News Release
SIU Concludes Investigation into Woman’s Arrest, Injury in Hamilton
Case Number: 22-OCI-159
The Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Joseph Martino, has found no reasonable grounds to believe that a Hamilton Police Service officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the arrest and injury of a 38-year-old woman in June.
On June 25, 2022, officers were called to check on the wellbeing of the woman at an apartment on King Street East in Hamilton. The woman grabbed a female officer’s hair and bit the other officer on his arm. The male officer punched the woman in the face and the officers forced her to the floor to handcuff her. The woman was taken to the station, then to the hospital for treatment.
While Director Martino acknowledged that the woman lost her teeth from the punch or takedown, or a combination of both, he was not satisfied on reasonable grounds that her injury was the result of unlawful conduct on the part of the officers. As such, there was no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case. The file has been closed.
Full Director’s Report (with Incident Narrative, Evidence, and Analysis & Director’s Decision):
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials (police officers as well as 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 and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person. All investigations are conducted by SIU investigators who are civilians. Under the Special Investigations Unit Act, the Director of the SIU must
- consider whether the official has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation
- depending on the evidence, cause a criminal charge to be laid against the official where grounds exist for doing so, or close the file without any charges being laid
- publicly report the results of its investigations
Lisez ce communiqué en français.
Kristy Denette, siu.media@ontario.ca
SIU Communications/Service des communications, UES