No charges laid in IIO investigation in Penticton

PENTICTON, B.C. – No charges have been approved for an incident in Penticton involving the use of force by a mountie against a woman.

According to Independent Investigations Office (IIO) documents, the woman, who was taken into custody by police, had caused a disturbance at the Penticton Public Library.

She was using a walker and at some point had fallen down. The officer drove up just after she fell and he helped her get up.

The woman later complained about an arm injury and was later diagnosed as having a broken right wrist, according to the Criminal Justice Branch, Ministry of Justice (CJB).

The IIO says police and civilian witnesses indicated the woman was intoxicated and belligerent at the time of the incident which happened in April of 2014.

“The complainant acknowledges that her memory of the events of the day is not clear and that she had been consuming liquor. She indicated to IIO investigators that she probably did initially resist arrest, but attributes her hitting the officer to being in pain because the officer had pulled on her arm to try and get into the police car,” says the IIO in a report submitted to the CJB.

CJB concluded there wasn’t “substantial likelihood that the officer who was the subject of the IIO investigation would be convicted of any offences arising from the circumstances.”

The CJB also announced Friday that no charges were approved in a case out of Surrey involving the use of a Police Service Dog in the arrest of a suspect by a member of the New Westminster Police Department.