OPP officer pleads guilty to assault after violent arrest caught on camera

A veteran OPP officer pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm following a violent arrest caught on camera in MacTier.

Warning: Readers may find details in this article disturbing.

A longtime Ontario Provincial Police officer who was charged with assaulting a shirtless man nearly three years ago during an arrest for alleged trespassing, has pleaded guilty.

OPP veteran officer Scott Anthony, 27, walked into the Huntsville courthouse Monday morning with his lawyer by his side. Anthony pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm in a violent arrest that was caught on camera July 10, 2022, in MacTier.

The officer is seen repeatedly striking the man with his taser and kicking him before he and another officer are seen dragging the man into a police cruiser several minutes later.

The 30-minute surveillance video was played for the court in its entirely after the Crown read an Agreed Statement of Facts to the court.

Justice John Olver heard the officer was responding to a 3 a.m. trespassing call for a man seen trying to hop on a CP train while it was being inspected in MacTier.

According to a witness, the then 44-year-old MacTier man was seen falling off the moving train. An engineer called police and reported the man seemed “out of it.” He said the shirtless man appeared high on something and sought shelter in a nearby bunkhouse and shed.

It was within minutes, the court heard, Anthony arrived on scene near the rail yard and was captured on camera deploying his stun gun on the man. He is then seen hitting the man in the head while he was on the ground. The officer is then seen pulling and dragging the man by his feet and kicking him in the head and legs.

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According to the Agreed Statement of Facts, the bloodied man was taken to hospital with several injuries to his head, torso, arms and legs. Charges against him, after he was released from hospital, were later dropped by the Crown.

Anthony was charged with assault causing bodily harm and one count of assault with a weapon following an investigation by the Special Investigations Unit.

Crown Attorney Vlatko Karadzic said Monday it could not proven beyond a reasonable doubt broken ribs and a punctured lung suffered by the man were a result of Anthony’s strikes or from the man falling off the train at 16km/hr.

Anthony, as part of the Agreed Statement of Facts read in court, acknowledged he caused injuries to the face of the MacTier man and admitted that the use of his stun gun, along with dragging the man to the police cruiser went against his training.

The court heard Anthony, at one point, had been an instructor for use of force with stun guns.

CTV News also obtained video of an incident weeks prior to the rail yard arrest, on June 20, 2022. The surveillance video from inside a holding cell at the Bracebridge OPP detachment appeared to show Anthony striking a man in custody repeatedly.

The man later collapsed to the ground in the cell. The man was also in court Monday in Huntsville to observe the proceedings with a loved one. He said he is Métis and struggles with developmental disabilities. He told CTV News he was pleased to see Anthony plead guilty to the assault of the MacTier man.

This summer, the SIU cleared Anthony of any criminal wrongdoing inside the police detachment in June 2022. The SIU said Anthony used reasonable force and defended himself in the holding cell when the man tried to punch him.

Anthony, according to the OPP, is on an unrelated leave. He left the Huntsville courthouse from a back door. Neither Anthony, nor lawyer Peter Ketcheson, offered comment on the guilty plea.

The matter returns to a virtual courtroom later this month to set a date for a sentencing hearing.