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Woman suing Vancouver police says restraint device worst pain she has ever felt
VANCOUVER – A woman who is suing the City of Vancouver and four police constables for allegedly tethering her to a cell door wept in court as she testified about the homelessness and addiction she sank into after the alleged assault.
Bobbi O'Shea, 44, told a B.C. provincial court judge Tuesday that she began sleeping in shelters, lost her four children to their father and turned to crack cocaine to soothe her anxiety following the incident she said occurred in a Vancouver jail in 2008.
"I think I just was really harmed," she said through tears. "I always thought the police were there to help you and protect you … I just wanted to stay high, to not feel anything."
O'Shea testified she suffered a panic attack after smoking crack cocaine and Vancouver police took her to jail, where guards bound her feet together with a nylon strap and pulled it hard under a door. She said she was restrained for more than an hour, causing her excruciating pain.
The civil trial began with defence lawyer Iain Dixon saying the accused constables — who were working as jail guards at the time — have no memory of the alleged incident. Dixon said as a result two of them will not testify.
"They don't recall it. It was not significant to them."
Dixon also said the city is not liable because the woman failed to provide written notification within two months, as required by a law specific to Vancouver.
O'Shea testified she was homeless for about two years after the alleged incident. She said she always knew what happened was "wrong" but didn't know where to get help.
She said she filed a police board complaint in 2009, but it was dismissed, so she filed her lawsuit in 2010.
Her lawyer, Doug King of Pivot Legal Society, entered the device as an exhibit. It is a black nylon strap with a buckle that can be tightened around a person's ankles.
O'Shea testified that guards placed her in the device after she covered up a cell window with toilet paper to stop a male guard from seeing her use the toilet, and after she moved her cuffed hands in front of her body twice to wipe her nose.
She said guards seated her on the cold floor with her hands bound behind her back and her feet pressed against the door. The strap was pulled tightly around her ankles, she said.
"I felt like they were all tugging on it, trying to rip my feet off my legs," she said. "I've never felt pressure like that before in my life… I didn't know if I was going to make it out of there."
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7 responses
I have to wonder is it worthy of our tax dollars as it goes through the system now.I am sorry this woman had issues long before ending up in jail.Times to start owning so you can work at getting healthy and clean.
Guess you shouldn’t have been smoking crack!Is this even news worthy! Please.
Don’t use crack, or do things that are illegal and you wont be in jail.
More to this story then meets the eye. Woman don’t loose their children for not good reason. Oh and if you are hopped up on Crack you are probably going to resist arrest in a fairly violent way. Here’s a quarter call someone who cares..if you can still find a pay phone.
OMG why can’t people own up to their problems and stop blaming everything and everybody else for their life.I get so bothered by people always blaming.NOT SAYING that there aren’t reasons that things happen that you can’t avoid but how did she get into the situation that she ended up in jail anyways. I just shake my head.
she was worried about her life….and she was smoking crack…now she is blaming her crack addiction on the police….blame everyone, just not the person using the crack…I guess it would be hard to face what she has done to herself and her family…if she realized that she did it to herself, that she alone is to blame.
OMG.Not to put too fine a point on this, but maybe if she wasn’t putting the cops in a position to deal with her in the first place, none of this wouldn’t have happened?Why is it always “someone” else’s fault?