A Montreal police officer is facing up to six months in jail, after she was found guilty of an assault that was caught on a cellphone video recording.
Stefanie Trudeau, known to many by her badge number as “Agent 728,” entered Rudy Ochietti’s apartment one night in October 2012 to ticket him after she said he had stepped outside with an open beer.
When artist Serge Lavoie, who was in the apartment, attempted to verbally defend his friend, Trudeau forced Lavoie down a flight of stairs and held him in a chokehold. The judge ruled that was an excessive use of force.
Two others were also arrested that night. All four had their charges dropped after the cellphone video emerged.
That video also captured a police cruiser conversation in which Trudeau called those arrested “filthy” and “guitar-scratching red squares.”
The red square, often pinned to clothing, was the symbol those on side with the Quebec student protesters, who were shutting down classrooms and rioting in the streets over a proposed tuition fee hike.
‘Agent 728’ was already famous among ‘red square’ protesters before the arrest, because of a video that had circulated of her pepper-spraying an activist. The Crown decided they did not have enough evidence to lay any charges against Trudeau in that incident.
Trudeau is no longer working for the Montreal police, after quitting last September.
With reports from CTV Montreal and CTV National Correspondent Genevieve Beauchemin
