A Hamilton man is relieved to no longer be facing criminal charges for an incident with police during an epileptic seizure and says he is still dealing with injuries from the 2022 encounter.
Marcus Charles still has the scars from when he was handcuffed and held down by police 15 years ago, but he’s thrilled that prosecutors have dropped the charges against him.
“I feel like a million bucks man, I’m so happy.” said Charles.
In October 2022, Charles was having an epileptic seizure outside the Main Street Canadian Tire store where he worked. Paramedics ended up calling police, who used tasers on him.
“His friends called police because he was in trouble. He was having a seizure and at the end of the day my client’s on the ground having been tasered twice and assaulted numerous times by police officers.” said his lawyer, Chris Rudnicki.
READ MORE: Canadian Tire worker considers legal action after tasered by Hamilton police
With Charles recovering from his injuries, he faced criminal charges. After the incident, he was charged with three counts of assault, including one count of assaulting a police officer.
Charles says he doesn’t remember what happened during the seizure, only that he woke up in handcuffs with his store manager telling police what they were doing was wrong.
“He was sitting there the whole time ‘guys this isn’t right.’ Having everything on film and telling them ‘he didn’t do anything. He’s having a seizure. Why are you guys putting the handcuffs on him,” said Rudnicki.
“The justice system failed at every level here.”
His lawyer says Charles was treated like a criminal when he actually needed medical help.
READ MORE: Hamilton man tasered by police after reported seizure
The Canadian Epilepsy Alliance is now calling on police to implement mandatory training on the condition.
The Alliance says they are already training videos available to police that depict what to expect from seizures, which can look different from person to person.
“If the police did nothing at all in this situation that still would have been better than what happened. When someone is having a seizure you do not hold them down and by no means do you tase someone who’s having a seizure.” says Trevor Gordon, of the Epilepsy Alliance.
Charles is now considering legal action as he continues to recover from his injuries.
The Hamilton police say they respect the crown’s decision to drop the charges on the basis that Charles had no intentions to commit assault and note that the crown argued the police acted lawfully and reasonably given what they knew at the time.
