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An Ontario Provincial Police officer has spoken out about video of a jailhouse assault that triggered his PTSD and prompted him to report a fellow cop to the Special Investigations Unit.
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Const. Charles Ostrom told CTV News he stumbled on a video of Const. Bailey Nicholls assaulting a woman in a cell at OPP’s Orillia detachment, after finding a report attached to the case wasn’t accurate.
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“It was as far from what I had read in the report as imaginable. I thought, ‘I’m seeing a crime. I’m witnessing a crime.’ Albeit four months later, but I’m witnessing a crime,” Ostrom said in an interview with CTV.
He had been off work in 2013 when he was diagnosed with PTSD and attempted suicide twice. He returned to work 14 months later on reduced duties, allowing him to stay away from anything traumatic.
Ostrom said he would have avoided the video if he knew it would spark his PTSD.
It pushed him to report the incident to a retired officer who passed the information to the OPP Commissioner before it was handed to the SIU.
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The video was critical to the conviction of Nicholls for assault causing bodily harm.
She was given a suspended sentence on Thursday by Justice John Olver.
In the video, Nicholls is seen with a woman who was arrested at a bar.
Nicholls is seen pushing the woman into jail cell bars causing an injury that needed five staples.
Olver said Nichols gave misleading accounts of the incident and failed to document it properly.
She was sentenced to 15 months of probation, which her union — Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) — plans to appeal.
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Ostrom said he wants the OPP to take mental health concerns seriously.
“I would like to see it stop. I would like to see every member of the OPP be able to hold their head high and have the dignity that they are entitled to have as a human being,” he told CTV.
The OPPA says it stands behind members.
“We have a duty to represent all of our members, which we are doing, and will continue to do,” OPPA spokesman Scott Mills said Saturday. “The case in question is being appealed.”
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