Stefanie Trudeau, the police officer better known as “Agent 728”, has been found guilty of assault.
She was charged in March 2014 after she was caught on video making a violent arrest in October 2012, and then insulting the people she was trying to arrest.
Trudeau tried to ticket a man named Rudy Occhietti for having a beer in hand as he opened the door of his Papineau Ave. apartment to a group of friends. When Occhietti protested, Trudeau quickly tried to place him under arrest. A friend named Serge Lavoie tried to defend him, and hurled insults at the police officer. So when she was done handcuffing Occhietti, she immediately went after Lavoie, entering his apartment illegally, and then forcing him down the stairs in a chokehold.
"Even if he came to the conclusion that it was a legal arrest, the way she grabbed Mr. Lavoie, at that moment, she used excessive force," said prosecutor Jean-Simon Larouche.
The trial began in last October after numerous delays. In December 2014, a judge altered the process from a criminal trial to a summary case.
Trudeau faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail. The two sides will reconvene in the spring to determine her sentence.
She was also involved in a separate incident during the 2012 student protests when she pepper sprayed an unarmed male protester. The Crown determined in that case that Trudeau had not used unnecessary force as defined in the Criminal Code.
Trudeau says she has quit the Montreal police force.
