Father and son file lawsuit against Calgary Police Service & Stampede Board

Nasser Kadri says a Calgary police officer approached his limo in March 2014 because he saw people drinking inside.

A father and son allege they were beaten up and arrested unlawfully two years ago on Stampede grounds outside Cowboys Casino and are suing the Calgary Police Service and the Stampede Board for $150,000.

On March 13, 2014 limo driver Nasser Kadri says a Calgary police officer approached his limo because he saw people drinking inside.

Both the customers and Kadri say that the limo was dry. CPS member, Joseph Cecchini, proceeded to ask for ID from the people inside and that's when the conversation became heated.

“He came up and he started looking into the windows,” said Kadri.

Kadri asked Cecchini to leave his customers alone and according to the claim Kadri was "punched in the face and continued to be assaulted."

“I asked him to just let the customers go and not harass them,” said Kadri.

A video shot by Kadri and obtained by CTV shows some of the incident.

In the video, Kadri can be heard saying ‘Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me, you just assaulted me.”

That’s when Kadri’s son pulled up in a second limo.

“I just said hey, hey, hey, it’s enough, let’s stop this, like, nobody needs to be punching anybody and so he turned and he actually hit me a couple of times in the face,” said Jamal Kadri.

Jamal and other witnesses continued to record the incident and it appears that Nasser’s head is being smashed into the foot step of the limo.

Nasser Kadri was arrested and charged with assaulting an officer and obstruction of justice and last month the case was stayed.

“My view of the charges was that there was no merit, first of all, it started with an illegal search of the limo and then it progressed to an illegal arrest of my client,” said Kadri’s lawyer, Tom Engel.

The Kadri’s filed a $150,000 lawsuit and in it Nasser says he suffered cuts, bruises and pain to his shoulders, back, elbows, and neck.

“This is two years ago and I still feel it today,” said Kadri. “I feel totally betrayed by the Calgary police.”

The Kadri’s want to see Cecchini and the Calgary Police Service held responsible and they hope to start a watchdog program and include ex-officers, civilians and former Crown prosecutors. They say they want to create a safe place, outside the system, for people to turn to if they are having issues with Calgary police.

Calgary police, the Stampede Board and officer Cecchini can't comment on the incident because they haven't been served and police say force is used on a case-by-case basis but it must be justified.

(With files from Jamie Mauracher)