Spice
man trial: ‘It felt like I was swallowing hot coals’
Manuel Belo, the man allegedly hit in the face with
spices by a Toronto
Restaurateur Naveen Polapady is accompanied by wife Snigdha as he arrives for a court hearing in Feburary. Polapady is facing assault charges related to a violent tussle outside his restaurant in 2011.
Manuel Belo hopped off his bike behind an Indian restaurant on Bloor St. W.
The 50-year-old was looking for empty bottles or cans in the recycling
bins, as he does a few times a month in the alley that runs parallel to Bloor.
He thought he saw two empty liquor bottles — but was mistaken. He was
getting on his bike to leave, when someone came up behind him and threw a substance
like “watered-down spaghetti sauce” in his face.
“I couldn’t see anything at all, my eyes were
stinging,” he told the court Friday afternoon as the so-called “spice man trial” continued. “It felt like I was swallowing hot
coals.”
He couldn’t see who it was: “my sight was impaired, my breathing was
impaired.”
“Stop. I’m just collecting empties,” he told the court he yelled. But
then he felt a stick hit him, and a man’s voice yell repeatedly “where is my
GPS?”
He felt the stick crack on his forearms, he testified. The man also hit
him directly on his baseball-hat covered head, causing him to need stitches,
Belo said.
The violent altercation, where Belo said he attempted to punch
restaurateur Naveen Polapady though he was unable to see clearly, was caught on
surveillance cameras operated by Polapady.
Polapady is facing assault charges related to the violent tussle that
began with throwing what he calls “chicken masala” at Belo’s face.
Polapady has said he mistook Belo for a man he caught on video breaking
into his car on Aug. 17, 2011. That man — Justin Mitchell, an acquaintance of
Belo’s — was later arrested and pleaded guilty to theft under $5,000 last
April.
However, Polapady’s lawyer Calvin Barry contends that Belo was trying to
break into Polapady’s van that Sunday morning, and had the day before attempted
to open the back door to the restaurant. Polapady lives above the restaurant
with his family. Belo denies he made any attempts to break into Polapady’s
property.
Belo — accompanied to court Friday by his tearful mother and brother —
is a bricklayer by trade who has lived most of his life on Palmerston Blvd.
At the time he was addicted to crack and abusing alcohol, he told the
court. However, the nine days he spent in jail and subsequent community service
helped get him clean, he said.
Since Aug. 21, 2011, Belo no longer collects empty bottles and cans even
from the park, he told the court. “Knowing my luck the squirrels would say I was
trying to steal their chestnuts and I’d end up with rabies shots instead of
stitches.”
The trial resumes in June.
The “spice man” case has grabbed attention for is
similarities to the “Lucky Moose” case, in which Toronto store owner David Chen
was arrested after catching and tying up a shoplifter.
Chen became the face of the “citizen’s arrest” legislation
passed last June that empowers ordinary people to make arrests within a
reasonable time of the crime being committed, when there’s no option to have
police do so. It also permits people to take reasonable actions — as determined
by a judge — to defend their homes and families.
