Winnipeg police officer with history of misconduct accusations faces new lawsuit

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This article was published 05/01/2024 (638 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg police officer repeatedly accused of misconduct faces a new lawsuit over allegations he wrongfully detained a corner store clerk during an investigation into untaxed cigarettes and illicit cannabis.

Harjot Singh, a former employee of a Sargent Avenue convenience store, with Winnipeg defence lawyer Ian Histed acting on his behalf, filed a statement of claim Dec. 22 naming Winnipeg Police Service patrol Sgt. Jeffrey Norman and the City of Winnipeg as defendants.

It is at least the ninth time Norman has been sued while working as a Winnipeg police officer.

The outcomes of most of the litigation have remained behind closed doors, among other accusations of misconduct.

Norman has worked for the WPS for more than two decades, after employment with the Los Angeles (Calif.) Police Department.

In the new court papers, Norman is accused of demanding entry to J&F Supermarket (730 Sargent Ave.) on Dec. 2, 2023.

Norman, who is on active duty in the downtown community support unit, was managing an investigation into the alleged sale of untaxed cigarettes and cannabis products to minors at corner shops in the city’s core, WPS downtown division Insp. Eric Luke told the Free Press.

“On that particular day, checks were being completed to ensure that compliance was being managed in these particular stores,” he said Friday.

Singh, a 20-year-old Indian immigrant, was in the washroom in the basement of the store but quickly came upstairs, where he unlocked the door and allowed Norman to enter the business, the court papers say.

Singh alleges he was then placed in handcuffs and told he was under arrest for obstruction, before Norman seized his cellphone. Singh was not told he had the right to retain a lawyer, the court papers allege.

He wasn’t charged with any offences on that date or subsequently, court records show.

The lawsuit alleges Norman then conducted a search of the building, without producing or alluding to a warrant.

Norman threatened Singh with deportation if he did not co-operate with the search and answer questions, the court filing says.

Norman did not make any seizures during the Dec. 2 search.

“The search was… warrantless and unreasonable,” according to the court papers. “The plaintiff was shaken and traumatized by the arrest, detention, needless handcuffing, search and threat of deportation from Canada such that he terminated his employment at the premises.”

The claim alleges Norman’s conduct amounted to battery, false imprisonment and arbitrary detention, unreasonable search and seizure, and a violation of charter rights.

Further, the court papers claim, Norman’s conduct was unconstitutional and discriminatory, based on Singh’s ethnicity.

Singh is seeking monetary damages and for the city to establish a specific training program for WPS officers on the rights of persons detained and searched.

The cannabis and tobacco probe — which began based on public complaints over minors being sold products in September 2023 — has resulted in four arrests thus far, Luke said.

WPS seized nearly $5,000 in cash and nearly $60,000 worth of cigarettes, cigars, vape and cannabis products from two corner stores: a shop on the 600 block of Westminster Avenue and J&F Supermarket, he said.

“The plaintiff was shaken and traumatized by the arrest, detention, needless handcuffing, search and threat of deportation from Canada such that he terminated his employment at the premises.”–Court papers

“We got a lot of complaints from the community and various elected officials that a number of stores in the downtown were selling illegal contraband… they were selling to various age groups, like children.”

Luke declined comment on the allegations in the recent lawsuit, citing the court process, and on past accusations of wrongdoing against Norman.

No statements of defence have yet been filed.

City of Winnipeg spokesman Kalen Qually said civic officials would not comment, due to the court process.

The city has issued financial settlements in more than one lawsuit against Norman, the Free Press found in a previous investigation, but refused to reveal how many or for how much money.

The veteran WPS officer has also been subject to multiple complaints against him under the Law Enforcement Review Agency and at least one probe by the watchdog Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, in which a cyclist alleged Norman wrongfully detained and pepper sprayed him in April 2019.

In the IIU probe, investigators from the civilian agency forwarded their findings to provincial Crown prosecutors in November 2020. The Crown decided there would be no likelihood of conviction, if charges were laid.

While under oath during past court proceedings, Norman admitted to facing misconduct allegations while working in the LAPD in the 1990s, but said he’d never been criminally charged.

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One lawsuit naming Norman and another WPS officer as defendants — filed by Histed in 2015 on behalf of another client — was recently decided in favour of the accused.

Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Justice Vic Toews, in a Dec. 6, 2023, written decision, ruled the allegations in the claim and a subsequent reply were an abuse of process.

Toews said issues in the statement of claim — whether the plaintiff was wrongfully detained, whether police used excessive force against him, whether his property was stolen and if police planted cocaine on him — were to some degree addressed in provincial court criminal proceedings.

The 2015 plaintiff was convicted of several offences by a provincial judge, including resisting a peace officer, possessing cocaine and breaching an undertaking.

However, the plaintiff may yet appeal the decision, the defence lawyer said.

“There are certainly legal issues with that decision that cause me concern that I’m actively deciding,” Histed said Friday.

The president of the Winnipeg Police Association, the union that represents city officers, deferred comment on the December 2023 lawsuit to the police service.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.