Inmate who bloodied Sarnia Jail guard guilty of assault causing bodily harm

Justice Jeanine LeRoy found the three Sarnia Jail guards who tested about an inmate assaulting a fellow corrections officer were credible and reliable.

A video of the bloody altercation inside the border-city jail on Nov. 10, 2021, backed that up.

“I’ve watched the flurry and melee of the video and what I see confirms their evidence,” LeRoy, regional senior judge for the West Region, said last week while delivering her decision following Robert Labrecque’s trial.

Labrecque, then a 20-year-old Windsor man who was wanted for several months in 2021 on a Canada-wide warrant on unrelated charges before eventually turning himself in, was charged in Sarnia with assault causing bodily harm and breaching his probation. He pleaded not guilty to both charges linked to the tussle that Tuesday that left corrections officer Jared Smith with a cut above his left eye requiring five stiches, but LeRoy found him guilty of both and will sentence him later this summer.

The key question defense lawyer Ken Marley raised at trial was whether Labrecque’s punch during the struggle outside his cell was an intentional application of force or a reflexive action.

“I found the Crown has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that it was intentional,” LeRoy said.

Smith didn’t testify at trial and neither did Labrecque, but three other Sarnia Jail guards – Robert Barr, Ryan Charbonneau and Tyler Benn – did.

“I found them to be credible and reliable witnesses,” the judge said. “They were careful not to speculate about things they did not know or see.”

All three corrections officers tested Labrecque knew he was going to be moved that day after his cell was trashed, but he refused to leave. One officer said Labrecque was aggressive and hostile and another recalled him being angry and verbally abusive while taking his stand.

“(Expletive) no. We’re not moving. Nobody’s gonna move,” Barr recalled Labrecque stating.

Benn testified Labrecque said the only way he was going to move was if he was squirted with pepper spray, which is what the jail’s sergeant did – twice after he still refused to move the first time. After finally opening the cell door – a bed sheet had to be cut from it first – Labrecque charged through the opening with actuated hands and struck Smith above the left eye, the officers said.

Labrecque’s angry demeanour throughout the incident and the brief gap between the second pepper spraying and the opening of the cell door were key aspects why LeRoy found the punch wasn’t reflexive.

“For these reasons, I find Mr. Labrecque guilty of assault causing bodily harm,” she said.

Labrecque, wearing orange inmate clothes while listening to the judge’s decision over videoconference from the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Center in London, sat quietly and didn’t say anything.

Despite being punched, Smith still helped another guard take Labrecque to the ground, the officers tested. The inmate also received a cut to his head at one point, but the officers weren’t sure how it happened and he didn’t need medical attention.

Labrecque continued to resist and was confrontational while the officers searched him before taking him to segregation. His conduct that day also breached a term in his probation ordering him to keep the peace and be of good behavior, the judge found. But she didn’t sentence him last week after Marley asked for a pre-sentence report.

Labrecque was in custody last week on unrelated charges in Windsor, Marley said, but he expected his client would be able to get bail soon. Labrecque was arrested in Windsor in July 2022 amid reports of a stabbing, but Marley said some of the charges his client was facing were discharged last week following a preliminary inquiry.

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@ObserverTerry