Warning: Story contains graphic images:
A Windsor police officer charged after an altercation with a man in an Ottawa bar’s bathroom testified Wednesday that he was the one who “was the victim of an assault.”
Sgt. Deler Bal, 51, is accused of assaulting 45-year-old Donald Conner inside the Prohibition Public House on Sept. 23, 2023, during an altercation that occurred when the officer was off duty. Bal has pleaded not guilty to two charges of assault and one count of aggravated assault.
However, on Wednesday — Day 3 of the judge-alone trial in the Ontario Court of Justice in Ottawa — Bal said Conner was the aggressor who started the fight, held him down and choked him.
Bal was in Ottawa and at the establishment with a large group of Windsor officers, including two inspectors and a deputy chief, one day before a memorial event to honour officers who died in the line of duty.
That evening, Bal testified, he consumed one shot and was on his third gin and tonic at the bar in less than an hour. He also had beer at the hotel before arriving, court heard.
The Crown asked him if he was impaired and Bal said his perception or observations weren’t affected. However, the officer did say he wouldn’t risk driving, given his profession.
When he entered the men’s bathroom that night, he said, he was on the phone with an RCMP friend he’d been planning to meet that night, Bal testified.
He attempted to enter the only stall in the men’s room, but it was immediately pushed closed. Bal testified he heard Conner, the man inside, say, “‘I’m in here.'”
Bal said he apologized and went to the urinal once one of his colleagues finished. At this point, Bal said, he was still on his cellphone.
While at the urinal, the officer said, he noticed Conner had left the stall and was trying to talk to him. They were the only two in the bathroom at this time, court heard.
When Bal finished and turned around, Conner was two feet away from him.
Bal said Conner asked him three times why he opened the stall door and he replied repeatedly that it was a mistake.
“‘Let it go,'” Bal testified he said after the second time. “‘I said it was a mistake — lock it next time,'” he remembered saying after the third instance of Conner asking the question.
That, said Bal, is when Conner told him the lock was broken.
Situation ‘increasingly more tense’
Bal said Conner told him three times to go check to see that the stall lock was broken and it got “increasingly more tense.”
That’s when Bal said, “You need to leave now,” he told the court.
At that point, the officer said, Conner stepped even closer and got “in my face.”
“As soon as he does that … he’s agitated, he’s insistent I check the lock and I’m anticipating we’re going to have a confrontation.
“As soon as he steps into my space, I push him away with both my hands,” Bal said, indicating he pushed Conner in his chest.
The Crown pointed out that Bal put his hands on Conner first and the first to throw a punch, but Bal denies escalating things.
“At this point, the most egregious thing he’s done is stand near you.”
Bal said as Conner moved backwards from the push, he “he locks onto the neck line of my hoodie with both [his] hands.”
During a recorded interview with Ottawa police after the incident, Conner didn’t mention pulling Bal’s sweater over his head. It wasn’t until his court testimony that Conner said he pulled Bal’s sweater over his face unintentionally. Then, the following day, Conner testified he did so intentionally “in order to protect myself.”
Defence lawyer Mark Ertel brought out the T-shirt Bal wore the night of the altercation to show some tears in the collar and loose stitching in the back.
‘I was very scared,’ officer testifies
Bal, who said he weighs 170 pounds and is 5-foot-10, pointed out he’s smaller than Conner. On Monday, Conner testified he was 240 lbs at the time and stands at 6 ft tall.
Bal said he tried to break the grip Conner had on his sweater, but could not and said he hit Conner twice in his face.
“I wanted to punch him as hard as I could so I didn’t have to punch him again,” said Bal of the first two punches he dealt Conner in the bathroom.
“I delivered those punches to create time and distance.”
When he was in the witness box earlier this week, Conner said it was “much more” than two hits and described it as a “flurry of right-hand punches” to his face.
From there, Bal said, Conner pulled his hoodie over his head.
“I can’t see anything,” said Bal. “I was very scared.”
Then, Bal said, Conner lifted him off of his feet and “slams me against the wall to the point where I was in pain.”
“It was a violent action,” the officer testified.
The violence continued, according to Bal, when Conner slammed him into another wall and then to the ground.
“When I land on the ground, he has a hand around my neck and he’s choking me,” Bal said. “I’m terrified.”
Conner maintains it was unprovoked attack
Conner testified he never touched Bal around his neck.
In fact, he maintained during the trial that it was an unprovoked attack.
During some of the altercation in the bathroom, it went “pitch dark” when Bal’s back hit the light switch on the wall, he said.
“I’m trying to break free of him,” Bal said.
Security camera footage played in court shows the fight spilling over into the hallway where Bal said he punched Conner twice.
Bal said it appeared Conner was getting ready to strike him, then “he lets me go.”
Photos of Bal that were entered as court exhibits show marks on Bal’s back and neck he said were caused by Conner. Another photo also shows some bruising and a scrape on Bal’s left arm.
‘I was exceptionally embarrassed’
Pictures of Conner’s injuries were also shown to the judge, illustrating marks on his face. Conner said the altercation fractured two areas, including his sinuses.
The Crown asked Bal about his training as a police officer. He was previously a use of force instructor.
“I received more de-escalation training than I did hand techniques,” said Bal.
His training also taught him that sometimes an officer may be required to strike someone in the face, depending on the circumstance.
If Bal felt he was the victim, the Crown asked why Bal didn’t file a police report.
“I was exceptionally embarrassed,” said Bal, referencing senior officers who were at the bar that night.
“If I could not have been in that situation, I would have chosen that. I was not looking to drag it out.”
The defence is expected to call one last witness on Thursday, with both sides scheduled to make closing submissions.
