B.C. paramedic accused of attacking bar staff
Trial hears man punched waitress, bartender; 57-year-old insists he was acting in self-defence
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A B.C. paramedic in Yellowknife last June for the annual mine rescue competition is waiting to learn his fate after a trial last week heard he attacked two female bar staff at Harley's Hard Rock Saloon after he was thrown out of the bar.
Robert Sutton, 57, of Duncan, B.C., faces two counts of assault after a wild brawl that began inside the bar spilled out onto the street on June 10 of last year. His two-day trial by judge alone was held in territorial court in front of Judge Christine Gagnon.
A waitress, Sarah Murphy, who has since purchased the bar, testified after entering Harley's, Sutton approached a dancer and asked if she had any "rails," which Murphy said is slang for cocaine. She said they still served Sutton a beer but he was cut off after that.
When Sutton asked if he could buy a beer for his friend, he used a term for an Inuit person to describe him that many people find derogatory, according to bartender Trista Nault.
She testified she told him the word was inappropriate and he had to leave. Bar staff testified that's when Sutton became agitated and called them racists for not serving his friend a beer.
Staff members testified that veteran doorman Daniel Graham and Sutton began trading punches inside the bar before several male patrons stepped in to help eject Sutton. Graham said he broke his hand in several places while punching Sutton in the head but testified the punches were warranted because Sutton was putting up a fight and would not leave willingly.
Nault testified she went up the stairs after Sutton was ejected to look for the Graham's glasses which had been knocked off during the fight. She said Sutton then came back into the bar, punching and kneeing her in the face just inside the front door.
Murphy testified she heard Nault scream for help so she ran up the stairs with Graham and again ejected Sutton through the door and out onto the street. Murphy said once out on the sidewalk, Sutton attacked her, punching her in the head at least twice and ripping open her shirt.
Graham testified bar patrons held Sutton to the ground while waiting for police to arrive. All three bar staff went to hospital - the two women for treatment of cuts and bruises and Graham for his broken hand.
RCMP Const. Greg Fracassi testified Sutton was very agitated as he was being arrested.
He said Sutton, who was bleeding from a cut to his forehead, made a inappropriate comment about a female officer as he was being put inside the police vehicle. The officer testified when he went to retrieve security video from the bar some days later, he found it had already been taped over.
RCMP refused to provide Yellowknifer with any information about the incident when asked about it last June.
Sutton, a former mine worker and father of three, admitted he had several drinks before arriving at Harley's. He said his equilibrium was off due to a combination of alcohol and anti-anxiety medication.
He testified that after being told to leave he was merely trying to exit on his own when he was attacked by bar staff.
Sutton told the court many men inside the bar were also in town for the mine rescue competition and that they were trying to help him when they escorted him out. He admitted, however, to biting one of the men on the leg as they held him down on the sidewalk. Sutton also admitted to using a derogatory term toward Nault and apologized while she was in the courtroom but said he never assaulted her. He did admit to punching Murphy on the sidewalk but said he did so in self-defence. He said at one point during the brawl he was fearful for his life.
Defence lawyer Caroline Wawzonek used screenshots of Facebook postings from bar staff working that night to bolster her contention that they were too quick to use force on Sutton.
Wawzonek said bar staff talked on Facebook about using violence to eject a patron the night before the incident involving Sutton.
"There was ongoing communication between them about the use of violence against someone who had disrespected the bar staff," Wawzonek told Yellowknifer after the trial. In her closing submission, Wawzonek also questioned why RCMP did not interview any independent witnesses, including the men who were inside the bar when the fight broke out.
"There were people who were named, people who were involved and they weren't part of the investigation and they weren't at trial," Wawzonek said after trial.
Crown prosecutor Jay Potter acknowledged the Facebook posts in his closing submission but said they were irrelevant to the case.
Outside court after the trial, Potter said he does not know why police did not interview any patrons from that night, of which there were many. He said he can only prosecute cases with the evidence supplied to him by police.
The next court appearance is April 11 to set a date for Gagnon's decision.
