Warning: The above video shows an assault and may be disturbing to some viewers.
A former Sault Police officer who pleaded guilty to assaulting a 14-year-old during a heated argument at a gas pump that was caught on video will return to court next month for sentencing.
James Bryson, age 42, was charged with assault causing bodily harm in June in relation to a physical dispute he had months earlier with a lone youth gassing up his snowmobile on Second Line near Airport Road.
A surveillance video of the March 5, 2023 assault has been blurred and the audio muted to obscure the identity of the youth, who was 14 at the time and is not currently facing any charges in relation to the incident.
In the video, a man can be seen approaching the youth and apparently taking his phone out to take a photo. A physical altercation takes place, which sends the youth to the ground and gasoline spraying. The man retrieves his phone and when he approaches the youth again it is swatted from his hand and a second altercation takes place, during which the man attempts to pull the youth toward him over the sled.
Eventually the man walks away from the youth, ending the encounter.
The victim's mother says her son had been alone driving his snowmobile in the ditches to get to the gas station when he was followed by Bryson. The audio reveals he confronted the youth about allegedly snowmobiling through his property.
The mother said her son has received permanent injuries as a result of the fight with the former veteran police officer, who is more than 25 years his senior.
She said the youth has a permanent four-inch indentation in his skull as a result of having his head smashed against the concrete during the assault and he suffers from continual headaches, vomiting and anxiety. As a result, he has missed over 100 classes in school, will never be able to play competitive sports again and had to quit his job because he can no longer work under the florescent lights.
Sault Police arrived on the scene but the mother said the demeanour of the officers changed when Bryson was named as the person who assaulted her son.
She said she was given a choice after the incident by a Sault Police detective — she could either have Bryson charged and her son would be charged as well, or drop the charges.
Deciding to go ahead with charges against Bryson for the violent attack, she said her son went from a victim of assault to being charged and fingerprinted like a criminal.
Bryson was hired by the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service effective Apr. 9. 2018. He served an officer with the Thunder Bay Police Service from 2005 to 2017.
He was introduced to the Police Services Board in March 2018 as a Sault native and experienced in patrol services, a crime scene officer and a forensic identification officer.
“We think this is a very good hire for the police service,” then-Chief Robert Keetch told the board during the meeting.
Lincoln Louttit, spokesperson for the Sault Police, said on Monday he could offer few details, only that Bryson is no longer a member of the department and wasn't employed there at the time of the assault.
"They are not related whatsoever — the fact that he doesn't work here anymore and the charges," said Louttit.
Attorney Bruce Willson was hired by the youth's mother after the boy was charged by the same police department that once employed his attacker.
"It was pretty striking video evidence of the assault on the young boy," Willson told SooToday about the dropped charges against the youth. "The Crown has to determine a couple of things when they go ahead with the charge. Is there any public interest in it? And secondly is there a reasonable chance of conviction? They found that there was no public interest in proceeding against the youth."
Because a local Crown would be in conflict prosecuting a former police officer, a Crown attorney from Sudbury was brought in to oversee the case against Bryson.
In February, Bryson pleaded guilty in a Sault Ste. Marie courtroom to the lesser charge of assault, down from the more serious assault causing bodily harm. A pre-sentence report was ordered and Bryson has yet to receive his sentence.
With the lesser charge comes less severe penalties — a maximum six month jail term for assault convicted summarily versus 18 months for assault causing bodily harm.
Bryson is scheduled for a next court date of June 21.
