Officer charged in taped incident appears in court

By ERIN CONWAY-SMITH
Tuesday, July 13, 2004

A Toronto police officer charged with assault in the beating of a Somali immigrant last summer, an incident caught on amateur videotape, made his first appearance in court yesterday.

Constable Roy Preston, dressed in a suit and tie, remained expressionless as he appeared in provincial court. The matter was put over to August 23.

A police spokesman said that Constable Preston is still working at 23 Division, though he is working inside the station rather than out on patrol.

Constable Preston was charged with assault last month after an internal investigation into the beating incident as ordered by Chief Julian Fantino.

Said Jama Jama was punched in the face last August during an early morning fight in the parking lot outside an Etobicoke doughnut shop, where people had gathered after a nearby party.

It was the start of the Caribana festival, and tourists visiting from Ottawa caught the fight on videotape.

The tape shows Mr. Jama Jama, then 21, trying to break up the fight before police arrived on the scene. It also show a gloved police officer grab Mr. Jama Jama and punch him in the face with no apparent provocation.

Mr. Jama Jama said that when he tried to run away and then surrender to police, he was knocked to the ground and beaten again by several officers, losing a tooth.

He did not immediately file a complaint with police, but in December the videotape surfaced and was widely aired on television news, prompting Chief Fantino to order an investigation.

At the time of the incident, Mr. Jama Jama, who came to Canada from Somalia in 1995, was charged with disturbing the peace and assaulting a police officer. Those charges were dropped in February.

Constable Preston had been on the force for two years before the incident.