What started out with an insult about a woman’s height ended in a brief brawl outside a Red Deer bar, according to Crown witnesses at a trial for a Red Deer RCMP officer charged with assault.
Darren Gordon Ryan, 29, is on trial in Red Deer provincial court this week for pushing a woman outside Billy Bob’s on March 26, 2009.
Tiffany Grundy, 19, of Erskine said Wednesday she confronted Ryan about his actions towards another bar patron and was angry and offended when he called her “Frodo”, a character in the book Lord of the Rings.
When she confronted him again outside the bar, she said Ryan pushed her and she hit her head and back against a wall behind her before falling down.
Video from the bar shown in court showed several people joined the scuffle.
Grundy said she got back up and confronted Ryan again and he pushed her to the ground.
Defence lawyer Will Wilms said in the video it looked like Grundy put Ryan in a headlock when he was lying on the ground the third time she confronted him.
“He already pushed me twice and I was hurt,” said Grundy, who had some bruises and scratches on her arms from the fight.
Under cross-examination, Grundy admitted she was quite drunk and had already thrown up in the bar before the altercation.
On Wednesday, Wilms said Grundy couldn’t positively identify Ryan as the person who pushed her.
She also admitted it wasn’t her first bar fight while drinking, and has fought with women.
Testimony from another off-duty officer at the bar said Ryan told him Grundy scratched his face and that’s why he pushed her.
Off-duty officers said none of them knew Grundy and didn’t know why she initially confronted Ryan.
They said, like Grundy, they had been drinking before arriving at the bar. But Const. Joshua Michael Matthies said they don’t get “sloppy drunk.”
After five witnesses, Crown prosecutor James Brydon, from Peace River, concluded his case on Wednesday. Wilms said he expects to finish up before Judge B. Myers on Thursday.
szielinski@www.reddeeradvocate.com