Warning: Content in this article may be upsetting or triggering to some readers.
OPP Constable Scott Anthony submitted his resignation as a police officer Thursday morning ahead of his sentencing hearing in a Bracebridge, Ont. courtroom.
The 27-year veteran officer pleaded guilty in February 2025 to assault causing bodily harm in the attack on a man who was under investigation for trespassing at a rail yard in MacTier.
Anthony, 52, apologized to the man he brutally assaulted during a violent arrest that was caught on camera just after 3 a.m. on July 10, 2022.
Anthony is represented by Toronto defence lawyers Peter Brauti and Peter Ketcheson. Brauti, read the apology letter to the court on behalf of his client.
“I have come to terms I am no longer mentally fit to serve,” the letter said. Anthony expressed remorse for his actions.
“I made a mistake, a serious mistake,” he said. “I was experiencing traumatic stress.”
The defence explained to the court Anthony feared for his safety on his way to the call, saying he was mistakenly under the impression he faced a serious threat that night from an individual who was hostile and violent toward police.
“My mind told me my life was in danger and to panic.” Still Anthony called his actions ‘inexcusable’ and ‘deserving of punishment’ for using fists, kicks, knees and weapons.
The Crown Vlatko Karadzic called it a ‘prolonged brutal assault on a defenceless victim’ who was in a state of mental health crisis, vulnerable and posed no threat to police that night.
The Crown called Anthony’s actions a gross breach of the public’s trust when he beat the man unconscious, then dragged his shirtless handcuffed body on the ground by his feet, before loading him into a police cruiser. The bloodied man was taken to hospital with several injuries to his head, torso, arms, and legs. He was initially charged by police with assault with intent to resist arrest.
However, when security video from the area was brought to the attention of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Anthony was subsequently charged with assault causing bodily harm and one count of assault with a weapon following an SIU investigation. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to assault causing bodily harm. Charges against the victim were dropped.
Anthony acknowledged his excessive use of force went against his training. Anthony, the court heard has sought to better himself through intensive therapy by participating in at least 108 weekly sessions. The defence said Anthony is committed to bettering his mental health and was struggling at the time of the assault with personal and professional struggles that included traumatic stress from attended “horrific” crime scenes involving violence.
His victim, who is now 45, described crippling physical and psychological suffering in the three years since the attack. He called his life hell, telling the court he has nightmares and is consumed with paranoia and fear, and consumed by fear, anxiety and depression triggered by what happened to him that night at the hands of a police officer.
The Crown calling the man’s brutal beating and arrest ‘dehumanizing,’ and asked the court to sentence Anthony to actual jail time for a year to 15 months.
The court also heard from the victim’s mother, who described becoming sick when she first watched the video of the beating.
“My son was not an angel,” the victim’s mother conceded. She described seeing her son slipping away from her due to self-harm and abuse of alcohol to mask the pain of the beating.
She said, Anthony’s assault of her son violated the oath he took, swearing to serve and protect the public and told the court of the psychological and emotional damage the assault had on her son and family. She explained her son struggles with paranoia and fears police. She described her son becoming triggered whenever he sees a police vehicle or passes by the scene of the attack.
The woman called Anthony a ‘total disgrace to the uniform’ he wore.
The defence told the court of the pain Anthony continues to endure after having been shamed and embarrassed in the public by the media attention on his case. Brauti asked the court to consider a conditional sentence of house arrest, saying Anthony should not be in to jail with criminals who contributed to the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that culminated with the assault and arrest in MacTier.
Justice John Olver will sentence Anthony in late August.
