A former Ottawa woman has been awarded $255,000 in damages for a wrongful arrest in 2008 that left her with broken bones and later naked for hours in a jail cell during a false imprisonment by Ottawa police.

Superior Court Justice Sylvia Corthorn found Roxanne Carr, then 39, should never have been arrested on Aug. 23, 2008 as she sat on the steps of the home she shared with an ex-boyfriend who wanted her out.

“The course of the afternoon turned in a moment, when Roxanne stood up from the front steps to enter her home and retrieve her personal belongings,” Corthorn wrote. The judge took issue with virtually everything the police did from that point.

Because the first responding officers thought she was about to assault the man, she was thrown to the ground — boot to her face — handcuffed and dragged to a cruiser. Two bones in her right wrist were broken, either during the handcuffing or the application of a restraint device when she arrived. She was dragged again at the Elgin Street cellblock.

Once in a cell, there was concern that Carr was trying to hang herself with a piece of clothing tied to the bars — a threat the judge considered unfounded. She was stripped of clothing and given a so-called “suicide suit” at 5:13 p.m. that day. But Carr was “unable to don the garment” — it was apparently too small — and was instructed to throw it into the hallway.

She was left naked and not given a larger suit until 8:03 p.m., as regular patrols walked by every few minutes. Corthorn ruled the treatment not only violated Ottawa police policy but was a breach of Carr’s basic charter rights to “security of the person” — one of several charter violations that day.

Corthorn reserved much of her criticism for Const. Michael Adlard, among the first two officers on scene at the townhouse. Though Carr had been paying rent at the home and had every right to be there, Adlard was concerned her name was not on the lease and told her to leave, as ex-boyfriend Devon Morgan had directed.

The arrest came within eight minutes of a what the judge called a “negligent” investigation.

“I find that Adlard is responsible for Roxanne being placed in handcuffs. The arrest and subsequent handcuffing were the first in a series of events that led to Roxanne being falsely imprisoned,” the judgment reads.

Carr became belligerent, the judge wrote, swearing at the officers and later kicking in the side windows of a cruiser. But her resistance was understandable, the court found.

The day ended with her being charged with assaulting and obstructing police and damaging property. Those charges were dropped in April 2011.

Carr’s arrest and lawsuit were part of a notorious stretch in the Ottawa cellblock. One of the officers named in the Carr suit was then-Sgt. Steven Desjourdy, who strip-searched a female prisoner and cut off her clothing that same year (2008), leading to a sexual assault charge of which he was acquitted in 2012.

There was video coverage of Carr’s treatment in cells, and the footage became the subject of a high-profile lawsuit when police refused to release it. Several media outlets, including the Citizen, successfully fought the ban in 2011.

Corthorn also found that excessive force was used on at least two occasions — with the original arrest and with the application of a “temporary restraining device” in cellblocks by Special Const. Richard Marcil. The judge did not agree there was a need to restrain Carr in this way.

“I find that (a) the force used by Marcil in the application of the TRD was not proportional, necessary, or reasonable and (b) caused or contributed to the fracture of at least one bone in Roxanne’s wrist.”

Carr now lives in Toronto, has been unable to work and is getting regular counselling with issues related to post-traumatic stress disorder. Her lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said she would not be doing interviews.

“It was a tremendous relief and joy,” he said of her reaction at Friday’s ruling. “She started crying on the phone.” Greenspon said she passed along three phrases that summed up her feelings: “Their actions broke my heart. Patience is a virtue. Sometimes it’s worth the wait because it helps others.”

He cited her courage in sticking with the case for nine years and urged the police chief and police services board to accept and learn from the judgment and move on.

While the case was riddled with errors in judgment, Greenspon said the most difficult thing to witness was Carr’s treatment in the cellblocks, where she was dragged, restrained and led away with a device that resembled a leash.

“You wouldn’t treat an animal the way she was treated at the station.” Being left naked, with aching broken bones, while officers walked by was “degrading,” the lawyer said. The judge also awarded interest and costs to Carr, a one-time chef and IBM employee.

The lawyer representing the eight police officers, Geoffrey Cantello, could not be reached. However, a review by the province’s Special Investigations Unit found no criminal wrongdoing by police, and an internal investigation by the department’s professional standards section cleared the officers.

To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or emailkegan@postmedia.com

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