SIU clears Timmins officer after man’s rib fractures

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has found no reasonable grounds to charge a Timmins Police Service officer after a 28-year-old man was diagnosed with two fractured ribs following his arrest in Timmins on June 24, according to a director’s report dated Oct. 21.

SIU Director Joseph Martino wrote that the video evidence did not establish that police used unlawful force. He closed the file without charges.

The report said police were called to a Circle K at 287 Algonquin Blvd. W. at about 7:25 p.m. over a man who reportedly had a knife, had assaulted a security guard and other patrons, and had left without paying for beer. The first officer on scene, who the SIU designated the subject official, found the man and chased him on foot. The officer caught him near Cameron Street South and Belanger Avenue and forced him to the ground, and a second officer helped take him into custody.

The man was handcuffed behind his back and driven to the police station. The report said he kicked at the cruiser’s rear doors on the way and resisted officers when they arrived. In a cell, officers placed him on the bench to search him and take off his shoes. One officer controlled his upper body while two others held his legs. The report said the man resisted as officers tried to remove his handcuffs and was struck twice with an officer’s knee on the upper left leg.

The man complained of rib pain in the early morning of June 25 and was taken to Timmins and District Hospital, where he was diagnosed with two left-sided rib fractures that appeared to be fresh. The SIU, which investigates police conduct involving death, serious injury, gunfire or sexual assault allegations, was notified that morning and assigned three investigators.

Martino wrote that there were two points at which the ribs might have been broken by police. The first was when the man was forced to the ground. He found that a takedown made sense because the man was fleeing, and that there was no evidence it was done with unnecessary force. The second was when the man was pinned on the cell bench, which Martino described as the less likely of the two scenarios. He wrote that the video evidence did not reasonably establish unwarranted force there either.

The director wrote that the two knee strikes to the man’s left leg were a response to his physical resistance as officers tried to search him and remove the handcuffs. He said he could not reasonably conclude that pressure another officer applied to the man’s upper left side with a knee at about the same time was unlawful. The report said the camera angle and the position of three officers over the man made it impossible to determine exactly where that officer’s knee was.

“It remains unclear at the end of the investigation precisely when the Complainant suffered his injuries and there is some prospect that they occurred before his arrest,” Martino wrote. He concluded there was no basis for criminal charges because there were no reasonable grounds to believe the fractures were attributable to unlawful conduct by police.

Under section 25(1) of the Criminal Code, police are protected from criminal liability for force that is reasonably necessary in carrying out their duties. Martino found the officer was within his rights to arrest the man for robbery and public intoxication, and said police were entitled to exercise reasonable control over him while he was processed.

The officer declined to be interviewed by the SIU or to release their notes, which is the officer’s legal right. The man was interviewed on June 26, and four civilian witnesses were interviewed between June 26 and July 8. The SIU does not name the people involved in its investigations. The decision speaks only to criminal liability and does not review police policy or training.

The ruling follows other recent SIU decisions, including the clearing of a Sudbury officer in an arrest that fractured a man’s rib and the clearing of a Hamilton officer after a cruiser window was smashed. The SIU also cleared a Kingston officer this week. The unit’s news release on the Timmins case is posted on the SIU website.

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