OWEN SOUND - A visiting Crown attorney withdrew criminal charges of assault causing bodily harm against two Ontario Provincial Police officers Thursday because he said there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.
The charges were brought privately by Enos Martin, who followed a rarely used pre-enquete court process which put the charges before the court. Martin alleged the officers arrested him and began to transport him to the police station before realizing other police officers had just finished charging him.
During the process of his arrest, Martin alleged, he was injured.
But visiting Crown attorney Michael Carnegie told the court that after intervening in the case and reviewing it, he found both officers Det. Const. Steve Paddon and Const Jillian Serkowney were acting with lawful authority and believed they were executing a “lawful warrant, however mistakenly” on Dec. 14 on Highway 6 in Williamsford.
He also told Ontario Court Justice Julia Morneau that Martin was detained 10 to 12 minutes -- no more than was reasonable -- and no more force was used than necessary, Carnegie said. He said there was a “live and real issue” concerning how Martin's injuries were caused. He didn't elaborate.
Carnegie, who works for the regional Crown office in London, said with those facts there was no reasonable prospect of conviction and so he was “duty-bound” to ask that the charges be withdrawn, which Justice Morneau granted.
In an interview, Carnegie said there is an explanation for why police picked Martin up shortly after other police had charged and released him but he said he couldn't elaborate about that. He said there were processes the public could follow to seek that answer.
Neither police officer was present in the courtroom Thursday morning when the case was called. They were represented by a lawyer who attended on their behalf.
Martin, a Chesley area farmer, was present and sat at the counsel table.
He said in a interview last month that he was one of five people charged by police after a confrontation at the farm of raw milk advocate Michael Schmidt Oct. 2, near Durham. He said there was a warrant out for his arrest since Nov. 18 which he hadn't know about.
“I'm a freedom fighter. I'm a constitutionalist, I believe in natural law and I don't like seeing my neighbours get bothered and harassed,” Martin said when asked about his involvement at the Schmidt farm.
Martin alleges that in December Paddon and Serkowney were dressed in plainclothes when they arrived in a van, told him he was under arrest, cuffed his hands behind his back and “racked my arms up behind my back,” causing “really bad” injury.
“They racked my arms back behind my back, threw me in their minivan and got on their phones and in about 15 minutes and they found out I was telling the truth and then they released me.”
Martin, a married father of four, said he suffered “contusions” on both wrists from the cuffs and “straining” in the shoulders for which he was prescribed anti-inflammatory medication. “I want both officers to lose their badges,” he said.
Charges were laid after Martin swore before a justice of the peace what he alleged happened, then went before another JP in a pre-enquete hearing which determined there were at least some grounds to have process issued and summons the officers to court. Those rare hearings are held behind closed doors.
Martin's obstructing police charge is next before the Ontario Court of Justice in Walkerton April 13.
http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2016/0 ... -withdrawn