Nine months after his violent arrest at the University of Western Ontario, Irnes Zeljkovic has filed a lawsuit against the London Police Services Board, the school and the officers who arrested him.

The lawsuit is asking for damages totaling $750,000.

It asks for general damages for assault, excessive abuse of force and negligence on behalf of all parties named.

Speaking exclusively on AM980, Zeljkovic says he still vividly remembers what happened that day.

"I was in an office. I told the professor to get out because it was my office. I was really distressed that day, I had no idea what was going on, I was out of touch with reality. I wanted to find my professor to ask for an extension, but I couldn't find him. That increased my stress even more. I was stressing about marks."

 

Zeljkovic says he needed high marks to move on with school the following year and wasn't himself at all that day. He says he never threatened the professor and was not violent in any way.

"Once I left the office, two officers approached me. Right away, one of the officers punched me in the left eye and my eye started to bleed really bad. Then he hit me with the baton on my shin. That started gushing blood. They kept punching me repeatedly over and over again everywhere, all around my body. There was a person standing there who appeared to be a professor and I was saying to him -- why are they doing this to me? Why are you letting them hit me? What is going on?"

As soon as the professor disappeared, Zeljkovic says the officers backed off and he headed towards the stairs to try and get outside to catch his breath. He says that's when things took a turn for the worse.

"Officers again, three of them, started punching me everywhere. I was standing on my feet for about 3 or 4 minutes just getting punched repeatedly until I could not handle it anymore. Then I dropped to the ground because I was just out of it."

In the video, officers can be heard telling Zeljkovic repeatedly to "Stop Resisting."

"I had no idea what they were talking about because all they kept saying around me is I must be on cocaine, I must be drunk, I must be on heroine, I must be on this, I must be on that. And I kept repeating, screaming, I'm not on any drugs please let me go. You can hear me on the video saying what is going on here? They just assumed I was on drugs. Instead, I had a mental health issue."

The video of the incident was posted on You-Tube and viewed hundreds of times.

Zeljkovic's lawyer, Phil Millar says it will be a key part of their case.

"The video at least allows the justice system to take a look at it and say ok, you're not just looking at a Police report that's written after, now we can see it. Now we can go in and see was this justified? Was it excessive? Did it go beyond? So the video is what brought this to attention. As Irnes has said before, without this video in his situation, who knows what would have happened to him."

 

When contacted by AM980, a spokeswoman from Western said school officials "can't comment on a lawsuit or even the events that led up to it."

 

"Western cares deeply about the safety and the well being of all of our students and all the members of our campus community, including Irnes," said Associate Vice-President of Communications and Public Affairs for UWO, Helen Connell.

 

"There are people at Western working everyday to create a safe and respectful campus," added Connell.

 

When reached for comment about the suit, London Police Chief Murray Faulkner said "we'll just let the process work through the courts".

 

The lawsuit comes nearly a month to the day after UWO released a report on the incident, prepared for the University by former OPP Commissioner Gwen Boniface.

The report made a total of 8 recommendations, including that campus police officers take part in awareness training on de-escalation skills to assist in dealing with mental health issues.

 

Millar says his client is doing better since the incident and has spent the past seven months volunteering at a local high school. He recently received the necessary clearance to resume classes at UWO.

Zeljkovic says the incident has scarred him.

"I still have night terrors two or three times a week about getting arrested, getting beat up. When I'm around Police I get really shaky, my heart starts to race, I get a little scared. Anyone in a uniform really, scares me."

Zeljkovic was initially charged with multiple offenses in connection with the incident, including assaulting a peace officer, but all charges were later dropped on the condition he completed a mental health program.