February 6th, 2025

City police officer gets probation following conviction of assault

By Medicine Hat News on September 2, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@www.MedicineHatNews.com

A Medicine Hat police officer was given a suspended sentence and 18 months probation on Thursday after he was found guilty of assaulting a teenager last year after an incident of ding-dong ditch at his home.

Crown prosecutors say Barry Myles Steiger came out of his house in Crescent Heights and grabbed the male youth’s sweatshirt while he sat on a retaining wall, causing him to fall off.

At the conclusion of the trial Thursday, Judge F.A. Day agreed the case satisfied the conditions for a summary assault conviction.

He also agreed with the prosecution’s recommendation for sentence, including avoiding contact with the teenager and probation officer’s directions that will likely include anger management counselling.

Steiger, who pleaded not guilty and represented himself in the trial, did not provide a comment to the News after the proceedings.

The youth’s mother told reporters she was satisfied with the result and sentence.

Prosecutor Stephen Hill, a member of the Crown prosecutor’s office in Red Deer, told the News that Steiger’s position as a person of authority is an aggravating factor in the case.

“It starts rather innocuously as game of ding-dong ditch,” Hill said. “What happens then, essentially, is Steiger runs out of the house, locked eyes on the first kids he sees and, based on the evidence the judge accepted, grabbed him by the sweatshirt and pushed him down.”

The verdict means Steiger, an 11-year veteran constable who has been on administrative duties since the April 2021 incident, will have a criminal record. He will likely face an internal police disciplinary hearing and potential sanctions.

Testifying for the defence on Thursday, Steiger’s wife, Kinsi Steiger, also a police officer, told the court she was awoken by very loud banging on her outside door at about 10:30 p.m. on the night.

Her husband worked in the undercover drug unit and dealt with rough and undesirable characters, sometimes in their own neighbourhood, she said.

The clamour and the presence of the couple’s children in the house caused distress and concern, she said.

“I felt like someone was breaking into our house,” she told the court.

In cross examination, Day asked her if there was consideration to call police for help.

“As a trained police officer, my reaction wasn’t to call 911; it was to spring into action,” she said.

As the event progressed, the boy’s father returned to discuss what happened with the couple. Kinsi felt the boy apologized for the incident and was minimally harmed.

Barry Myles Steiger was charged the following day after Medicine Hat police forwarded the file to the Crown prosecutor’s office, which laid the charges.

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