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In a second day of dramatic testimony at the sexual assault trial for an ex-B. C. Lion, one of the arresting officers described Friday how strenuously and violently Josh Boden resisted arrest in September 2009.

Boden's attempts to break free included trying to pry open the jaws of the police dog clamped on his leg during the struggle.

And, Sgt. Roy Bartolo testified, when the two officers -- with the help of the police dog -- couldn't subdue the six-foot-one, 200-pound former wide receiver, they appealed to a bystander for help.

"A group of civilians was amassing and Const. [Derrick] Gibson yells out, 'Help us!' and somebody from the crowd comes in and starts to help us," Bartolo testified in B.C. Provincial Court in Vancouver.

Boden, 24, is on trial for three alleged sexual assaults and one count each of resisting arrest and assaulting an officer.

Bartolo described how he, Gibson and the dog, Teak, had cornered the fleeing Boden in a dead-end parking lot.

Teak leaped into the air and bit Boden as he tried to scale a fence, pulling him to the ground. Boden then charged at the officers, ignoring Teak's attempts to bring him down and Gibson's gun pointing at him, Bartolo said.

He and Gibson were standing shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the only exit from the parking lot, trying to block him, he said.

"He ran at a full run at Const. Gibson and myself," he said. "I was shocked. He . . . ran straight at us. I thought there's going to be a fight here. I had both hands up, palms out, yelling, 'Police!'"

Both officers were trying to gain control of an arm each as Boden tried to push his way around them, Bartolo said.

"He was fighting -- he wasn't complying. I didn't know how I was going to take him into custody. He was still trying to push me off on to one side and wrestling both Const. Gibson and myself."

During the struggle, Bartolo said, Boden was trying to pry open the dog's jaws and Gibson was yelling at him to let go of his dog.

After the civilian joined in and all three men were on top of Boden, he was still trying to get up by getting into a pushup position.

"He comes up an inch or two, but there's too much weight on him," Bartolo said. He then heard Boden sigh and felt him give up and they were able to handcuff him.

Earlier, Bartolo testified how he had Boden under surveillance because he was suspected in two earlier sexual assaults

Boden was arrested Sept. 7, 2009, after he allegedly groped a woman on Broadway near the Commercial SkyTrain station.

Court has already heard from that complainant and two other women -- all young, attractive and blond -- who all testified that, in the previous month, Boden had grabbed them on the buttocks from behind.

Bartolo testified that, earlier in the day, he had watched Boden walk west on Robson Street.

"He was looking at females walking toward him," he said. "As the females walked by him, he would physically look at those females over his left or right shoulder and sometimes he would come to a complete stop" and continue to stare at them as they walked. That happened about 15 times, he said.

Bartolo then watched as Boden approached a lone female at a bus stop and apparently spoke to her, his arms gesticulating. She escaped into the bus when it arrived.

The trial continues.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Three+needed+bring+down+Lion/4192119/story.html#ixzz1DQsjLYkZ