5 cops should be charged for G20 Nobody arrest, police watchdog says
Posted January 20, 2012 1:46 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The provincial police complaints watchdog says five police officers should be charged with unnecessary force and discreditable conduct for the way they handled the arrest of Adam Nobody during a G20 demonstration at Queen’s Park.
An independent review conducted by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) concluded charges should be laid against Toronto Police constables Babak Andalib-Goortani, Michael Adams, David Donaldson, Geoffrey Fardell and Oliver Simpson.
Nobody attend a demonstration at Queen’s Park during the G20 summit in Toronto on June 26, 2010, when he claimed five or six officers jumped him, threw him to the ground and beat him. The arrest happened after Black Bloc violence and vandalism throughout the downtown core earlier in the day and after mounted officers had stormed through crowds gathered at Queen’s Park.
In its 174-page report, which included several witness and police accounts, the OIPRD said the alleged excessive use of force and discreditable conduct by the five officers are “substantiated and is of a serious nature.”
Nobody also claimed he was handed over to two plainclothes officers who took him between two court vehicles and kicked and punched him, but the OIPRD said that allegation was unsubstantiated.
Nobody suffered a broken nose and cheekbone.
One witness officer’s account claims Nobody was “antagonizing the crowd to attack police,” and was taunting officers.
Andalib-Goortani was charged with assault with a weapon in December 2010. The province’s Special Investigations Unit, which probes incidents involving police that result in serious injury or death, closed the Nobody case last July after concluding it had no grounds to charge other arresting officers.
