SIU ends probes of injuries during arrests in Pembroke, North Dundas

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The provincial police watchdog has discontinued investigations into reported injuries in connection with a pair of arrests in eastern Ontario last summer and fall.

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The Special Investigations Unit announced Thursday that it had closed the files on the incidents involving Ontario Provincial Police officers in Pembroke and North Dundas Township.

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In the Pembroke case, a 46-year-old man wanted on several arrest warrants fled on foot upon seeing an officer in the area of Willard Street on Sept. 13. According to the SIU report, for more than an hour the man scaled fences, traversed a river, went up and down embankments and broke into at least two homes. He was eventually apprehended and taken to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a broken rib.

Based on the SIU’s preliminary inquiries, director Joseph Martin wrote in the report, it was “patently clear at this time that the police did nothing to cause or contribute to the man’s injury that could conceivably attract criminal sanction.”

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The North Dundas Township incident involved the arrest of a 34-year-old woman outside her home on Aug. 14.

On Sept. 6, the SIU received a report that the woman had been seriously injured during her arrest by officers from the OPP’s Winchester detachment. She had been arrested in connection with a domestic dispute involving her husband. When officers escorted the woman outside, the SIU report said, she pulled away and was taken to the ground. Her head did not strike the ground, but the officer held her head to the grass for two to three seconds before she was repositioned in a sitting position.

It was alleged that the takedown had worsened the symptoms of a concussion the woman received weeks earlier, when she fell off a horse.

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Based on preliminary SIU inquiries, including a review of medical records, Martino wrote that there was insufficient evidence of a “serious injury” within the mandate of the SIU, so the agency did not have statutory jurisdiction to continue the investigation.

The SIU is an independent agency that investigates the conduct of police officers, special constables with the Niagara Parks Commission and peace officers with the Legislative Protective Service that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault or the discharge of a firearm at a person.