Former Barrie Police officer Jason Nevill was denied parole this morning at a hearing in Penetanguishene.
Nevill is serving jail time for a violent assault on Jason Stern in 2010 – an incident that was caught on camera outside a shopping mall.
Stern wasn't at the parole hearing today, but he says he's relieved the man who assaulted him nearly three years ago will remain behind bars.
“I'm happy for the community that he's been denied parole,” Stern tells CTV News.
Nevill had been hoping this second application for parole would be accepted. Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, he told the two-member parole board: “What happened that night I put right on my shoulders.”
On Nov. 20, 2010, Nevill brutally beat Stern outside the Bayfield Mall. Nevill had been called to the mall after one of Stern's friends broke a Christmas ornament. When Stern refused to tell Nevill his friend’s name, he was attacked.
Timeline:
- May 14, 2013: Closing submissions heard in assault case
- June 21, 2013: Nevill found guilty
- Oct. 17, 2013: Nevill sentenced to a year in jail
- Oct. 22, 2013: Officer denied bail
- Nov. 15, 2013: Nevill resigns from Barrie Police Service
Nevill was convicted of assault, fabricating evidence, and obstructing justice. He was sentenced to one year in prison.
While he told the parole board today that he lost his temper and could have done things differently, it wasn't enough. His parole was denied for the second time.
In the decision, the parole board said it still has a number of concerns. Nevill maintains he was performing his job as he was trained to do and disagrees with the judge. He says he was being made an example of. The board remains concerned Nevill doesn’t know what caused him to lose control and assault an unarmed person.
Stern has some of the same concerns as well.
“I'm scared for my safety when he is released. To think that through all of this he still doesn't feel he did anything wrong is frightening,” he says.
Stern has launched a $3-million civil suit against Nevill, the mall's security company Paragon Security, the two security guards involved, as well as the Barrie Police Services Board, which oversees the Barrie Police Service.
“One of the thrusts or aims that we have is to bring the Barrie Police Services Board to account for Officer Nevill and, in light of the history that's emerged, to justify why he was on the road,” says Stern’s lawyer Bernie Keating.
The history he's referring to includes roughly 20 complaints made against Nevill during his time as a police officer as well as a previous assault charge on which Nevill was acquitted and internal and external investigations into his actions. He's trying to get the Barrie police and the province's Special Investigations Unit to release undisclosed documents about Nevill's work history.
“The police services board definitely should have known that officer Nevill was a threat to the community, those are the allegations,” Keating says.
None of these allegations has been proven in court.
Keating is trying to get documents from the police services board and the SIU that may disclose some of Nevill's work history.
Based on good behaviours, it's expected that Nevill will be released from prison mid-June after serving two-thirds of his sentence. He will then be on probation for one year.