A St. Catharines man arrested after making a video of what he felt was a takedown of a young hotel guest that involved “unnecessary force” is suing Toronto police, alleging his rights were breached.

Karl Andrus alleges in a statement of claim that he was threatened with arrest as he used his BlackBerry smartphone to document another arrest in the lobby of the downtown Sheraton Centre Hotel, where he was also a guest.

Andrus was told that he’d “filmed enough” and, although other guests were around him, was told repeatedly to back up.

And then, “suddenly and without warning” he was “violently attacked” by an officer and “subjected to various forms of strikes and pressures,” he alleges.

Security video shows Andrus, who suffered numerous injuries including rib fractures, being taken down by a number of officers. He was also charged with obstructing and assaulting police.

Andrus, who was staying at the hotel with his girlfriend, alleges the arrest was unlawful and an abuse of power, and that he was the victim of assault.

He also alleges that the police were negligent in that they “unreasonably asserted the position that civilians, including the plaintiff, were not permitted” to record police operations and the police “failed to control their anger.”

Andrus, who was charged with assaulting and obstructing police, is seeking $1.35 million in damages and an admission that police violated his rights. His lawsuit names two police officers, police chief Bill Blair and the Toronto Police Services Board as defendants.

Medical records show Andrus had two broken ribs following his arrest.

The allegations contained in Andrus’s statement of claim, filed in early May, have not been proven in court and police have not yet filed a statement of defence.

After being notified this month of the arrest and injuries by Andrus’s lawyer Barry Swadron, the province’s Special Investigations Unit is also now looking into the arrest. The unit probes police incidents that result in serious injury or death.

With smartphones everywhere, police should be getting used to the fact that citizens are going to record police operations, says Swadron.

“On the one hand, the police are frequently seeking images from surveillance cameras and personal recording devices in an effort to uncover illegal activities,” Swadron said in an emailed statement to the Star. “On the other hand, the police do not seem to look kindly when someone is recording the conduct of police officers.

In an interview with the Star, Andrus, a 35-year-old dispatcher for an IT company with no criminal record, said he had been out for a couple of drinks at a bar across the street from the hotel late on the night of Aug. 29, 2012.

He was in the elevator area when he came across a commotion in the lobby.

According to police notes and statements from hotel security, a family of four from France — a mother, father and their teenaged son and daughter — were at the front desk complaining about “sexual noise” from a neighbouring room.

This followed an earlier complaint from the same family about a reservation error caused by a third-party booking company.

The father is seen on security video holding back his son, who is seen aggressively pointing and making contact with front-desk staff and security. Police were called.

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Within 20 seconds of police arriving, the son was taken to the ground by Const. Jeffery Riel, one of two officers named in Andrus’s suit.

Andrus pulled out his BlackBerry and began to record but realized he had to delete some files to free up enough memory to record the arrest.

Andrus’s video picks up after Riel has already taken the teen down.

While the security cameras have no sound, Andrus’s video does, and loud screaming and broken English is heard. Most of it appears to come from the teen’s father, and is difficult to make out.

“I observed the beginnings of a takedown by police officers of this kid, and I can see language is a huge variable,” Andrus told the Star. “He was French and there was a lot of yelling and screaming. It was a very chaotic scene.”

Andrus said he immediately thought of the RCMP’s 2007 Tasering and arrest of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport. Dziekanski, who did not speak English, died of cardiac distress after the arrest, which was captured on video.

Andrus felt it his “civic duty” to document the arrest.

“I just thought I’m in a hotel that I’m staying at, (and that I’m) another set of eyes,” said Andrus. “I felt a little Walter Cronkite or something, I don’t know, so I whip out my phone and I started recording the scene from what I thought was a safe distance away from the action.”

Backup officers arrive and the teen’s father is also placed under arrest. By now, more than a half-dozen guests are in the same area as Andrus. Three others, including a young boy, also pull out cameras at various points.

The mother and daughter are seen on camera, visibly upset, and being kept away from the father and son by police.

Twenty seconds after the father is placed under arrest, officer Riel approaches Andrus and in a calm voice tells him to stop filming and move out of the area. According to Riel’s notes, the officer was concerned Andrus would be in the way should the mother and daughter also become involved in the arrests of the father and son.

“Sir, I’m going to ask you to step back,” says Riel in the video from Andrus’s BlackBerry. “You have filmed enough now …. You’re going to be in the way here, sir.”

“I am not in the way,” says Andrus. “Not at all.”

“You’re going to need to step back in this area please.”

At that point, another, unidentified officer moves a hand to try to block the view of Andrus’s camera.

Riel tells Andrus he will only ask one more time for him to move back, this time to the other side of the elevators, a position that would have given him a diminished view.

“You don’t have the right to ask me that,” Andrus says calmly. “But, I’m good.”

Riel asks an officer who appears to have just arrived on scene to deal with Andrus. Says Riel: “This guy needs to leave, please, officer.” That officer is identified in Andrus’s lawsuit as Const. Andrew Dobro.

At this point, Andrus is the only guest in the area still recording.

“Back up, sir,” says Dobro. “I’m cautioning you now for obstruct. Move back. Move back!” The officer then pushes Andrus with his left hand. “Move back or I’m going to arrest you,” the officer warns.

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Andrus backs up but almost immediately returns to his original position. One guest who had earlier been seen recording stands near his side, his hands in his pocket. Another man moves right behind Andrus to enter an elevator.

After several seconds, Riel again approaches Andrus, and says, “Sir, you’ve been asked to leave. Now you need to move back,” Riel begins to push Andrus back into the elevator alcove.

“I’m a guest at this hotel,” says Andrus.

“Sir, you’re on private property,” says Riel, who continues to push Andrus, who, in turn, continues to film, holding the phone in his right hand.

A split second later, Andrus is seen raising his left arm and Riel begins to shove Andrus against a wall.

“Suddenly and without warning . . . Riel moved toward (Andrus) and violently attacked him,” according to Andrus’s statement of claim. Andrus “offered no resistance, but simply raised his hands in the air.”

According to Riel’s notes, which the officer made after watching security camera footage, Andrus “sets his feet … he took his left hand down to his side, he crouched a little to get leverage & then drives his left hand up striking my left arm pushing it out of the way & strikes the left side of my chin.”

Hotel security video, while grainy, shows Riel positioning himself at Andrus’s back and then pushing Andrus face-first into a wall between elevator doors.

Four other officers help take down and restrain Andrus. It doesn’t appear from a close watching of the video that Dobro was part of the initial arrest, but his notes indicate he helped secure one of Andrus’s ankles.

Dobro did not respond to a Star request for comment, while Riel, in an email to the Star, said that he “would like to co-operate with you and help you publish a story that best reflects the events of that evening. However, as you know, this matter is still before the courts and it would be inappropriate for me to comment at this time.”

Officers involved in lawsuits rarely are able to comment. Police spokesperson Mark Pugash said the service would not comment either, now that the case is in the hands of the SIU.

But a police version of events in this case was available in notes and police records disclosed to Andrus as part of the criminal charges against him, and shared with the Star.

Andrus’s BlackBerry ended up on the floor, camera side down, it would appear, but the audio continued to record for about 30 seconds before cutting out completely.

“Stop resisting,” one officer shouts repeatedly at Andrus, who is seen on the soundless hotel security video with five officers on and immediately around him.

“I’m not resisting,” Andrus, his voice muffled, is heard saying.

Andrus was booked on charges of obstructing police and assaulting police, and a search of his pockets and possessions turned up a small amount of marijuana. He was released from the station the next morning.

He told the Star he was not intoxicated, and noted that he was not charged with any alcohol offence.

A police injury report makes note of an “abrasion” to Andrus’s right temple.

But in the following days, Andrus made two trips to seek medical attention. An X-ray revealed he had two fractured ribs. He also had bruises on his arms, a bump on the right side of his head and had a long scrape on the left side, from above the ear to temple.

His BlackBerry was “held for examination and evidence,” according to a police-issued property receipt. When it was eventually returned, the device, says Andrus, was “corrupted” but the memory card was intact. He doesn’t suspect police tampered with the phone.

It’s not clear what became of the French guests. Police notes indicate Riel reviewed security footage soon after the arrests and determined there had been an assault by the son on two security staff. The son was taken to the police station, and the father, according to a hotel security statement, to St. Michael’s Hospital for “medical attention.”

The charges against Andrus were all eventually withdrawn in an arrangement that saw him do 25 hours of community service at a food bank. Having already spent $4,000 on his lawyer, Andrus said it was the best deal he could get without risking a trial and having to pay the added expense that would come with that.

In an interview over lunch at a restaurant near his St. Catharines office, Andrus says the arrest continues to haunt.

“I got pretty badly whacked around and even talking about it now is a really difficult thing,” he said. “It was a really stressful experience. It was ‘pile on Karl, take me down,’ and you can hear me on the recording saying I’m not resisting.

“I got this sense throughout (the arrest and detention) that I was being punished.”

Andrus hopes police will change the way they deal with citizens with cameras.

“I wouldn’t say my whole impression of policing is destroyed, but I thought recording a police officer, what could possibly happen? I’m engaging in no criminal activity whatsoever and I was really shocked that it happened.

“I see this as an opportunity to change guidelines and rules for police.”

Jim Rankin can be reached at 416-869-4431 or at jrankin@thestar.ca .

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