No charges against police for broken face bone in domestic violence arrest

The province’s police watchdog says it has found no reason to charge Ottawa police after a man suffered a facial fracture in a wild domestic-related brawl on the sidewalk at Booth and Wellington streets last December.

In a report, Special Investigations Unit interim director Joseph Martino noted a police officer arrived at the scene shortly before 8 a.m. and saw dried blood on the faces of a 26-year-old man and woman. The woman also had blackened eyes, the report states.

The officer moved to take the man into custody, but the suspect resisted and a struggle ensued.

The officer attempted to force the suspect to the ground but slipped on the icy sidewalk, falling on his back.

“Fearing for his safety with the (suspect) now over him, (the officer) kicked him in the head and returned to his feet, whereupon the Complainant punched him in the head,” Martino writes.

The struggle continued with both sides landing blows.

At some point, the woman also attacked the officer and “pulled an imitation gun,” the report notes.

She was not arrested.

“The (suspect) continued to resist, pushing and pulling (the officer), holding onto (the woman) and the chain-link fence that lined … the sidewalk in the vicinity, and kicking the officer.”

The officer’s Taser was dropped during the melee, so he reached for his pepper spray and tried to blast the suspect.

“The spray backfired and struck the officer in the face, it appeared to have little effect on the (suspect),” Martino wrote.

In response to repeated requests for assistance, another cruiser arrived and a second officer

was able to ground the suspect face first.

Other arriving officers managed to handcuff the man and put him in the back seat of a cruiser.

“There, he began to violently bang his head on the rear passenger side window and the Plexiglas partition that separated the front and rear compartments of the cruiser,” the report says.

He was taken to hospital and diagnosed with a broken orbital bone in his face.

While it was possible that the arrest caused the injury, Martino said, he felt the force used in the incident was within “the range of what was reasonably necessary to overcome the (suspect’s) resistance and effect his arrest.

“Consequently, there are no grounds to proceed with charges in this case and the file is closed.” nprovencher@postmedia.com