A court has released video of the controversial treatment of a woman in an Ottawa cellblock -- footage that the city's police service fought to keep out of the public eye.
In the video, Roxanne Carr is handcuffed, dragged by several officers while on her knees, and at one point has a belt placed around her chest and arms.
Carr was arrested in 2008 and charged with obstructing police and damaging property, though the charges were later dropped.
She has maintained she was roughed up by officers and was left with a broken arm and wrist, had her head banged off the floor and was left naked in the cell for hours.
In the soundless video Carr can be seen lying face-down while officers place the belt around her chest and cinch it up, wrenching her arms awkwardly behind her back. A belt is also placed around her knees. Carr doesn't appear to be struggling.
At one point a female officer pulls Carr by the hair in an effort to lift her head. Officers then force her to stand by pulling on the belt, or strap, which is attached around her chest, and lead her away from the camera.
In another section of the video, Carr is escorted by four officers to a cell, though there is no footage from within the cell. Later, six officers come running down the hall towards the cell, and appear to enter it, while one remains outside, though it isn't clear what has caused the commotion. Again, there is no footage from within the holding cell.
The video does not show footage of Carr's alleged strip-search
The charges originally laid against Carr in 2008 were later dropped after Crown prosecutors viewed the video.
Even after the charges against Carr were dropped, media lawyer Richard Dearden fought to have the video released, arguing the public deserves the right to view what took place on the night of the arrest.
"Police conduct is of vital interest because they have tremendous power, so let's see for ourselves what happened," Dearden told CTV Ottawa.
Justice David Wake agreed last week, and ordered that the video be released.
However, court officials soon discovered the video was missing, and a duplicate had to be made from the original police tapes. Ottawa's acting police chief Gilles Larochelle stood by the officers on Thursday.
"At this point it's a civil matter. I viewed the tape myself. I am supporting the officers. What they did was professional. There was nothing wrong with their conduct," he told CTV Ottawa.
Larochelle said the provincial Special Investigations Unit investigated the officers in the Carr case and found no wrongdoing. As well, Ottawa police carried out an internal review through the department's Professional Standards Section, which resulted in no charges laid and no instances of misconduct identified.
Carr's arrest is just one of a number of controversial incidents that have dogged Ottawa police in recent years.
Two weeks after Carr's arrest, Stacy Bonds was brought in by Ottawa police. Her treatment was also controversial, with claims she was kneed, pinned to the floor and strip-searched by officers.
As a result of that incident, Ottawa Police Sgt. Steven Desjourdy was charged with sexual assault. Desjourdy also has links to Carr's case.
When the video of Bonds' arrest and another of Ottawa man Terry Delay were released in November of last year, the outrage prompted investigations into six other cellblock detentions including Carr's.
Another police officer, Melanie Morris, was seen kneeing Bonds in the arrest video. She was also seen kicking Delay in another highly publicized cellblock video.
Ottawa police had fought against the release of the Carr video, but ahead of its release on Thursday Larochelle said he wasn't worried.
Larochelle said Thursday that officers "handled the custody of Roxanne Carr with the utmost professionalism, especially when faced with a crisis in the cell."
However, Carr's lawyer Mark Ertel said the video plainly shows there was no crisis.
"This is not the first line of defence for police. The first defence was to fight at every turn the release of this videotape and you can draw your own conclusions from why they'd do that," Ertel said.
Carr has launched a $975,000 lawsuit against Ottawa police, stemming from the incident.
As a result of several controversial cellblock detentions, the Ottawa Police have upgraded their detention standards. Officers now receive special cellblock training, there is a higher level of supervision, and a cellblock sergeant now has to approve cellblock detentions.
Audio capability has also been added to the surveillance cameras, Larochelle said.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr
