Officer faces charges of assault, mischief

Officer faces charges of assault, mischief
By JEFF GRAY

Friday, March 18, 2005 Page A11

A veteran Toronto police officer is facing charges for allegedly punching a York University graduate student in the face at a protest and then claiming the man had attacked police.

Constable Amar Katoch, who has 15 years with the force, faces criminal charges of assault, public mischief and attempting to obstruct justice after an internal police probe.

He has been placed on "restricted duties," police said yesterday, and is to appear in court May 3.

Court documents filed in a civil suit against the officer, launched by 33-year-old doctoral student Alex Levant, accuse Constable Katoch of punching Mr. Levant "squarely in the face" at a protest organized by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) in November, 2003.

However, it was Mr. Levant who ended up on trial initially. He was arrested, strip-searched and charged with two counts of assaulting police.

But the Crown dropped those charges in the middle of his trial last September after his lawyer, Frank Addario, unveiled a videotape of the incident that appeared to contradict the officer's testimony, the court documents say.

The videotape, taken by a Ryerson University student, was shown to the Crown prosecutor, with Constable Katoch himself present, outside the courtroom, bringing the trial to an abrupt halt.

The lawyer guiding Mr. Levant's civil suit, Louis Sokolov, said he has seen a series of cases in which some police officers appear to cover up for assaulting a peaceful protester by charging their victim.

"It's extremely disturbing, because it represents a very serious erosion of democratic rights and a serious abuse of police power," Mr. Sokolov said yesterday.

But he said he was pleased police took the case seriously and laid charges against the officer.

Mr. Levant is a trade-union activist who studies social and political thought at York.

He says he is a supporter, but not a member, of OCAP and was relieved to see the officer facing charges.

"Quite honestly, it's been quite a horrifying experience all around," he said in an interview.

The November, 2003, protest organized by OCAP focused on an abandoned house, near Gerrard Street and Broadview Avenue, which activists wanted to occupy and turn into affordable housing.

Police officers had surrounded the abandoned building.

Mr. Levant's statement of claim, which has not been tested in court, alleges that Constable Katoch approached him and "pushed him without provocation." When Mr. Levant reacted with a "light touch" to the officer's arm, the document says, "Katoch responded by punching him squarely in the face."

At Mr. Levant's trial, Constable Katoch testified that it was Mr. Levant who "punched me toward the chest," when the officer went to arrest Mr. Levant for allegedly trying to stop Constable Mathieu from arresting someone else.

Mr. Levant's trial lawyer, Mr. Addario, told the court the officer had given "false and extremely dishonest testimony."

Mr. Addario also said that he did not reveal the videotape until halfway through the trial because of fears the officer might have changed his story to fit the tape.

Lawyers for Constable Katoch could not be reached yesterday.