Police watchdog closes file on OPP arrest of man at L'Origna

When police officers are involved in incidents where someone has been seriously injured, dies or alleges sexual assault, the Special Investigations Unit has the statutory mandate to conduct independent investigations to determine whether a criminal offence took place.

Police watchdog closes file on OPP arrest of man at L'Origna

Postby Thomas » Fri Feb 03, 2023 6:27 am

Police watchdog closes file on OPP arrest of man at L'Orignal in 2022

The provincial police watchdog has closed its file on the complaint of a 42-year-old man who was injured during his arrest by Ontario Provincial Police officers at L’Orignal last fall.

In a report dated Tuesday and posted online Wednesday, Special Investigations Unit director Joseph Martino wrote that he had determined there was no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in the case.

The incident occurred outside a L’Orignal residence early on Oct. 4 after the man called to report his concern about the mental health of his female partner inside the home.

Satisfied there were no grounds for an apprehension of the woman under the Mental Health Act, the officers left the home and explained the situation to the man, the SIU report said, adding that was when an altercation ensued and the man was arrested.

He was subsequently transported to Hawkesbury and District General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a fractured left orbital bone and some “subacute” spine and rib fractures.

Martino’s ruling said he accepted that the man’s injuries were incurred during the arrest but also determined that there were no reasonable grounds to believe those injuries resulted from unlawful conduct by any officer.

The report said SIU investigators interviewed the complainant, three civilian witnesses, including the woman in the house, and two “witness” OPP officers. The designated “subject officer” exercised his legal right not to be interviewed.

The investigation of the incident established that the complainant had batted the subject officer’s flashlight from his hand and had also made contact with a witness officer, the report added.

“In the circumstances, I am satisfied the officers were within their rights in seeking to take the complainant into custody for an assault,” Martino wrote.

“With respect to the force used by the officers, including a takedown and several punches to the complainant’s face, I am unable to reasonably conclude on the evidence that it was excessive. The evidence establishes that the complainant physically resisted the officers as they moved in to effect his arrest, at times getting the upper hand.”

Martino wrote that a takedown of the man was “reasonable” given his “combativeness.

“Once on the ground, the officers could better expect to manage any continuing struggle by the complainant. In fact, the complainant remained a physical challenge to the officers, refusing to surrender his left arm to be handcuffed,” he wrote.

The man was eventually handcuffed behind his back after being punched on the left side of his face by the subject officer and “overwhelmed by the combined manpower” of three officers, Martino wrote.

“There is some evidence the complainant was punched four to six times by an officer at a point when he had stopped resisting. That claim, however, is contested by the evidence of (the witness officers), whose evidence indicates that the complainant’s resistance persisted until he was handcuffed,” his ruling states.

The Special Investigations Unit is a civilian law enforcement agency that investigates incidents involving police and peace officers and special constables where there has been death, serious injury, the discharge of a firearm at a person or an allegation of sexual assault. Its jurisdiction covers more than 50 municipal, regional and provincial police services in Ontario.

L’Orignal is slightly more than 80 kilometres east of Ottawa.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-ne ... al-in-2022
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