A Montreal man who had accused a notorious former SPVM officer of racial profiling has reached a settlement with the city.
In May, 2012, Julian Menezes witnessed an altercation between police and a cyclist near his home in the Plateau. Menezes said he believed the officer was being aggressive and offered to be a witness for the cyclist.
The officer threw Menezes to the ground and was arrested. He was then taken on a so-called starlight tour – a ride in a police car where the officer uses erratic driving to scare and intimidate. Menezes said he was in the back of the patrol car without a seatbelt and Trudeau would accelerate and break suddenly, causing him to crash face-first into the car’s Plexiglas divider.
The officer, Stefanie Trudeau, became known as Agent 728 amid numerous allegations of excessive force, including an incident in which she pepper sprayed bystanders during a student protest.
Menezes was awarded $40,000 by the Quebec Human Rights Commission in January, 2017, but the city and police force refused to pay. On Tuesday, Menezes said he had settled for $25,000.
“I try and say ‘Look, this happened to me, it doesn’t mean it’s every police officer,’ and I know it isn’t,” he said. “But I’m very suspicious and I’m reticent and I try to avoid every police officer as best as I can.”
The settlement does not include any form of official apology or admission of guilt.
Trudeau was found guilty of assault in an unrelated case in 2016 and is no longer a member of the SPVM.
