A trial is underway in Joliette for a Sûreté du Québec police officer who has been charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing injury stemming from a confrontation he had with a motorist that began over tinted car windows.
35 year old Guillaume St-Louis has been suspended from the force since July of 2015, after an internal police investigation of the incident recommended charges be laid.
In December of 2014, St-Louis had pulled over Alexandre Hébert because his car windows were too dark.
Hébert testified that he had just picked up his 11 month old daughter from daycare and was heading home.
He says the situation quickly escalated when St-Louis ordered him to remove his sunglasses and then moments later slapped them off his head.
Seconds later he says St-Louis pepper-sprayed him, and then began beating his with his police-issue collapsible baton.
Hébert says St-Louis continued to beat him even as he lay on the ground breaking his finger and causing a gash to his head that required stitches.
In the end he was ticketed and fined for driving without a permit, not having the car registration and insulting a police officer.
The Journal de Montreal says St-Louis was cited under a summary charge rather than a criminal charge and faces a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison.
The sentence for a criminal conviction is 10 years in prison.