Iqaluit inmate found guilty of multiple jail guard assaults

An inmate at the Baffin Correctional Centre in Iqaluithas been found guilty of multiple assaults oncorrections officers, including one incident where he punched three guardsin the face and hit one with a chair.

IolaLucassie was convicted thisweekof charges including assault, aggravated assault,making death threats and mischief, resulting fromseven separate incidents.

In September, Lucassie's lawyer argued that much of his behavioural problems were due to spending too much time in segregation.

In one incidenton Dec5, 2013, Lucassie was ordered to leavea dormitory and reportto a secure hallway inside the jail to be questionedabout a suspected contraband incident, court documents show.

When Lucassie refused to comply, fourguards entered the dormitory. Lucassiethrew a game board at them, then removed his shirt and socks and "took up a fighting pose," according to court documents.

When the guards advanced on him, he punched three of them in the face,causing oneguard's shoulder to separate.

Lucassie alsothrew a chair at the officers, which the Crown saidstruck a guardwho was lying on the ground, cutting his head. Lucassieargued the laceration was caused by another officer's boot in the melee.

Video surveillance evidence was unclear.

Justice Earl Johnsonruled thata boot couldn't have cut the skin, and it had to have been the chair that caused the wound. He then ruled that causing a wound that broke the skin constituted the more serious charge of aggravated assault.

Lucassiewas also found guilty of assaultinganother guard in a March2014 incident where Lucassie spat on the officer.

Lucassie haspreviously pleaded guilty to five other incidents of assault against corrections officers, a police officer, and anotherprisoner in anRCMPcell.

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