The province’s police watchdog says there is no basis to proceed with charges in connection with NBPS’s arrest of a North Bay man last October.
On October 7th, 2020, a 56-year-old man suffered a fractured right ankle while being arrested by a North Bay Police Service officer. The Director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Joseph Martino, has determined there are no reasonable grounds to believe that the officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the man’s arrest and injury.
On that day, NBPS responded to the call of a woman reporting a domestic disturbance at her apartment on Clarence Street. The woman said that a man who she had earlier allowed into her apartment was now climbing back into her residence through a window after she had asked him to leave.
“As the conversation on the phone continued, the woman noted that the Complainant had left her apartment through the door. Police officers were dispatched to the address to investigate.” the SIU reports read.
As the first officer arrived to the area, he saw a man walking and decided to question to see if he was the subject of the woman’s complaint.
“The subject officer (SO) pulled up to the man in his cruiser and asked where he was coming from,” the report reads. “The man refused to say and continued to walk southward. Not satisfied with the man’s response, the SO again approached in his cruiser, this time deciding he would exit to speak with him on foot. As the SO brought his cruiser to a stop and opened his driver’s door to exit, the man pushed the car door back into the officer. Now fully out of his cruiser, the SO took hold of the man to arrest him.”
The SIU report reveals that the man was the complainant, and he was grabbed by the officer and taken to the ground on the grass at the northeast corner of Athlone and Clarence Streets. The SO was then joined by another officer, and the two handcuffed the Complainant’s arms behind his back while he lay prone on the ground. The Complainant began to complain about a sore ankle.
The complainant was eventually taken to the hospital by ambulance and diagnosed with a fractured right ankle.
Martino writes in his decision that police officers are “immune from criminal liability for force used in the course of their duties provided such force was reasonably necessary in the execution of an act that they were required or authorized to do by law.”
“The Complainant was entitled to not answer the SO’s questions. He was not entitled to push the door into the left side of the officer’s body in the fashion he did. When he did so, he was subject to arrest for assault,” wrote Martino. “In the result, though it appears that the Complainant’s right ankle was broken in the course of his interaction with the SO, whether the result of the takedown and/or the struggle that preceded it, I am satisfied on reasonable grounds that the officer conducted himself lawfully throughout their engagement. Accordingly, there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case and the file is closed.”
