The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has determined there's no reasonable grounds to lay charges against any Barrie city police officers after a man was injured during an arrest last November.
The 23-year-old man said his hand had been stomped on by an officer during the arrest, fracturing one of the knuckles on his right hand, according to the SIU.
According to the SIU report, on Nov. 12, 2018, at 8:56 p.m., police officers were watching an unoccupied stolen vehicle and had deployed a tire deflation device on the vehicle in the area of Montserrand Street.
Three men entered the vehicle around 11 p.m. and managed to drive a short distance.
"The plan among the officers was to box the vehicle in with their vehicles, thereafter approaching it on foot to investigate its occupants," SIU interim director Joseph Martino says in his report. "The events that followed did not go exactly according to plan."
After police cruisers had converged on the vehicle, the driver began to ram them back and forth trying get away. Having made enough space, he maneuvered his vehicle around the cruisers and fled east on Montserrand Street toward Beacon Road.
The men abandoned the vehicle on Beacon Drive and fled on foot. Police set up a perimeter in the area.
One of the men was tracked by a canine police officer, accompanied by tactical police officers. He was arrested about 25 minutes later, west of the Four Points hotel in a field beside a culvert between Bryne Drive and Essa Road.
The 23-year-old man "was located trying to hide in a swampy bog," Martino states in his report. "He was taken into custody. However, a short time later he complained his hand was sore as a result of one of the tactical police officers stepping on it."
One of the officers also discharged his conducted energy weapon for about two seconds at the time of the man's arrest.
"There is some evidence the (man) immediately complied with requests by the officers that he show them his hands and not move," states the SIU report. "However, he was nevertheless bit by the dog and kicked two or three times by the dog’s handler.
"This evidence suggests he was then struck by a (conducted energy weapon) discharge by another police officer, followed by a stomp to the right hand by a third officer and a few more kicks to the head," the report adds.
The evidence of the arresting officers, "while not entirely consistent, paints a different picture. They are all agreed that the (man), when found lying on the ground, physically resisted his arrest by refusing to voluntarily surrender his hands," Martino states in his report.
Martino also says it was the police dog that first came upon the man, who was then punched by one of the officers, tasered and handcuffed.
"Each of the officers specifically denies stomping on the complainant’s hand, and none of them indicate having seen anyone else do so," Martino says.
The man was taken to the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) where he was diagnosed with a fractured knuckle on his right hand.
Barrie police notified the SIU regarding the injury on Nov. 13 at 1:50 p.m.
Four SIU investigators and a forensic investigator were assigned to the case. The injured man was interviewed, his medical records obtained and reviewed.
Four civilian witnesses and six witness officers were also interviewed. Two subject officers were interviewed and provided their notes for review.
Barrie police also provided drone footage from the arrest. Closed-circuit television recordings from a nearby business were also used as evidence.
In-station police video was also reviewed, which shows the man being given his rights and being asked about his health.
"He tells the officers he has an injury to his head, his buttock from being tasered and his right hand," the SIU report states. "It is not clear by the audio if he tells the officers how he came to be injured."
The handcuffs are the removed and the man is searched.
"He is asked if the swelling of his right hand was caused before and the complainant is heard to reply, 'It just happened'," the SIU report states. "His coat is removed and he is searched again and it appears that his right hand has some kind of wrapping around the knuckles."
In Martino's report, he brings up use of force and whether it was warranted.
"The complainant had been in possession of a reportedly stolen vehicle which he had used to intentionally strike police cruisers," he says. "The real issue as far as the subject officers’ potential criminal liability is concerned is whether they used excessive force in effecting the complainant’s arrest."
If the man had not resisted and fled the scene, and was subjected to the same level of force, "then what occurred would give grounds for believing that he was unlawfully assaulted," Martino states.
However, the SIU's interim director says there are also aspects of the investigation which "give cause for pause," specifically the assertion that the dog's handler kicked the man in the head. Martino says the thermal imaging indicates the officer was never close enough to deliver the alleged kicks.
"In view of this and other frailties, it would be unwise and unsafe to rest criminal charges on this account of what occurred in the absence of corroborating evidence," adds Martino, who also notes there's a "distinct possibility" that the man's hand injury could have occurred during the vehicle collision.
Martino also notes that the drone footage does not clearly show what happened during the arrest, as the images are "insufficiently distinct."
As for the officers' accounts, Martino says "while they too are problematic in important ways, including the fact that they suggest a shorter physical engagement with the complainant than what is captured on the drone video," he did not find excessive force had been used in this case, particularly given the evasion and events leading up to the man's arrest.
For the SIU's full report, click here.
The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.
