RCMP cleared in jail injury case
Medicine Hat police say woman's injuries 'self-induced'
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, April 10, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Medicine Hat Police Service say it has found nothing criminal about an incident that occurred in an RCMP holding cell where a woman was found seriously injured late last month.
Staff Sgt. Joe West: Medicine Hat Police officer says there was nothing criminal in nature after a woman was injured in RCMP cells in Yellowknife. |
The Mounties asked Medicine Hat police to investigate after taking the woman to Stanton Territorial Hospital in the early morning hours of March 26 with undisclosed injuries.
The RCMP stated at the time that the woman was seriously injured while alone in a secure cell.
Staff Sgt. Joe West of the Medicine Hat Police Service said they were called in to conduct an independent investigation with the purpose of maintaining public confidence and transparency. Two officers were in Yellowknife last week conducting interviews as part of their investigation, West said.
"Their investigation at this point has shown that there was nothing criminal in nature in regards to the conduct of the RCMP or how that woman became injured," West said.
"The investigation has evolved into a review examining whether all the policies and procedures that the RCMP have in place in regards to the cell blocks were followed and adhered to by those members and staff there."
West preferred not to disclose exactly how the woman was hurt other than to say it was "self-induced."
"There was no blunt trauma or open wounds," West said. "She did not have access to anything she could've used to injure herself."
The woman is out of hospital and has recovered from her injury, West said. He declined to reveal the woman's identity.
The officers' official report will be completed in the next 30 days or so, he said.
The investigation of RCMP in the NWT by an outside agency is the fifth in the last 18 months, two of those happening in the past two weeks. The RCMP were cleared on any wrongdoing after man jumped from a fourth floor balcony in Yellowknife in December of 2013 in an apparent attempt to evade arrest. He suffered serious leg and back injuries.
RCMP were also cleared after a claim last fall that a woman in Fort Resolution was elbowed in the face by an officer.
It is not clear whether an investigation has been completed after a woman was hurt during an interaction with RCMP in Fort Liard last October. She was airlifted to Stanton Territorial Hospital after the incident.
