An OPP officer attached to the Kemptville detachment, has been charged with assault following an incident which took place on River Road last November. A 53-year old woman was arrested early in the morning of November 14, and, at some time during the arrest and removal to an OPP detachment, she suffered injuries.
The OPP Special Investigations Unit was called in as a result of the incident, and has now laid the assault charge against the officer. According to a release by the SIU:
“In the early morning hours of Monday, November 14, 2016, officers were dispatched to a residence in North Grenville after 911 received a call. The officers spoke with a 53-year-old woman who lived in the residence, and then left. The officers returned to the woman’s home a short time later. There was an interaction between the officers and the woman, and she was subsequently arrested.”
As a result of the SIU investigation, a 36-year-old OPP Constable is facing one count of assault, contrary to s. 266 of the Criminal Code. The officer is required to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice at 41 Court House Square in Brockville on March 10, 2017.
At the time of the incident, an OPP release reported that: “A female was placed under arrest and while being transported to the detachment, there was an interaction that occurred between the female and the officer in which both sustained injuries.” Now, the Director of the SIU, Tony Loparco, has stated that the Unit: “has reasonable grounds to believe an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer with the Kemptville detachment committed a criminal offence in relation to the arrest of a woman in November of 2016.”
Neither the SIU nor local OPP detachment spokespeople will comment further on the case, now that it is before the courts.
The SIU is an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault. Under the Police Services Act, the Director of the SIU must consider whether an officer has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation depending on the evidence, lay a criminal charge against the officer if appropriate or close the file without any charges being laid and report the results of any investigations to the Attorney General.
