Calgary officer who body slammed handcuffed Black woman should go to jail, Crown argues

A Calgary police officer who body slammed a young, handcuffed Black woman on the ground should go to jail, a prosecutor argued as the Crown attempts to have the constable's sentence increased.

Alex Dunn was convicted of assault causing bodily harm in 2020 for the violent takedown of Dalia Kafi in 2017. 

In June 2021, Dunn was handed a 30-day sentence: 15 days to be served under house arrest, 15 days under a curfew.

In handing down the one-month sentence, the trial judge found Dunn's actions were not premeditated and said she did not find it necessary to separate him from society, calling the assault "an egregious mistake."

Prosecutor Michael Dunn called the one-month at-home sentence "demonstrably unfit."

Dunn has asked Court of King's Bench Justice Nancy Dilts to increase the sentence to a nine-month jail term.

Michael Dunn — who is not related to the offender — said Kafi's minority status should have been considered by the provincial court sentencing judge, who did not examine how race played into the gravity of the offence.

"I am not suggesting the assault was racially motivated," said the prosecutor. "[But] courts must look to status of the victim to properly weigh gravity of offence."

Defence lawyer Alain Hepner argued the trial judge's sentence was proportionate and should stand. 

"[The judge] found no need to separate the accused from society," said Hepner. 

"The judge considered all the aspects that she should have considered when arriving at that sentence."

In December 2017, Const. Dunn arrested Kafi, who was 26 years old at the time, for breaching her court-imposed curfew.

The officer took Kafi to the arrest processing unit (APU), where he tried to remove a scarf from her head to take a photo.

After she ducked away from him, the constable threw Kafi, who was handcuffed, to the ground.

The victim's head can be seen bouncing off the ground with a pool of blood quickly forming, and she appeared to be briefly unconscious. 

During the trial, the Crown said Kafi suffered a broken nose, which required surgery, and a split lip, which needed stitches. 

In 2016, Dunn pleaded guilty to two charges of insubordination for breaching CPS policies related to accessing a civilian's information for personal reasons and the home storage of his service firearm. He was docked four days' pay.

He was also subject to an internal police investigation after CBC News published a photo of the officer in blackface at a 2012 Halloween party.