Former Calgary police officer who fractured victim's skull during assault appeals conviction

A former Calgary police officer found guilty of aggravated assault for a violent take-down of a handcuffed man is asking the province's top court to overturn his conviction.

Last month, Trevor Lindsay was sentenced to 90 days in jail to be served on weekends after his 2019 conviction.

Now, Lindsay plans to ask the Alberta Court of Appeal to substitute an acquittal or order a new trial.

The notice of appeal lists seven grounds, defence lawyers will argue, where the trial judge erred including that he analyzed evidence on a piecemeal basis instead of as a whole.

The appeal document also suggests the defence will ask the panel of judges to find that Court of Queen's Bench Justice Michael Lema made findings of fact which were not in evidence and wrongly assessed whether use of force was excessive.

• Former Calgary cop who assaulted handcuffed man sentenced to 90 days in jail served on weekends

Daniel Haworth suffered a fractured skull and brain injury in May 2015 when Lindsay threw him on the ground head-first while handcuffed, and after he punched his victim in the head four times.

Haworth died of a drug overdose months after he'd been injured in the Calgary Police Service (CPS) parking lot. His brother testified Haworth was never the same after his brain injury.

• Victim of police violence believes mistreatment racially motivated, judge hears at cop's sentencing hearing

As part of Lindsay's sentencing hearing, prosecutor John Baharustani successfully argued Lindsay had assaulted another handcuffed man, Godfred Addai-Nyamekye.

Addai-Nyamekye was dumped by Lindsay's coworkers in a sparsely populated area of Calgary on a frigidDecember night in 2013.

When Lindsay arrived on scene, police helicopter video shows the officer dragging, punching and kneeing the victim.

Addai-Nyamekye suffers from PTSD and chronic pain from the attack.

Facing two internal disciplinary hearings connected to the two assaults on handcuffed men while he was on duty, Lindsay quit CPS in 2020.