Charges have been withdrawn against a father and a son who were involved in an altercation with two West Grey Police officers during an arrest in 2020 and suffered serious injuries as a result.
The crown attorney handling the case withdrew charges against David Hillier, 69, and his son Casey Hillier, 44, on Dec. 14 at the Ontario Court of Justice in Walkerton.
Both men were facing numerous offences including assault a police officer and assault with intent to resist arrest relating to a June 6, 2020 incident after two West Grey Police officers responded to a domestic dispute call at Casey’s residence on Concession 14 NDR.
Now that criminal charges against them have been withdrawn, the Hilliers are pursuing a civil suit against the West Grey Police Service and the two officers involved in the arrest, according to the legal counsel representing them in the claim Davin Charney.
A copy of a statement of claim filed in Kitchener on Dec. 21 lists the West Grey Police Services Board, Const. Robert Shering and Const. Mitchell Roulston as defendants. David and Casey Hillier, and five other members of the Hillier family are plaintiffs.
The claim alleges David was left with broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a broken nose after being tasered and struck “approximately 20 times” with a baton. It also alleges Casey was left bleeding from the head and had scrapes and bruising on his legs, arms and back after being “shot with a taser” and struck with a baton repeatedly.
The Hilliers are seeking $1-million in aggravated and punitive damages in their civil claim. In addition, David Hillier is seeking $2-million in general damages and his son Casey $500,000 for what they claim was an “unlawful” arrest and “excessive” use of force against them.
A complaint was also filed by the younger Hillier with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director against one of the two West Grey Police officers involved in the incident. It says a complaint was not filed against the second officer for the sole reason that he has since retired.
West Grey Police Chief Rob Martin says no statement of claim has been served to the municipal police department as of yet.
“If we do receive, we will respond accordingly through our counsel,” Martin says.
The province’s Special Investigations Unit conducted an investigation into the incident. Earlier this year, SIU Director Joseph Martino concluded there was no reasonable grounds to believe an officer committed a criminal offence.
“All that can be said with any certainty is that the officers’ resort to force occurred in the context of what appears to have been a strenuous struggle … in which both sides delivered and received blows,” Martino says in the report. “On this record, I am unable to reasonably conclude that the officers acted out of proportion to the challenges at hand.”
The statement of claim filed by the Hilliers alleges the two police officers “plotted to conceal their conduct” and failed to document the force used during the arrest. It also alleges one of the officers was “deliberately deceitful” in his statement to the SIU.
The allegations made in the civil lawsuit have not been tested in court.
