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A police officer has been jailed for failing to provide medical attention to a dying woman in custody in the first case of its kind in Canada.
London, Ontario police Constable Nicholas Doering was sentenced to 12 months in jail after being convicted of criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessaries of life in the death of Debralee Chrisjohn.
The Globe and Mail in Canada reported that the court was told that Chrisjohn was a member of the Oneida Nation of the Thames and had died in police custody of a heart attack brought on by methamphetamine use.
The court heard that although this was a medical emergency, Doering, who had been the arresting officer, had dismissed her symptoms, associating them with being high on drugs.
The court was told Chrisjohn died on September 7, 2016, after London police received several calls about a woman running into traffic and trying to climb into a moving van.
The Globe and Mail reported that when Doering arrived at the scene, he discovered there was an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) warrant for Chrisjohn's arrest for breaching a condition of a previous release from custody.
The media outlet reported that the court was told that Doering detained her and arranged to transport her to the OPP's Elgin detachment telling officers that she had been medically cleared, which was not true.
Over the next 45 minutes Chrisjohn's condition deteriorated in the back of Doering's car.
A video taken from their arrival at the Elgin detachment at 7:11 p.m. shows officers dragging Chrisjohn's limp body from the car with officers dismissing her as being uncooperative.
However, when officers found she was lying unconscious in her cell at 7:28 p.m. the OPP called a medical emergency and she died later that night.
The court had previously heard Doering testify that he had said she just needed to "ride out the high."
Delivering the sentence virtually via YouTube, Ontario Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance, said the case called for a jail sentence, The Globe and Mail reported.
She said: "Nothing short of that can reflect the gravity of the offences in this case. It must reinforce the societal values that were breached, the sanctity of human life, the right of all persons to a minimum standard of care and the duty of police to treat all persons in their custody with respect and humanity."
The news outlet reported that the sentencing comes when there is an increased scrutiny on the police and their treatment of non-white people in Canada.
Justice Pomerance said that although there was nothing to suggest Chrisjohn's indigenous identity was a factor in the offences, the matter had to be addressed and said: "The death of an Indigenous woman in police custody has an impact beyond the parties in court.
"Ms Chrisjohn died in police custody because she was not provided with the basic level of care.
"This has the potential to reinforce the belief among Indigenous peoples that police are not their protectors, but rather, persons to be protected from."
