Father, son plead ‘not guilty’

An off-duty Vancouver firefighter and his adult son pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges stemming from a St. Patrick’s Day donnybrook with Vancouver police that was filmed and posted to the Internet.
The video, posted on the popular video-sharing website youtube.com, shows a struggle between Curtis Mason, 44, his son Grant, 20, and four Vancouver police officers.
Curtis, a Vancouver firefighter, is charged with resisting arrest. His son is charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer. The trial is expected to last two weeks.
According to Crown witnesses, the March 17, 2007, incident began when a beige Land Rover, apparently driven by Curtis’s sister-in-law, hit a parked car and accelerated through the front of a business at Seymour and Robson streets.
Craig James, a witness who filmed parts of the incident, testified Grant was “quite agitated” and was flailing his arms as he talked with two police officers.
When the officers went to grab him, he shrugged their arms away and pushed one of them. An “out-and-out wrestling match” ensued, James said.
Curtis saw what was happening and moved toward his son. An officer stopped him and the two began fighting.
A fourth officer, “a big dude with a bald head,” James said, “came through the crowd with a baton in hand” and struck Curtis at least twice.