Langley ex-Mountie faces sentencing for second assault conviction against detained prisoner

Crown prosecutors are calling for a three-month prison sentence for an ex-Langley Mountie convicted of assaulting a detained prisoner—the second time they have asked a judge to impose that penalty.

Former RCMP staff sergeant Damian Volk was convicted last year of assault in two separate trials. On Tuesday, July 7, Volk was back in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster before Justice Terence Schultes for his second sentencing hearing, concerning the July 1, 2020 assault of Jason Petrus.

Crown prosecutor Anthony Chang argued that a jail sentence was necessary, as assaults by police officers on detained prisoners represent a serious breach of trust. He emphasized that police officers are given special powers and privileges, while prisoners in custody are in a vulnerable state. "There is really not much a prisoner can do to protect themselves from a police officer," Chang said.

Defence lawyer Danielle Ching McNamee asked for a conditional discharge and 18 to 24 months of probation, arguing that Volk's diagnosis of PTSD should be considered a mitigating factor.

The incident began with Petrus calling 9-1-1 and insulting the dispatcher in the early morning hours of July 1, 2020. Petrus was arrested and taken to the Langley RCMP detachment on a public intoxication charge. Instead of the standard procedure of bringing him into a room, standing him on footprints, and searching him before placement in a cell, Volk took Petrus by the arm and marched him straight through to a cell. In his ruling, Schultes described what happened to Petrus in the cell as a "thorough thrashing." Petrus was "effectively thrown into it," taken quickly to the ground with his arms pulled up so his hands were behind his own neck, and officers stripped him to his underwear. Before Volk left the cell, he kicked out with one foot, his heel hitting Petrus in the head while Petrus lay on the floor. There was no evidence Petrus suffered an injury from the assault, though he later wrote in a victim impact statement that the incident had left him frightened of police.