Belleville’s Police Chief has come out swinging, objecting to a story in the Intelligencer newspaper about former Olympic boxing champion Shawn O’Sullivan. The story outlined O’Sullivan’s version of an incident last November in which he says police beat him and tasered him before charging him with assault and mischief. Chief Cory McMullan presented a report to the Police Services Board Wednesday saying the “victim and police version of the events is substantially different from Mr. O’Sullivan’s.’ McMullan told our newsroom the Intel story would have been more “balanced” if it had waited for the court process. The Intel story “did” include the fact the police version differs substantially from O’Sullivan’s. Managing Editor Bill Glisky says he doesn’t think many people would be comfortable with the police being the “gatekeepers” of this kind of information. The three radio stations at Quinte Broadcasting also carried the O’Sullivan story this week.
