Ontario's police watchdog has ended an investigation involving an Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre inmate who was injured while being taken to the London courthouse.
London police were transporting a group of inmates in a van from the provincial jail to the courthouse on Dundas St. on June 14 when a fight broke out between two prisoners. The dust-up left one of the inmates with serious injuries. He was taken to hospital where he was diagnosed with a left orbital bone fracture.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) was called in to investigate the incident.
“The man’s injuries were not caused or contributed to by any police officer. As such, I have terminated the investigation into this incident,” said SIU Director Tony Loparco in a statement issued Thursday.
The SIU also dropped its probe into the death of a 28-year-old man in Courtland. The man died April 8, a week after crashing his vehicle into a tree. Loparco determined the crash happened after an Oxford OPP officer, who had been following the man, lost sight of his vehicle.
"The evidence is clear that no police officer was anywhere near the man at the time of his collision," said Loparco. "The officer who had initially observed the man and followed him had lost visual contact approximately four to five minutes prior to the collision and in fact had been stationary for approximately three minutes at the time of the collision."
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.
