Velvet Leclair walks outside the Ottawa court house Monday Sept 12, 2011. Tony Caldwell/QMI Agency

OTTAWA — A woman suing police for $50,000 because of her treatment in custody was drunk and belligerent and hip-checked a cop, court heard Thursday.

Velvet LeClair, 30, alleges she was groped and subjected to crude comments in the cellblock after a rough arrest in a Byward Market traffic stop at about 2 a.m. on July 14, 2007.

The arresting officers named in her civil suit — constables Mark Talbot and Norman Redmond — testified that LeClair ignored Talbot’s warnings to back off when she screamed at them about arresting her friend.

The officers claim she then hip-checked Redmond in the back.

The cops pinned her against their car, using their weight to control her “like a hockey player,” Redmond said.

“Hockey’s a rough game,” said LeClair’s lawyer, Karin Galldin.

“Sometimes arresting someone is rough as well,” Redmond said.

Talbot said LeClair was trying to twist away. Her yelling attracted a mob of people who shouted, “Police brutality.”

They left quickly.

En route to the cellblocks, Redmond said he tried to read LeClair her rights, but she kept talking over him so he stopped.

She remained agitated in the cellblocks and was not given the opportunity to call a lawyer; Redmond said it wouldn’t be safe to leave her alone because of her behaviour.

This was documented on a “red sheet” and in Redmond’s notes.

Police policy says rights to counsel can be deferred if an individual is dangerously violent or severely intoxicated, the court heard.

When LeClair was taken for processing, Talbot said she began “resisting very aggressively.”

He and two officers took her to the ground.

Talbot was unsure if she was then searched or if this was simply to bring her under control.

On cross-examination, Galldin pressed the officers to explain why LeClair’s intoxication wasn’t documented in their notes.

Redmond said he had charged her with obstruction, so he only wrote down details relevant to that count.

Talbot wrote in his notes that LeClair had been arrested for public intoxication as well as obstruction (she was only ever charged with obstruction), but he didn’t record any observations of drunken behaviour either.

LeClair has testified she consumed four drinks over a six-hour period.

The Ottawa Police Services Board and Chief Vern White are co-defendants in the case, in part for alleged negligence with regard to police training.

Talbot and Redmond said they hadn't received any human rights training, though Talbot took a two-hour online training course on discrimination in 2010.

Final submissions begin Friday.

Twitter: @ottawasuntonys