SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A former Fort Simpson RCMP officer has been found guilty of a three-year-old assault on a youth being held in police custody.

Supreme Court Justice Leigh Gower convicted Const. Colin Allooloo on Sept. 9 of assault with a weapon in relation to the Sept. 16, 2006, pepper spraying of a youth, calling it a "serious breach of duty" for an RCMP officer entrusted to look after the well-being of a prisoner in custody.

Const. Colin Allooloo was convicted Sept. 9 in NWT Supreme Court of assault with a weapon. He was found guilty of pepper-spraying a youth in police custody while in Fort Simpson. - NNSL file photo

In the early morning hours that day, Allooloo pepper-sprayed a 16-year-old prisoner, who a witness described as a "wild thing," underneath the door of the detachment's drunk tank cell, hitting him in the left eye.

The teenage boy was being held after being arrested for a breach of probation.

Allooloo showed little emotion as he listened to the judge's decision last week, his head falling only the slightest fraction. He left the courtroom in silence.

A sentencing date for Allooloo has not yet been set. Crown attorney David Gates and defence attorney Patrick Fagan are expected to make arguments for sentencing at that time.

"Obviously, we are disappointed the judge has found Const. Allooloo guilty of the offence. On the other hand, we are satisfied the judge made a valid decision," Sgt. Brad Kaeding outside of the courtroom on Wednesday.

When asked what action police will take against Allooloo, who is currently stationed in Inuvik, Kaeding responded "a number of things could happen," all depending on the ongoing RCMP internal code-of-conduct investigation, which was suspended so as not to influence the court's decision against Allooloo.

When asked whether Allooloo is still on active duty with the RCMP, Kaeding said he was unable to answer the question, adding, "processes are underway to clarify exactly what his status will be."

Kaeding said an officer can continue to work for the RCMP despite a criminal conviction, but it depends on the nature of the conviction.

"Obviously if you're sentenced to jail, that makes showing up for work relatively difficult. If you have a driving prohibition that could prohibit you from driving a police car. If you have a weapons prohibition that would prohibit you from carrying a firearm or other weapons," he said.

"So certain of those types of sentences would impact on one's ability to continue a job. If it is the case you can't carry out the job there may be a legislative requirement to find other employment within the organization for a person, or it may be such that they would no longer be suitable as an employee of the RCMP," he added.

It was the testimony of Allooloo's co-worker Const. Sigmund Janke that convinced Gower of Allooloo's guilt.

Janke testified that Allooloo had admitted the assault to him and also said he viewed the incident on the detachment's video security system, presumably before it malfunctioned.

Janke told the court while he couldn't see the pepper spray in Allooloo's hand on the tape, he could see Allooloo's left hand, which was enclosed over something, as described by the victim.

At the time of the assault, Allooloo was the acting commander and Janke's superior officer.

Gower said he found Janke was "reluctant to put the career of a fellow police officer in jeopardy" but at the same time he described him as a conscientious and honest witness.

The trial had resumed in NWT Supreme Court in Yellowknife Tuesday, Sept. 8 after being adjourned late March in Fort Simpson because of witness unavailability.

On Tuesday, the court heard from prisoner guard Sheila Wright via video link from Nova Scotia. She testified she did not see Allooloo pepper spray the prisoner but also described the officer as "angry" that night.

"You could just tell by his demeanour that he had had enough, as had I," she said.

When asked to describe the prisoner, Wright added: "It was a prisoner like I've never had ... He paced the cells like a caged animal ... He's just a kid but he was something else."

The court also heard from Miroslav Hebik, who is in charge of the video surveillance system in RCMP jails. Hebik spoke of the video tape of the incident, which went missing, and testified that the system had indeed malfunctioned - it had not been tampered with or erased.

"It either records or it doesn't record. You either erase everything or you don't erase everything," he said.

Allooloo had been accused of assault by a prisoner twice before in two 1999 incidents, one in Iqaluit, in which charges were not laid, one in Behchoko, of which he was found not guilty.