SIU: Cornwall man overdosed in jail after ‘secreting’ drugs in his rectum; police cleared

Published Jul 02, 2023 • Last updated 9 hours ago • 4 minute read

Special Investigations Unit logo. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia

Two Cornwall police officers have been cleared of wrongdoing in connection with a man who overdosed in their custody after sneaking drugs into his jail cell by “secreting” them in his rectum.

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Special Investigations Unit director Joseph Martino found no reasonable grounds to charge the two subject officers who searched the 32-year-old man — who was not named publicly — after he was arrested at a local restaurant and jailed at Cornwall’s Pitt Street police headquarters on March 4.

According to the SIU report, released June 30, the man was arrested for mischief for “loitering in the bathroom of a restaurant” in Cornwall and police found a knife during their initial search. He was also charged with a breach of conditions.

The man “snuck drugs into his cell” concealed in a condom in his rectum and later “consumed it,” according to the SIU. He then lapsed into medical distress and was successfully treated in hospital for a prescription drug overdose.

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The man was subjected to two searches prior to being put into his cell, Martino said in his conclusion, “but the man had secreted the drugs in his anus so those searches would not have been able to detect the drugs.”

According to evidence provided by the Cornwall Police Service, the man was first searched at the restaurant during his arrest around 4 p.m., then again an hour later at the police station before he was “lodged” in his cell.

The man “apparently ingested something and began to sleep heavily.”

Paramedics were called and the man was transported to hospital at 8:38 p.m. in a “coma-like condition.”

Investigators found “clear plastic debris with two condoms and tissue” inside the toilet of his cell, according to the Cornwall police evidence.

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A later review of the cellblock video “depicted the (man) taking a condom out of his rectum and ingesting the contents.”

Police learned the following day that the man would be released from hospital that afternoon.

He was interviewed by the SIU on March 16.

According to a review of the video, the man was seen that evening using his left hand “to retrieve something from behind his lower back as he was seated on the toilet. He placed the item in the well of the sink … (he) stood in front of the toilet and blessed himself multiple times.”

The man then “retrieved an opaque object from the sink and manipulated it with both hands before tossing the object into the toilet as he sat on the bench.”

He was then seen retrieving a brown cup from the sink while the “opaque object” was in his closed left hand.

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“He sipped from the cup before tilting his head back and consuming the contents from his left hand via his mouth,” according to the SIU report. The man “sipped on the cup, then emptied the contents of his left hand into his mouth.”

According to the SIU, the man then “blessed himself several times, looked into the camera, and made faces and rude gestures before laying down on the bench.”

About 90 minutes later, the man “sat up on the bench before laying back down.” His head and shoulders then slid off the bench “and came to rest in between the bench and the toilet.”

A police officer went to check on him and noticed he was breathing as she attempted to rouse him, causing his arms to “twitch.”

He remained unresponsive and an ambulance was called, according to the report, and the man was treated in hospital for an overdose of prescription anti-depressant medication.

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“Once in custody, I am satisfied that (the two police officers) comported themselves with due care and regard for the (man’s) health and well-being,” Martino concluded. “The only real issue raised in the evidence is how it was that the (man) was able to bring drugs into the cell with him and consume them …

“Perhaps a strip search might have revealed the presence of the drugs, but this, too, is not altogether clear given their placement within the (man’s) person,” Martino continued. “Nor does it appear that there were grounds to conduct such a search. As the case law makes clear, such searches are inherently degrading and cannot be justified in the absence of reasonable and probable grounds for concluding a strip search is necessary.”

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The man had not been arrested for a drug offence, Martino said, and had denied consuming drugs or alcohol.

“In the result, as there are no reasonable grounds to believe that either subject official transgressed the limits of care prescribed by the criminal law in their dealings with the (man), there is no basis for proceeding with charges,” Martino said. “The file is closed.”

An arms-length provincial agency, the SIU invokes its mandate in cases involving police where there has been death, serious injury, the discharge of a firearm at a person or an allegation of sexual assault.

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