‘Excessive and unnecessary’: trial begins for Mountie accused of assaulting woman in holding cell

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This article was published 01/11/2023 (1068 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE — A Manitoba Mountie accused of assaulting a woman twice in an RCMP holding cell used “excessive and unnecessary” force, his trial heard Wednesday.

Const. Tyler Hoogkamp has pleaded not guilty to assault causing bodily harm and simple assault.

Hoogkamp is accused of punching the woman in the face, bloodying her nose, and forcefully shoving her in the chest during two separate encounters in the early morning hours of July 1, 2022.

“This is a case about imbalance and excess; a disparity of strength, size, ability and response,” Crown attorney Chantal Boutin said in an opening address to provincial court Judge Patrick Sullivan.

“The application of force… was excessive and unnecessary and therefore unjustified in all of the circumstances.”

Amanda McIvor was arrested around midnight after she was found “highly intoxicated” outside her Amaranth home, banging on the door and demanding to be let inside, Boutin told court in an overview of the Crown’s case.

McIvor was charged with causing a disturbance and transported to the Portage la Prairie detachment where Hoogkamp and two other officers lodged her in a holding cell at 1:40 a.m.

Security video of the holding cell provided to court shows the officers performing a body search as McIvor is on the floor, prone on her stomach.

Within seconds of the officers leaving the cell, McIvor is seen removing her shirt and tying the arms around her neck. Seconds later, the officers return and McIvor is restrained as they take her shirt away. It’s at this time Hoogkamp is seen raising his arm and appearing to punch McIvor in the face.

The officers leave the cell and McIvor doesn’t move for approximately 15 seconds before rousing herself. As McIvor sits up, a pool of blood can be seen on the floor where her head was, and blood is on her face.

The video, which did not record any audio, shows McIvor gesturing toward the door and appearing to yell at somebody as a roll of toilet paper is seen being placed inside the cell.

Later, at 5:45 a.m., Hoogkamp and another Mountie, Const. Jaydenpaul Gill, enter the cell. Gill is seen forcing McIvor, who is naked from the waist up, onto a corner bench as Hoogkamp throws a sleeping mat outside the cell door. McIvor appears to protest as Hoogkamp shoves her forcefully in the chest.

McIvor testified Wednesday she was at a house party in Amaranth the previous evening and had no memory of her arrest, only of waking up in the holding cell with blood on her face.

“I just remember touching my face… it was like, what did you guys do to me?” said McIvor, 28. “It was like I got beaten with a bat, that’s how sore I felt.”

McIvor said she told officers at the cell door she needed medical treatment, but her plea went unanswered.

Const. Patrick Melchin, one of the officers who arrested McIvor in Amaranth, testified she was uninjured when he first encountered her.

Melchin said he drove to the Portage la Prairie detachment the next afternoon to return McIvor to Amaranth when he was told she had been charged with assault after allegedly kicking an officer while in the holding cell.

Melchin said when he walked into McIvor’s cell, the walls appeared to have been smeared by bloody handprints.

“You could see blood all over the place,” Melchin said.

McIvor “was obviously hurt” with a swollen nose, swelling around the eyes and “ballooned up” hands, Melchin said.

“I asked her if she was OK and she said she thought she needed to go to the hospital,” Melchin said.

Melchin photographed McIvor’s injuries and drove her to the local hospital.

The trial resumes Nov. 8 and is set for five days.

Hoogkamp remains on active duty.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca