The provincial law-enforcement oversight agency has exonerated Ontario Provincial Police in the arrest of a man in Leamington this spring.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) invoked its mandate following the March 26 incident at a medicinal cannabis growing operation in Leamington.
OPP officers were called to the business for a report of a break-and-enter involving two suspects. When police arrived at the Talbot Street West location, they found a 42-year-old man being forcibly detained by business employees.
"The officers arrived to find the complainant in rough shape," read the report released Thursday by the SIU. "He had been confronted by workers at the facility, who had accused him of theft and chased him down when he tried to flee on his bicycle. Several workers had knocked the complainant off his bike and then fought with him on the ground. The complainant was still on the ground, surrounded by the workers and security personnel when the police moved in to arrest him. In the course of his arrest, the complainant was punched and kneed a number of times by a couple of officers before he was handcuffed."
The man was taken by ambulance to Erie Shores Healthcare, where he was treated for a broken arm and released from police custody.
In the SIU's report, director Joseph Martino noted that the man had not allowed investigators access to his medical records and that the officer may not have necessarily caused the injuries he suffered.
"The injuries he purportedly suffered are not enough to corroborate this story in which he was a passive and harmless victim of potentially illegal assaults as they were not confirmed by any medical records, which the SIU failed to receive, and might well have been inflicted by the workers prior to the officers' arrival," wrote Martino.
With that, the SIU has closed the file, and no charges will be filed against the OPP officers.