Sarnia cop ‘very relieved’ at not guilty verdict in police watchdog case

A relieved-looking Sarnia police officer shook hands with his lawyer Wednesday afternoon in a border-city courtroom moments after being found not guilty of an assault causing bodily harm charge laid by Ontario’s police watchdog linked to a 2022 arrest.

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“We’re very relieved,” Sean Van Vlymen’s lawyer, Ken Marley, said afterwards. “This has been a long time coming.”

“Of course” the verdict was the outcome for which he hoped, Van Vlymen said. The 48-year-old constable was suspended shortly after he was charged in July 2023 by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) following a months-long probe into the Oct. 23, 2022 altercation outside a south-end church. The 2011 Sarnia police hire deferred to his lawyer when asked what the trial process was like during the past two days.

“This officer has had to testify in a courtroom many times, but yesterday was a totally different experience and he did very well,” Marley said. “I’m sure this has been a really trying experience for the officer and hopefully it helps him to get back on track.”

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The SIU laid the charge of assault causing bodily harm after looking into what happened during a trespassing call at what was then known as St. Paul’s United Church on Devine Street. A 35-year-old Sarnia man, later revealed by court records to be Scott MacPherson, suffered a serious injury while being arrested that Sunday morning, the SIU said in 2023.

A two-day trial finally started Tuesday in Sarnia. According to an agreed statement of facts heard after Van Vlymen pleaded not guilty, MacPherson, now 37, went to Bluewater Health on Oct. 23, 2022, around 5 pm – nearly 10 hours after his arrest – where he was diagnosed with a four- centimeter laceration near his right eye, which required eight stitches. He also suffered a facial fracture next to his nose, the statement said.

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The Crown’s case included the testimony of three Sarnia police constables who responded to the 7:30 am call with Van Vlymen: Calvin Hughson, Philip Veale, and Scott Oosterhof. Hughson testified Van Vlymen stomped twice on MacPherson’s head while Veale was handcuffing him on a deck behind the church and he pulled Van Vlymen back after he briefly held his foot down following the second strike.

Van Vlymen, who chose to take the stand in his own defense Tuesday afternoon, denied the stomping and the physical altercation with Hughson happened. Instead he said he used his bodyweight to push MacPherson’s back and shoulders down to the deck after seeing him lift his head and arch his shoulders.

In his experience, a person lifting themselves up like that during an arrest would typically lead to biting, spiting, punching or kicking, and Van Vlymen was trying to prevent that from happening, he said.

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MacPherson was not available to testify at the trial, despite police efforts to locate him, but the Crown was ready to proceed without him, Toronto-based prosecutor Nicolas De Montigny told Justice Jon-Jo Douglas at the start of the trial.

De Montigny declined to comment Wednesday after the verdict.

After hearing the four officers’ testimony and the lawyers’ closing arguments, Douglas returned Wednesday afternoon with his not guilty verdict. The judge said he saw no basis to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt Van Vlymen was seeking to get even with MacPherson, who he had dealt with about eight weeks earlier following a break-in call at Imperial Oil. At best, it was proven he misjudged the amount of force he was executing during the arrest.

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“A simple misjudgment does not amount to criminal negligence,” Douglas said. “I find the accused not guilty.”

The judge also said he rejected Hughson’s evidence as it was too different from what Veale and Van Vlymen said happened.

“I think the similarity of the evidence between officer Van Vlymen and officer Veale is what persuaded the judge together with officer Hughson’s inability, really, to be able to see what he claimed to have seen,” Marley said after the trial. “His evidence was really at odds with the other witnesses.”

Veale testified he saw, through his peripheral vision, Van Vlymen’s foot come down in a single pushing or stomping motion somewhere on MacPherson’s body higher than his shoulder blade. His head hit the deck, Veale said.

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Neither Hughson nor Veale made any notes about what they said they saw Van Vlymen do that morning.

Despite Wednesday’s not guilty verdict, Van Vlymen is still facing a second set of criminal charges linked to an alleged off-duty incident last summer.

Sarnia police said in September they laid 12 charges of possession of an unauthorized fireman and single counts of assault, criminal harassment, animal cruelty, mischief, and uttering threats after investigating an Aug. 30 argument between two people who know each other. One of them was a suspended police officer, they said.

Marley, who also is representing Van Vlymen in that case, said they’re scheduled to go to trial next fall.

“Again, we’ll try hard to make those disappear, too,” he said of the charges.

Following Wednesday’s verdict, Derek Davis, Sarnia’s police chief, said Van Vlymen’s suspension status hasn’t changed.

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