OPP officers cleared of wrongdoing in Listowel woman's balcony fall
An officer at ground level rushed to her aid, provided assistance and called for paramedics.
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The province’s Special Investigations Unit cleared police officers of any wrongdoing as a result of an incident in Listowel when a woman jumped from a balcony and suffered serious injuries.
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OPP officers cleared of wrongdoing in Listowel woman's balcony fall Back to video
According to the SIU report released Friday, Ontario Provincial Police were dispatched April 19, 2023, to a domestic disturbance at an apartment in the area of Main Street East and Wallace Avenue North. One of those involved – a 40-year-old woman – was wanted by police for breaching the terms of a judicial release order, the report said.
Officers entered the apartment after their knocks went unanswered, and the woman was found hiding in a closet after having removed a monitoring device from her body.
“(She) put on a wig and started acting strange,” SIU director Jopseh Martino wrote in his report.
The woman stepped out from the closet at the officers’ request and walked past them and out of the room. Officers followed her into an adjacent bedroom as she made her way onto a balcony and jumped.
An officer at ground level rushed to her aid, provided assistance and called for paramedics.
The woman was taken to Listowel Memorial Hospital with multiple fractures. Martino determined there were no reasonable grounds to believe that an officer committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident. The file has been closed, he stated.
“There was very little opportunity for either officer to process what the complainant was doing, much less to take any steps to prevent her from jumping,” Martino wrote.
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of police officers in cases of death, serious injury, sexual assault 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. Then, 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. The report must then be publicly disclosed.
It’s the second time in less than two weeks the SIU has released the results of an investigation into a Perth County-based officer.
Stratford Police Services Const. Cody Millian was recently charged with one count of assault causing bodily harm stemming from a Feb. 1 incident at the city’s downtown transit terminal. He is scheduled to appear before the Ontario court of justice in Stratford on Sept. 11.
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