A Greater Sudbury Police officer has been cleared by the Special Investigations Unit after an investigation into a May 22 arrest in which a 37-year-old man suffered a broken neck.
In his report, the director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Joseph Martino, “found no reasonable grounds to believe a Greater Sudbury Police Service officer committed a criminal offence in connection with a 37-year-old man’s serious injury.”
The investigation included both video and photographic evidence, as well as witness reports from 10 witness officials and two civilian witnesses.
A witness official, or WO, is any officer whose conduct appears, in the opinion of the SIU director, to have been a cause of the incident under investigation.
The officer who was the subject of the investigation (subject official) as he placed a knee on the suspect’s neck, declined interview and to provide notes, “as is the subject official’s legal right,” reads the report.
On the afternoon of May 22, an officer conducted a traffic stop in the area of Cedar Street west of Paris Street. The report didn’t state the reason for the traffic stop.
When that officer, referred to as Witness Officer No.1, contacted GSPS dispatch, they learned there were two outstanding warrants on the driver, including a bench warrant and breach of probation charge.
Witness Officer No. 1 advised the man he was under arrest.
The report said the man refused to submit to arrest and attempted to place his vehicle in gear. “Unable to do so, he climbed into the rear seats of the vehicle and tried to exit through the passenger back door,” reads the report.
However, another officer, referred to as WO No. 5, had arrived to assist WO No.1 with the traffic stop and prevented the man’s escape via that route.
“WO No. 1 fired his conducted energy weapon twice at the man under arrest, but, on each occasion, the man was able to remove a probe from the back of his body,” continues the report. “The man under arrest then kicked the rear passenger door open and was taken to the ground by the officers.”
The struggle continued on the ground as additional officers arrived on scene. The report states the man under arrest was punched, kneed and stunned with a conducted energy weapon several times before his arms and legs were restrained.
“He was placed in the rear of WO No.3’s cruiser for transport to the police station,” said the report. “En route, the man under arrest kicked at the rear driver’s door, causing damage to the vehicle, and freed himself from the leg hobbles.”
Arriving at the station, in the underground parking, the man under arrest was removed from the cruiser and taken to the ground by officers, which is shown on the video footage submitted by GSPS to the SIU, said the report.
The report also states the man under arrest “struggled as WO No.3 attempted to re-secure the hobbles on his legs, at points grabbing hold of officers’ hands, and was met with several punches and a knee strike to the legs and torso. The hobble restraint was eventually affixed, and the Complainant (the man under arrest) was carried into the booking area.”
The man was placed on the floor on his right side in the booking area with officers nearby holding him down, continues the report, which states three witness officials, No.8, No.7 and No.2, held the man’s body and legs, and the subject officer placed a knee on the man’s neck area, before witness official No.1 arrived and placed a rolled blanket under the man’s neck, and the subject officer stood up.
Shortly after, two paramedics arrived and provided medical assistance to the man under arrest. Seven minutes later, the paramedics left, and the Complainant was escorted to a cell.
However, approximately two hours later, a new staff sergeant was advised that the 37-year-old man was complaining of a sore neck. He was transported to Health Sciences North (HSN) and diagnosed with a fractured C6, and possibly C5, vertebra. HSN advised that it would be best for him not to return to custody and the man was released to care of the hospital.
In his report, Martino stated he was satisfied that the “quantum of force used by the officers, including the subject officer, was lawful.”
The officers’ use of force, “was significant but made necessary” by the extent of the man’s fight and “the need to arrest him as soon as possible given their position on a live road,” referring to Cedar Street.
“Once his arms and legs were restrained, no further strikes were delivered,” states Martino, and said the force used by the officers at the station was similarly justified as the man under arrest was “still combative.”
“Lastly, with respect to the use by the SO of his knee in the booking area, I am unable to reasonably conclude the officer acted with excessive force,” said Martino in his report. “The video footage seems to depict only a modicum of force used by the officer.”
Martino said that while he accepted the 37-year-old man’s severe injuries were incurred at some point during his physical engagement with the GSPS officers, including the subject officer, he was “unable to reasonably conclude it was attributable to any unlawful conduct on their part. As such, there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case. The file is closed.”