No trial for Edmonton police officer charged with assault

EDMONTON – There won’t be a trial for an Edmonton police officer charged with assaulting a man in custody.

Sgt. Kevin Douglas, who is 42, was accused of beating up a 46-year-old who was being held at the city’s police headquarters last January.

A trial for Douglas was to begin Monday, but charges of assault and assault causing bodily harm against him were stayed last week.

“In order for a case to proceed to trial there must be a reasonable likelihood of conviction, and in this case there was not one,” said Carla Jones from Alberta Justice.

“The reason it did not go ahead was the complainant was unco-operative”.

A video was going to be entered as evidence in the trial.

“There was video evidence that the police turned over to the Crown and it was evaluated, but, again, in this case there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction without the co-operation of the complainant,” Jones said.

Douglas has been on administrative duty since he was charged.

(CHED)

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version had the wrong age for the police officer.