The province’s Special Investigations Unit has determined there are no reasonable grounds to believe an officer committed a criminal offence in the arrest of a 68-year-old man in West Grey last year who was subsequently taken to hospital with serious injuries.
The incident on June 6, 2020 that resulted in the arrests of father David Hillier, now 69, and his son Casey Hillier, 43, left the family alleging police brutality.
According to the SIU report, two West Grey Police officers were called to an address at about 11:50 p.m. on June 5, 2020 about a domestic dispute.
An incident narrative prepared by the SIU describes events from about 11:50 p.m. June 5 when West Grey Police were called to the family gathering until after 1 a.m. June 6 following the arrests.
A notice of legal action supplied by Toronto-based Charney Law in June 2020 alleged the police officers used “outrageous and excessive force” in the arrest of David Hillier at his son Casey’s residence on Concession 14 NDR.
It alleged David was left with broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a broken nose after being tasered and struck “approximately 20 times” with a baton.
The allegations have not been tested in court.
West Grey Police Chief Rob Martin says the police service has never been served any notice documentation of any civil matter to date.
Davin Charney with Charney Law says the Hilliers will pursue all legal recourse including a civil suit.
“At this time the Hilliers are focusing their attention on a fulsome and vigorous defence against the outstanding criminal charges,” Charney says in an email.
David Hillier and Casey Hillier face numerous charges relating to the incident, including assaulting a police officer and assault with intent to resist arrest.
The charges have not been proven in court.
The SIU’s incident narrative describing the arrests on June 6, 2020 says the complainant’s son became annoyed at the continuing presence of the subject officer and started banging his vehicle, called him a “pig” and yelled other slurs at him.
The report says the son’s ire escalated, and eventually the 68-year-old complainant joined his son and was “yelling at the subject officer.”
The SIU report says the complainant’s son turned towards one of the officers and pushed him in the chest, prompting the subject officer to exit his cruiser and tell the son he was under arrest.
A physical altercation followed between the two officers, the son and his 68-year-old father (complainant) in which both officers used their batons and the subject officer discharged his conductive energy weapon twice.
The SIU says the two West Grey Police officers radioed for assistance of other officers in the area as the struggle unfolded.
The report says the officers were able to handcuff both the son and his father, just as a number of Hanover Police and OPP officers began to arrive at the scene shortly after 1 a.m.
Both the younger Hillier and his father were transported to the police station following their arrests.
The report says “concerned about his father’s health” the son asked that medical treatment be arranged for his dad. The 68-year-old was transferred to hospital.
The SIU report notes the 68-year-old complainant was diagnosed with two rib fractures and a left-sided hemothorax.
SIU Director Joseph Martino notes in his report there is a version of events proffered in the evidence that the complainant and his son were standing by the subject officer’s cruiser and yelling at him through the closed driver’s door when the officer exited, grabbed hold of the son and slammed him into the side of the vehicle.
“Thereafter, the complainant came to his son’s aid and was met with a CEW discharge and baton strikes,” Martino’s report notes. “On this version of events, a case can be made that the complainant had a right to intervene to defend his son from an unlawful attack, and that the force used against him (the Complainant) was unlawful.”
But Martino’s report says the evidence “strongly suggests” this account of what occurred was materially incomplete, and does not acknowledge any force that may have been used against the officers by the complainant and his son.
“The evidence establishes, in my view, that the complainant kicked the officers in the course of the fracas,” Martino’s report says. “For these and other reasons, I am not satisfied that the evidence in its totality is sufficiently cogent to reasonably establish that (the son’s” arrest was, per se, unlawful.”
The SIU Director’s report also says there is insufficiently reliable evidence to reasonably believe that either officer used excessive force in their arrest of the complainant.
“All that can be said with any certainty is that the officers’ resort to force occurred in the context of what appears to have been a strenuous struggle … in which both sides delivered and received blows,” Martino says in the report. “On this record, I am unable to reasonably conclude that the officers acted out of proportion to the challenges at hand.
The SIU Director concludes he is not satisfied on reasonable ground that either police officer acted other than lawfully during the encounter and closed the file.
The SIU interviewed six civilian witnesses and six police officers during its investigation. Both the complainant (David Hillier) and the subject officer declined to provide statements to SIU.
