Bound by conflict

Within the next two decades, Surrey is poised to overtake Vancouver as B.C.'s biggest city. The last municipal election showed a desire for change, fuelled in part by lingering concerns about public safety, the future of the RCMP and the direction of growth. This week, we asked reporter Jason Proctor to spend time at Surrey's courthouse to see how the cases heard inside mirror some of the challenges facing the community.

Sean Redenbach and Joedy Todd Henderson live on opposite sides of the law.

At 30, Redenbach is an addict with a long rap sheet. And at 45, Henderson is an RCMP officer who has dedicated his life to keeping communities safe.

But both men have also experienced the justice system from another side: Redenbach as a victim and Henderson as an offender.

Sean Redenbach is the homeless man Const. Joedy Todd Henderson assaulted when these two lives that could not be further apart came into violent conflict in August 2017.

'When I was 28, I became a criminal'

Redenbach approached me outside the Surrey courthouse in mid-January, curious about questions we had been asking a lawyer about the justice system.

He wore tattered pants, a grey peacoat and a red ball cap, the handful of teeth he had left stained yellow and brown. His cheeks were red, pockmarked skin tight against his skull.

Redenbach's name was one of hundreds on a 66-page court list for that day.

Like a good percentage of people on the list, Redenbach was making an appearance for breaching probation. And like many, he was also struggling with an opioid addiction.

He said it began after he broke his back and got hooked on pain medication.

"When I was 28, I became a criminal," he said. "I was in petty crime to support my habit. Like, in my mind, I was doing things that were victimless crimes just to keep my addictions sustained. And it led to a fairly lengthy rap sheet in a fairly short amount of time."

Redenbach discusses the depth of his fentanyl addiction

'Freedom be gone just like that'

The crimes were not victimless. Redenbach has been convicted of theft, trespassing, fraud, break and enter, mischief and numerous counts of breaching probation.

And last May, he was sentenced to 45 days in jail.

"It's pretty unnerving having this cell door lock and your freedom be gone just like that," he said. "I don't wish it on anyone. I mean it doesn't help the situation. It doesn't help the addiction. It doesn't solve the problems, it just hides them temporarily.

Most of Redenbach's crimes happened in Kamloops, which is where he encountered Henderson, who had amassed a stellar record of service as part of a team that worked with prolific offenders.

Redenbach told me he'd been assaulted by an RCMP officer towards the end of our conversation.

After finding court documents that backed him up, I travelled to Kamloops to watch Const. Joedy Todd Henderson's sentencing.

'No right to force Mr. Redenbach ...'

Wearing a dark blue suit and tie, Henderson arrived half an hour early for court. He hid his face from a camera as he walked into the building.

As it turned out, it was Redenbach's own desire to shield his identity that resulted in the assault.

According to the facts read out in court, Henderson was called in to help a bylaw officer who was trying to give Redenbach a ticket for putting up a temporary shelter. The call was mistakenly put in as a "Code 3" — meaning the police who arrived were on guard for trouble.

The first officers on the scene placed Redenbach in handcuffs and told him to sit.

Kamloops provincial court Judge Roy Dickey said Henderson arrived 15 minutes later and he and the bylaw officer believed — mistakenly — they needed Redenbach's picture for the ticket.

After trying to lift him by his shoulder, Henderson grabbed Redenbach by the throat and forced him to his feet.

When Redenbach tried to move away, Henderson kneed him with blows to the body.

"Constable Henderson admits that he had no right to force Mr. Redenbach to have his photo taken," Dickey said as he read out the facts of the case.

"The assault occurred on a vulnerable witness who was in handcuffs at the time of the assault and was a marginalized person in this community."

Redenbach says he can't see much of a future for himself

'Symptoms of PTSD'

Redenbach told me he feels like the incident has left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

According to the judge, PTSD is certainly what led to Henderson's uncharacteristic behaviour.

A 16-year-veteran of the force, Henderson was nearly run over by a suspect in 2010, and he was forced to fire several shots at his assailant.

Dickey said the officer couldn't sleep for four days afterwards.

In October 2016, Henderson was also commended for calmly working alongside another Mountie to defuse a potentially deadly scenario that saw an angry man brandishing a hatchet and screaming at passers-by in the middle of a parking lot.

A story about that award now comes up far beneath dozens of articles about the assault, if you search Henderson's name on Google.

The constable was placed on stress leave for nearly nine months after the assault on Redenbach.

He returned to work in traffic services last summer. He receives a disability pension for PTSD.

"He continues to suffer from symptoms of the disorder and did so at the time of this offence," Dickey said. "The incident before me resulted in the symptoms of PTSD being triggered in Const. Henderson."

A conditional discharge

Henderson's lawyer asked for a conditional discharge, which would mean the officer would not have a criminal conviction on his record after a period of probation.

Experienced offenders like Redenbach are familiar with hearing judges weigh the mitigating and aggravating circumstances of their situations as they try to come up with an appropriate sentence. But this was a first for Henderson — who has no criminal record.

Dickey decided that a conditional sentence was warranted, given Henderson's PTSD, his genuine remorse, the fact that he had taken counselling and had suffered both financially and in terms of reputation.

Henderson cleared his throat and stood as the judge told him the conditions of his year-long probation. A senior officer sat in the almost empty courtroom to offer support.

'I don't know what I want'

I haven't been able to reach Redenbach to ask his thoughts on the sentence.

But when we met, he said he — like Henderson — was also looking for some understanding and a second chance. Or maybe a fourth or fifth, given his criminal history.

He's living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and says he is trying to do "better things." But he claims his mere presence can be enough to make people reach for the phone to call police.

"There's a lot of assumptions that are made of homeless people or people who come from a less fortunate background," he said.

"It really comes down to — I think — that everyone should just stop and take a look at what's actually happening and not what they think might be going on."

He still has the breach of probation charge hanging over his head and he's hoping he doesn't have to go back to jail.

He'll turn 31 this year. I asked him about his future. He started crying.

"The longer I'm out of touch with being a part of society the more I start to resent a lot of society in general," he said.

"I don't know what I want. And that's God's truth."