A quadriplegic Kelowna man is suing the RCMP after he was allegedly tased and assaulted by an officer during a traffic stop back in August 2022, leaving him with a number of broken bones.
In a civil suit filed earlier this week, Steven Margetts, 37, says he was pulled over by an officer on Aug. 14, 2022 while he was driving on Kelowna's Benvoulin Road.
In the suit, Margetts did not say why the officer pulled him over, but online court records show Margetts was criminally charged with operation of a vehicle while impaired, along with flight from police, dangerous operation of a vehicle, resisting arrest, and assaulting an officer.
A two-day trial is scheduled for Margetts' criminal charges this coming October.
In his civil suit, Margetts says he pulled over into the parking lot of My Country Garden, and Const. Russell Reeder immediately asked Margetts to get out of his vehicle.
Margetts is paralyzed from the chest down and has limited mobility of his hands and arms, following a dirt bike crash near Hope back in May 2020. In the crash, he broke his spine in three areas, and also broke his ribs, two eye-sockets, his upper and lower jaw, both mandibles, nose, fractured the back of his skull and his brain was bleeding.
Margetts says he told Const. Reeder he was a quadriplegic and would need to use his wheelchair lift to get out of his vehicle.
“Reeder maliciously and unlawfully ignored [Margetts'] reasons for not being able to comply with Reeder's commands and continued to demand [Margetts] exit his vehicle without having access to his wheelchair lift,” Margetts' civil suit states.
The suit claims the officer then “maliciously and without any lawful reason” used his Taser on Margetts “without any warning.”
The suit goes on to say Const. Reeder then grabbed Margetts from the vehicle and threw him onto the gravel parking lot, from a height of approximately 42 inches, before dragging him along the gravel parking lot a distance of about 15 feet.
“Reeder left [Margetts] folded over on the gravel-covered ground, as due to his disability, he does not have the core strength to hold himself in an upright position without support,” the suit says.
Margetts was then taken to Kelowna General Hospital by ambulance, where doctors determined he had suffered four fractured ribs, a fractured right femur, and fractured right tibia along with lacerations and bruising to his face, arms and legs.
The Attorney General and Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, who are responsible for the actions of the RCMP members, are named as defendants in the case. None of the defendants have formally responded to Margetts' civil suit yet.
Castanet reached out to the BC RCMP for comment on the recent lawsuit, but the RCMP did not respond by publication time.
