Photo: Glacier Media

A 60-year-old woman has been awarded $37,450 in damages for “assault, battery, false arrest and imprisonment” by a Burnaby mall cop eight years ago.

Man Qiao (who also goes by the name of Caren Qiao) had tried to sue the security guard and his employer for more than $11 million dollars.

The lawsuit dates back to an incident at Crystal Mall on March 30, 2012. It began when Qiao entered the mall just after 11 a.m. that day and ended a short time later with an RCMP officer cuffing her outside, according to court documents.

Qiao testified in B.C. Supreme Court that she had been outside the mall with her two small dogs when a man approached, carrying a large stick. She said he had threatened the dogs and she yelled at him to stop.

After quickly taking her pets home, she said she then followed the man into the mall and began repeatedly shouting in Mandarin for the “man who hit the dogs outside to come forward.”

She said she was then confronted by a security guard, Satvir Gill, who told her she wasn’t allowed to yell in the area.

As Qiao left, she said Gill grabbed her from behind and dragged her by her jacket back into the mall. A struggle ensued, during which she lost a shoe and grabbed Gill’s collar and shirt and didn’t let go.

A bystander’s cellphone video showed Qiao up against a wall and then being manoeuvred to the ground.

When RCMP officers arrived, Qiao said she was brought to her feet and handcuffed.

She said another officer who’d been talking to Gill then came over to her and told her to sign a document promising never to enter the mall again. She refused.

B.C. Supreme Justice Sheri Ann Donegan concluded: “From the time Mr. Gill directed her to leave until the time he approached her in the exterior corridor, only one minute and 18 seconds had elapsed,” Donegan said. “Had Ms. Qiao not been stopped, I am satisfied that she would have been off mall property in under two minutes. This is a reasonable time in the circumstances. Therefore, I find that, at the time Mr. Gill stopped Ms. Qiao, she was not trespassing.”

Qiao’s claims of defamation and intentional infliction of mental suffering, however, were dismissed.

Donegan awarded Qiao $36,000 for emotional distress and minor injuries to her left arm and lower back pain and $1,450.00 for massage and acupuncture Qiao paid for after the incident.