SIU clears Sudbury officer in arrest that fractured rib

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has concluded there are no reasonable grounds to charge a Greater Sudbury Police Service officer after a 44-year-old man suffered a fractured rib during his arrest at his Sudbury home on June 5, according to a director’s report dated Oct. 9.

SIU Director Joseph Martino wrote that the injury may have occurred during the arrest but that there was nothing to show it was caused by unlawful conduct. He closed the file without charges.

The man contacted the SIU on June 15. He was diagnosed with the fractured right rib on June 12, a week after the arrest, the report said. The SIU’s mandate covers incidents involving police that result in death, serious injury, gunfire or an allegation of sexual assault.

According to the report, officers and a child welfare worker went to the man’s home that morning. The man, who stayed behind a screen door, refused to identify himself or let the officers speak to his children. A police sergeant was called, and told the man through the door that officers did not need a warrant to speak to the children and that there were grounds to arrest him for obstruction.

The man punched the screen door, and three tactical officers arrived with a breaching tool. He stepped out onto concrete steps, recording the officers on his cellphone. Officers took hold of him and told him he was under arrest. The report said he gripped a railing and dropped into a seated position, and a struggle followed as officers tried to bring his arms behind his back to handcuff him.

He was taken to hospital for a psychiatric assessment and released, the report said.

Martino found the officers were entitled to enter the home without a warrant to check on the children. The report cites sections of Ontario’s Child, Youth and Family Services Act that allow a child protection worker who believes a child is at substantial risk to bring the child to a place of safety. When the man refused them entry, Martino wrote, he made himself subject to arrest for resisting a peace officer.

Body-worn camera footage showed the subject officer briefly placing a knee on the man’s upper right torso during the struggle. Martino wrote that the contact did not appear to be a strike and was not accompanied by significant force. He said it could have been incidental or, at most, a reasonable effort to restrict the man’s movement while the man resisted.

Under section 25 of the Criminal Code, police are protected from criminal liability for force that is reasonably necessary in carrying out their duties. Martino concluded there was no evidence of excessive force. The subject officer declined to be interviewed by the SIU, which is the officer’s legal right, and did not release their notes.

The SIU does not name the people involved in its investigations and withholds some details, such as the street, to protect privacy. The decision applies only to criminal liability. The report says the man was arrested for obstruction and resisting arrest. The SIU does not review police conduct or policy questions outside the Criminal Code.

The decision follows other recent rulings by the unit, including the clearing of a Toronto officer after bean bag rounds were fired at a hospital. The SIU also released a report on Oct. 14 on a Hamilton arrest in which a man suffered a fractured nose.

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