Provincial Police in Sioux Lookout have been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in a November 29th, 2019 incident.
The Special Investigations Unit says officers were dispatched to the Tim Hortons that day after receiving a report of an altercation and a 22-year-old man was arrested and transported to the OPP detachment for lodging.
While in a cell, the SIU says the man fell twice from his bed to the ground and a few days later he reported that he had suffered a jaw injury.
In his ruling, Director Joseph Martino says based on video recordings from Tim Hortons and the man’s time at the detachment, there is “patently nothing to investigate as far as the potential criminal liability of any police officer is concerned in relation to the man’s reported injury.”
“If the man’s injury occurred at the Tim Hortons, as appears likely to have been the case given the altercation caught on the recording between the man and another individual, then clearly no police officer was responsible as none were present.”
“If, on the other hand, the man was injured while in custody, there is nothing in the cell video recording to suggest any untoward conduct or want of care on the part of the police. Rather, the injury is likely to have been self-inflicted in the course of one or the other of the man’s falls, or both, captured by the recording.”
Martino says the investigation and the file are now both closed.
