes and photographs of extensive bruising. Unbeknownst to the women, the police officers had exchanged their hats and the badge numbers that established their identities were confused. At trial, because of this trick, the women couldn't accurately identify the officers. Murphy, Potts and Elizabeth refused to participate in the trial, calling it a scam and miscarriage of justice. When the court clerk ordered everyone to rise for a recess the women refused to rise. The clerk ordered the court to rise a second time. They refused. They were then charged with criminal contempt of court and led to the cells at Old City Hall. Potts and Elizabeth returned to court hours later to apologize but Murphy refused earning 30 days in jail. The officers were acquitted. Later, The Royal Commission on Toronto Police Practices ordered the three to appear and Murphy and Elizabeth gave testimony. Potts (now Rosen) moved to Vancouver and refused to participate. Pat Murphy died in 2003. Heather Elizabeth (Lamar Van Dyke) lives in Seattle and Adrienne Potts (Rosen) lives with her family in Toronto.
Read more about this topic: Brunswick Four
Famous quotes containing the words police, officers, charged and/or assault:
“Scandal begins when the police put a stop to it.”
—Karl Kraus (1874–1936)
“You know, what I very well know, that I bought you. And I know, what perhaps you think I don’t know, you are now selling yourselves to somebody else; and I know, what you do not know, that I am buying another borough. May God’s curse light upon you all: may your houses be as open and common to all Excise Officers as your wifes and daughters were to me, when I stood for your scoundrel corporation.”
—Anthony Henley (d. 1745)
“The last alternatives they face
Of face, without the life to save,
Being from all salvation weaned
A stag charged both at heel and head:
Who would come back is turned a fiend
Instructed by the fiery dead.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“The treatment of the incident of the assault upon the sailors of the Baltimore is so conciliatory and friendly that I am of the opinion that there is a good prospect that the differences growing out of that serious affair can now be adjusted upon terms satisfactory to this Government by the usual methods and without special powers from Congress.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)