The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has found no reasonable grounds to believe that an Ontario Provincial Police officer committed a criminal offence in connection with a facial fracture suffered by a 37-year-old man in 2020.
On Nov. 17, 2020, the man was seen removing a package from his pocket and ingesting a substance through his nose while he was in a cell at the Lennox and Addington County Detachment. The man did not comply when an officer directed him to not place his hands in his pockets. The officer then conducted a takedown of the man, who was later diagnosed with a left-sided facial fracture.
Martino found insufficient evidence to reasonably conclude that the officer acted with excessive force in the circumstances. He acknowledged the force was significant, but the officer was within their rights to act quickly as the man was at risk of self-harm from the ingestion of drugs. Accordingly, the file has been closed.