Video played on Wednesday at the trial of two special constables charged in the jailhouse death of a prisoner showed an incoherent and apparently immobile Corey Rogers being carried and dragged to the cell where he later died.
Rogers died sometime between just before midnight on July 15, 2016, and 1:30 in the morning of June 16, 2016, after choking on his own vomit while a spit hood was in place over his face. He had been arrested late on the evening of June 15 for public intoxication on the grounds of the IWK health centre in Halifax, where his girlfriend had just given birth to their child.
Special constables Dan Fraser and Cheryl Gardner are on trial on charges of criminal negligence causing his death.
The video was played Wednesday afternoon in Nova Scotia Supreme Court as part of the testimony of Crown witness Keith Stothart, an investigator with the Serious Incident Response Team, which investigates all incidents involving police members.
Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft played several videos with Stothart, who compiled the video and transcripts as part of his investigation into the death, relating to the court what was happening as they progressed.
The first video showed Rogers approaching the security desk at the IWK and engaging in conversation with the guards at the station. Although no audio was available, Rogers seems agitated and at one point his girlfriend intervenes and the two walk out of the hospital as the guards call Halifax Regional Police.
The next video showed the exterior of the rear of the HRP Gottingen Street headquarters, where prisoners are brought in. Arresting officer Const. Ryan Morris pulls into the parking lot, followed by assisting officers Const. Justin Murphy and Const. Donna Paris. They have to wait while a young offender is processed inside, court heard. While they wait, Murphy goes inside and brings out a spit hood, a device placed over a person's head to block any bodily fluids from being spit or sprayed on officers. It was described to the court earlier in the day as having a mesh upper portion and a white paper or fabric bottom portion that covers the nostrils and mouth.
Paris enters the vehicle's back seat and Morris and Murphy enter from the passenger side, which is out of frame on the video. They then take Rogers out of the car and the 41-year-old man, the spit hood already in place, briefly struggles and then goes limp. The three officers carry him into the intake area, with Fraser and Gardner watching.
A third video, this one with full audio, showed the interior of the intake area, where Rogers is placed on the floor and searched, all the while laying limp, loudly moaning and letting out occasional incoherent shouts. The only clear word reporters could pick out from the public section of the court was “No,” uttered when officers tell him to get up and walk to the cells. Murphy and Morris pick Rogers up off the floor and drag him into the cell block containing Cell 5, the dry cell where violent, suicidal or heavily intoxicated prisoners are routinely held. Paris accompanied them, carrying Rogers's shoes, which were removed to take the laces out.
Wednesday's testimony did not get to the portion of the video that purportedly shows his death but it was alluded to in the testimony of medical examiner Dr. Marnie Wood, who told the court she determined Rogers died of asphyxia due to suffocation from liquid in the spit mask. His level of intoxication, which the court heard was .367 or roughly four times the legal limit of .08, was not enough to be fatal itself, but might have contributed to his inability to remove the spit hood on his own and clear his airways.
She told the court she watched video from inside Cell 5 and saw Rogers make a “heaving” motion at about 11:33 p.m., suggesting to her that he was vomiting. She then saw no further motion from that time until 1:30 a.m., when officers enter the cell, check Rogers and then call for EMTs.
Under cross examination from Ron Pizzo, Gardner's defence attorney, she said she could not be absolutely certain that Rogers vomited instead of experiencing a “dry heave” at that time, as the resolution of the video was not sharp enough.
The last portion of video shown on Wednesday depicted the officers in conversation with Fraser and Gardner. At one point Murphy tells them he believes Rogers is faking.
Murphy, a 15-year veteran of the force, and Morris, who's been with HRP for six years, took the stand earlier Wednesday morning as Crown witnesses.
“I just wanted to let them know that, listen, it's my opinion that this person is simply refusing to walk,” Murphy testified. “Seconds before we brought him in here he was out there actively threatening to kill people, cursing and swearing and stuff, spitting, so in my opinion this is all an act."
The video evidence is expected to continue on Thursday morning.
