How mom of woman with Down syndrome got video of officers mocking her daughter

The mother of a woman with Down syndrome who was mocked by a Toronto police officer following a traffic stopwould never have seen what the officers said about her daughter had she not requested the evidencein a process few people seem to know about called disclosure.

The attempt to fight the traffic violation paled in comparisonto the "inhumane" actions Pamela Munoz said she saw on thedashboard camera video during her traffic stop, which prompted the chief of police to make a visit to her homeMondayand apologize to Munoz's 29-year-old daughter Francie, who has Down syndrome.

• Family demands apology after police caught on video mocking woman with Down syndrome

Originally when Munoz was pulled over on Nov. 5, 2016 for allegedly running a red light, the officer said her infraction was captured on his dashboard camera.She said she called 3-1-1 to findout how she could access the recording.

"I didn't know for sure.I assumed you could maybe from watching so many police movies, but you're like, 'If one side has evidence they need to disclose that to the other party if it's requested, right?'" she said. "I'm like a dog with a bone like this."

She filled out a form listing the offence number and asked for disclosureof the evidence against her.

The court responded to her request with the officer's notes, but there was no video as he had indicated on scene.

Determined to see the recording, she pressed the court again. Three months after the second request she said she was able to get the video from the court, on which you can hear the officers mocking Munoz's daughter during the traffic stop.

Her main priority in going public with the story was to get an apology for her daughter and awareness ofhow people with disabilities are treated.

But now that she's received the apology fromChief Mark Saunders, she is also hoping to shine a light on people'srights in court at any level.

"I was surprised that so few people knew you could get disclosure," she said. "I'm glad that it's out there because now people will look at it more carefully."

She knew so little about the process when she started thatshe thought she would have to pay for the dashboard camera video.

"That makes my blood boil a little bit, that the general public would think that," said Jenna Little,a licensed paralegal with X-Copper. "It's absolutely their right to access justice and that includes Section 7 of the Charter, which is full disclosure."

Little, who has has worked as a paralegal for more than a decade helping clients fight traffic tickets,said most people know that the evidence against them exists but very few know they are entitled to it.

"There's a real lack of legal literacy and that a lot of people don't understand access to justice nor do they understand their rights when it comes to the courts, whether it's provincial offences, civil or criminal," she said.

Details onhow to access disclosure becomeavailable to you once a date is set for your traffic court appearance, along with instructions on how to get it.

Often that includes going to the court in person, or printing off a disclosure form from the municipality's or court's website and faxing it to the court where your trial is to be held.

Little said it can take six to eight weeks to receive the evidence against you through disclosure, and it often requires follow up as it did in Munoz's case.

Toronto police officers caught mocking woman on dash cam

7 years ago

Duration 2:40

Family demands apology after officers caught mocking woman with down syndrome on tape.

"A lot of disclosure will come and it won't have everything that is needed," she said. "For instance,DVDs normally don't come in the first wave of disclosure, so if someone is savvy enough to pick up on the fact that a DVDexists they could request that and thus it would come in the second wave."

She said to use "investigative common sense" if the evidence in a disclosure package, such as the officer's report, makes mention of something like a statement from a witness, or a photo, that isn't provided in the first disclosure,, follow up and make a second request."

Donna Tarulli was at courtTuesdayto fight a traffic violation, like most people CBC Toronto approached outside the courthouse, she had no idea what disclosure was or how to access the information.

"I didn't know that that existed.I didn't know that you had access to see that," she said.

From now on, Tarulli said, it will besomething she'llinvestigateif and when she attempts to fight a traffic violation in the future.

"When it happens you don't always remember exactly what happened, so it's useful that way," she said.