Courts deal with cases against two police officers facing assault charges

[Michael Jack]

Two area police officers charged in 2024 and 2025 have seen their cases quietly dealt with in court.

The more serious incident involved Six Nations Const. Michael J. Johnson, 32, who was on-duty in April 2024 when he shoved a belligerent and drunk man into a holding cell at the Six Nations police station, causing the man serious injuries when he fell against a concrete bed.

The OPP Professional Standards Bureau investigated that incident and arrested Johnson, charging him with assault causing bodily harm.

He was suspended from the service with pay and his case was eventually moved to Hamilton for a decision by Regional Senior Justice Anthony Leitch last summer.

Leitch said Johnson’s victim was “too drunk to protect himself” as he was shoved into the cell and ended up with a deep laceration to his forehead and a fractured neck vertebrae.

The judge deeply condemned what happened next: the intoxicated man was left without any medical attention until an officer finally called for paramedics to attend.

The man needed 12 sutures to close his head wound.

Leitch, who said he carefully watched video surveillance of the incident many times, said the victim was belligerent and had pushed Johnson.

“The shove (by Johnson) was designed to put a resistant, lawfully-arrested prisoner into his cell,” said Leitch, ruling that the force was excessive but required.

However, the judge decried Johnson and any other officer who passed the cell without helping the man, suggesting those who saw the situation were derelict in their duty.

“What is regrettable, hard to justify, aggravating and shameless, frankly, was the failure to render assistance to a bleeding man in police custody for 12 to 13 minutes,” said the judge.

“It could be argued the shove was reasonable use of force but it can’t be argued that leaving him bleeding in the cell for many minutes was justifiable.”

Johnson’s lawyer asked for a conditional discharge, meaning ‘guilt without conviction’ which would mean no criminal record as long as probation conditions were met.

The Crown argued for a suspended sentence which would be a criminal conviction and a criminal record that could have cost Johnson his career.

“This was a close call,” said Leitch of his decision to give Johnson a conditional discharge.

The judge cited “many” factors in favour of leniency including Johnson’s difficult treatment by his own community as he tried to police there, facing assaults and derision that caused PTSD and lasting trauma, and being of “exceptional character” according to many letters of support.

“(He is) a good person and an otherwise exceptional police officer who is unlikely to repeat his conduct,” said Leitch.

Along with sentencing Johnson to his conditional discharge, the judge gave him two years of probation which will include various forms of counselling, 180 hours of community service, and no contact with his victim unless it’s for lawful police matters.

Johnson also had to submit his DNA for the national offenders databank.

Six Nations Police Chief Darren Montour confirmed the matter was “cleared” in court but said he wouldn’t comment about whether Johnson would face further disciplinary action or is back on duty.

In another case, Const. Peter Lawrence Franchin, 40, of the Hamilton Police Service had been charged by Brantford Police with assault after a May 2025 incident in Flamborough.

Franchin was off-duty when he and Lisa DiCeasare, a former Hamilton Police officer, got into a disagreement. After Brantford officers investigated, both people were charged with simple assault in August last year.

But, in November, those charges were both withdrawn before a Justice of the Peace in Brantford at the request of a Crown lawyer who told the JP there was “no reasonable prospect of conviction or public interest” for either of the charges to proceed.

A communications person for the Hamilton Police confirmed the charges had been withdrawn but declined to answer whether Franchin is back on duty.

SGamble@postmedia.com

https://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/news/ ... s-in-court