Ladyville Police Accused of Beating Alleged Burglar to a Pulp

Oscar Selgado

A reported burglary in Ladyville during which almost four hundred thousand dollars in jewelry is said to have been stolen has resulted in another case of police brutality.  According to attorney Oscar Selgado, his client Lionel Bregal had been taken into custody at the Queen Street Precinct on Wednesday afternoon.  He was subsequently handed over to Ladyville police and was allegedly beaten at the hands of a corporal before being forced into confessing his role in the burglary.  Selgado says that the ombudsman was later called to intervene but was met with disrespect and disdain by the arresting officer.  He gave us an account of what transpired while Bregal was in police custody.

Oscar Selgado, Attorney for Lionel Bregal

“Yesterday at 2:30 p.m., in the afternoon, I received a call from my client Lionel Bregal that he was detained by police at the Queen Street Police Station.  I immediately proceeded to the station where I saw him and I spoke to him and I did so in the presence of Sergeant Armando Dubon.  I also received information from him that he had been threatened by Corporal Sutherland of the Ladyville Police detachment, threatened to the extent that he would have been soundly beaten.  I made that representation to Sergeant Dubon and I inspected my client physically in the presence of Sergeant Dubon to verify that his present condition at that time was normal.  He had no bruises, he had no scratch and he was not suffering from any injuries whether obvious or indeed concealed.  At 2:40 p.m., he was handed over by Queen Street police to Ladyville police, namely Corporal Sutherland and he was taken to an undisclosed location and was not taken to the Ladyville Police Station until 17:30, that is three hours later, five-thirty p.m.  When he arrived at the Ladyville police Corporal Sutherland saw me and he knew who I was and so they did not bring him out of the vehicle at the time, they held him there concealed until 7:30, two hours more.  So five hours had elapsed before I could have seen my client and when I saw him he was in total shatters.  He was beaten by the police, he had blood coming out of him.  His head was severely bruised, his face was bruised and he was totally devastated, contrary to what I saw at the police station at 2:30.  And when I questioned Corporal Sutherland about it he ignored my questions and so I had to immediately call the ombudsman, Lionel Arzu onto Ladyville Police Station.  That time Corporal Sutherland took the client again to an undisclosed location.  When the ombudsman came here the ombudsman called Corporal Sutherland, called Inspector Gordon, who is the head of the Ladyville detachment and they all gave him poor excuses as to why my clients were not returned to Ladyville.  They came back at about 10:30 last night and when they came back Mr. Sutherland, Corporal Sutherland and myself and the ombudsman had a small discussion inside of Sutherland’s office.  Corporal Sutherland was very disrespectful to the ombudsman in his approach, he was very confrontational to me and he provided, he sought to provide reasons to justify why indeed Lionel Bregal was beaten by the police.  Beaten and made to confess on recording to a burglary, to an alleged burglary where the police is alleging that three hundred and ninety thousand dollars worth of jewelry has been stolen from somebody in Ladyville.  Whether that is so or not is neither here nor there, the police have an obligation, a duty to uphold law and order.”

A criminal suit is expected to be brought against the officer in question since Selgado and his client believe that justice will not be served through an internal investigation.