The Kelowna RCMP officer who assaulted a 20-year-old nursing student while the student was experiencing a mental health crisis will likely avoid any jail time. She likely won't even lose her job.
Kelowna RCMP officer Lacy Browning was in Kelowna court Wednesday for her sentencing hearing, after she pleaded guilty last November to one count of assaulting Mona Wang in her apartment building on Jan. 20, 2020.
Wang, a second-year nursing student at UBC Okanagan at the time, was going through a mental health crisis on the afternoon in question. Her boyfriend, who was out of town, called 911 and asked for assistance, as he was worried she would harm herself.
Browning attended the call and assaulted Wang several times during the “wellness check.”
The incident received national attention after Castanet published video of the assaults. But while Browning's actions were widely condemned, she likely won't be spending a day in jail for the assault.
During sentencing submissions Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Kevin Marks asked Judge Roy Dickey to impose a four-month conditional sentence order, which would see Browning serve 40 days under house arrest, 40 days under a curfew order followed by the last 40 days without any restrictions on leaving her home.
But defence counsel David Butcher told Judge Dickey the Crown's proposed conditional sentence order is “completely unfounded on the facts and unsupported by the law.” Instead, he's seeking a conditional discharge, which would leave Browning without a criminal record if she abides by her probation conditions for a suggested period of six to 12 months.
In seeking a conditional sentence order, which is served in the community rather than behind bars, Marks noted mitigating factors like Browning's Inuit heritage, highlighted in a Gladue Report, and the so-called “social media firestorm” that came in response to Browning's actions.
“A fit and proper sentence in this case is imprisonment and had it not been for Const. Browning's heritage and unique systematic and background factors outlined in the Gladue Report, the Crown would have been seeking a sentence between two and three months jail,” Marks said.
He noted that Browning received “credible threats of harm or death” online, which resulted in police coming from Vancouver to install special security equipment in her home. The Crown conceded the public's reaction to seeing Browning's actions should be a mitigating factor in her sentence. Browning no long lives in Kelowna.
In the Gladue Report, which provides context about an Indigenous offender's background, Browning noted the mental health struggles she was dealing with as a result of her 12-year policing career.
“In 2018, her mental health [was] deteriorating, psychological stress experienced, difficulty feeling empathy generally as her role as a police officer,” Marks told the court, reading through her Gladue Report. “Struggling with 'compassion fatigue' and should have taken time off but said 'I didn't realize it was necessary.' She noticed calls, or files, felt like problems to be solved rather than individuals with problems ... felt callous and uncaring.”
Marks said this provides an explanation as to why she acted so callously towards Wang on the night in question, but it shouldn't be treated as a mitigating factor or excuse.
But Butcher noted police are simply not properly trained to deal with mental health crises.
“The RCMP wants the world to believe ... that they're training their officers thoroughly and that's just not the common experience,” he told the court. “ I say all this in response to the inference I take from [Crown's] submission that my client is well trained in responding in a better way to these kind of cases. It is just not the case.”
Browning attended Wang's second-floor apartment on Academy Way at 5:40 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2020 and found her lying on her bathroom floor, having cut herself with a box cutter, swallowed about 70 Tylenol pills and drank half a bottle of wine.
When asked if she needed quicker backup, Browning told her dispatch: “No, it's a whole bunch of dramatics right now. She's in the bathroom, she's staying there.”
Browning said Wang refused to follow her directions, so she handcuffed her. Some type of altercation between Wang and Const. Browning occurred, although there is some dispute as to the nature of the altercation. Browning admitted she hit Wang three times in the face to get her to comply with her directions. But the Crown noted these strikes did not constitute the assault allegation.
Three separate assaults did occur when Browning moved Wang to the building's lobby, all of which were captured on security camera. The first was when Browning dragged Wang face-first down the carpeted hallway of the building, pulling her along by the handcuffs' chain. Wang suffered rug burns across her chest, arms and face.
The second and third assaults occurred after Browning had dragged Wang into the elevator and across the building's tiled lobby. As the pair waited in the lobby for Browning's backup to arrive, Wang lay on her stomach as Browning stood over her. There's no audio on the video, so it's not clear if anything was said between the two, but at one point as Wang lifts her head up from the ground, Browning steps on the back of her head and forces it back down. Then about a minute later, Browning grabbed Wang by her hair and lifted her head off the floor, dropping her head back onto the tile.
Despite the footage, which Butcher admitted “looks bad,” and the criminal conviction, Browning likely will remain an RCMP officer. She's remained assigned to administrative duties since the video of the assault was released. Prior to assaulting Wang, she'd had two unrelated RCMP Code of Conduct matters in 2010 and 2013 that resulted in a written reprimand and a three-day suspension.
But Butcher noted that Browning's upcoming Code of Conduct matter with respect to the Wang assault, which has been on hold awaiting the conclusion of the criminal case, is a Code of Conduct “meeting” rather than a “hearing.” He said while the RCMP can consider dismissal at a hearing, the maximum disciplinary action stemming from a meeting is a 30-day suspension.
"There are lots of police officers with assault and assault causing bodily harm convictions who continue to work," Butcher told Judge Dickey, who had asked if a criminal conviction could impact Browning's ability to be a police officer.
Butcher said the incident was “unpleasant” for Wang, but suggested the injuries she suffered were “relatively minor.”
A number of police officers wrote character reference letters about Browning, calling her a “caring, compassionate individual” who “displays true empathy” on the job.
Following sentencing submissions, Browning addressed the judge, apologizing for her actions.
“Ms. Wang was experiencing a mental health crisis and my decision to try and handle the situation quickly was very detrimental to her,” Browning said. “I had no intention to cause any harm to her. I understand that my decisions reflected poor judgment and Mona was negatively impacted by this, and I'm sorry for that.”
Butcher has a long history of defending officers who’ve been criminally charged. Most recently, he successfully defended Kelowna RCMP officer Siggy Pietrzak against an assault charge, stemming from an April 2021 incident in downtown Kelowna that was caught on video.
Butcher also defended one of the VPD officers involved in the infamous 2003 Stanley Park Six case and he also defended a transit officer who beat a UBC student on a Skytrain platform with a baton. Both officers were convicted in the cases, but they both avoided jail time.
But those don’t appear to be unique cases. Butcher read out more than 20 fairly recent cases from across Canada, mostly in B.C., where officers convicted of assault or assault causing bodily harm were handed a discharge.
While a conditional sentence order is not served in a jail cell, it's considered a “jail sentence” in the courts – something Butcher was quick to note.
“In other [police] cases the Crown comes to court and asks for jail. In this case the Crown comes to court and asks for jail, but what the Crown can't bring with them is any case in which the courts agree with them on that submission, on facts like ours, in today's world,” Butcher said. “They keep trying but the defence are able to provide numerous examples supporting the discharge position.”
Judge Dickey reserved judgment on sentencing to a later date, likely in late August.
