The case of Agent 728 has reached a conclusion. Stefanie Trudeau, the ex-police officer accused of racial profiling back in May of 2012 has been barred from police work for nearly a year.
The sanctions come nearly 6 years after the incident in question. Trudeau made an illegal, violent and racially charged arrest of Julian Menezes in May of 2012. She has previously been relieved of her duties, but will be barred from any police work for the next 10 months.
In October of 2017 she was found guilty of 5 counts of misconduct by the Police Ethics Committee. The charges were lacking respect, putting Menezes' health and safety at risk, failing to identify herself, and improperly using a police car.
Menezes said he’s relieved the case of Agent 728 has finally reached a conclusion.
“After six years of this, there is a certain amount of relief,” Menezes said. “Things, at least on the Police Ethics Commission side, are drawing to a close.”
The Center for Research-Action on Race Relations’ Executive Director Fo Niemi believes the sentencing sends a powerful statement to police officers across the province.
“It sends a strong message to police departments and police officers across the province,” he said. “It can now be used as a new benchmark to address issues of police misconduct involving excessive force, disregard for a person’s health and safety, and other police conduct that could be considered as against the law.”
Notably, the committee dismissed four other citations regarding allegations of racism back in October. Niemi said they were disappointed the commission dropped those counts.
“The committee, at the outset, did not recognize that racial bias, implicit or explicit, was a factor in the way that Mr. Menezes was treated,” Niemi said. “That’s something that we regret because we believe that the committee didn’t catch racial bias in police conduct.”
The incident in question occurred at night in May of 2017. Menezes was on his way home from a wedding when he came across Trudeau giving a ticket to a cyclist. Menezes watched the encounter with his friends, at which point Trudeau came over, handcuffed him, threw him to the ground and threw him in the back of her car.
Menezes testified that he was on the receiving end of racial slurs by Trudeau and her partner and that he was taken for a violent ride in the police car without a seatbelt, sustaining injuries to his face. Trudeau had admitted using excessive force and risking Menezes’ health, but denied using racial slurs.