Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (May 17/99) - Following a two and a half-month criminal investigation into the alleged assault of Iqaluit resident Mathew Petooloosie by RCMP Const. Colin Allooloo, the police force has stated that no charges will be brought against their member.

"We're happy it turned out the way it did. We're pleased," said Insp. Dan Fudge of the Iqaluit RCMP. "We think our officer acted properly during the entire arrest and the entire booking-in procedure and I think the evidence supports that."

The original arrest and the ensuing allegations stemmed from an incident that occurred on March 2. After an evening of drinking at the Legion, Petooloosie, 24, returned to his residence. While he originally told News/North that the alleged assault began when he was walking home, he later said that the police were called to his residence following an incident that erupted with family members.

"His brother called, actually, complaining that Mr. Petooloosie was intoxicated and causing trouble at his residence so the police went there as a result of that call. Mr. Petooloosie was arrested. A minor scuffle took place and it resulted in Mr. Petooloosie being placed in the police vehicle," said Fudge.

Allooloo and Cadet Joe Baines took Petooloosie to the detachment and proceeded to book him into the drunk-tank. Petooloosie alleged that Allooloo started slapping him in the face and then began to kick him in the abdomen. While another man already in a police cell also claimed to witness Allooloo kick Petooloosie, Insp. Fudge said there was absolutely no evidence, including that gained from the videotape of the area around the police cells, to support such an allegation.

"The evidence we saw from the videotape does not support the individual claiming what he witnessed," said Fudge.

"I can tell you that the constable did not kick him. I think that was erroneously reported in the media...which is just totally not true and there is no evidence to support that whatsoever," said Fudge.

He explained that while attempting to place Petooloosie in the cells, an altercation did occur, but it was short and not of an extremely violent nature.

"An altercation did take place between Const. Allooloo and the gentleman. The question is whether or not that resulted in the injury to him. We don't know and I don't think that can be determined. Our view is that the officer acted properly during that confrontation," said Fudge.

After being released the next morning, Petooloosie returned home, but checked himself into the hospital later that evening. Emergency surgery was performed on him a few hours later, during which his bladder was found to be ruptured. He claimed that the injury was directly caused by Allooloo during his stay in police custody.

Medical staff have said that the injury did come about as a result of some sort of outside trauma done to Petooloosie's abdomen, but a full, distended bladder is quite fragile and easy to rupture.

After being released from the hospital, Petooloosie hired criminal lawyer Euan Mackay to represent him and the pair requested that an RCMP criminal investigation take place. After three officers from Yellowknife compiled the extremely extensive report, it was handed to Fudge, who in turn passed it on to Pamela Clarke, the regional director of the Department of Justice in Iqaluit.

Because she also had a close working relationship with Allooloo, Clarke said the final decision on whether charges should be laid or not was forwarded with the report to the Department of Justice in Manitoba.

"I wanted to make sure there was no way anyone could say this was a biased opinion," said Clarke.

After receiving the opinion from her colleagues in the south, Clarke handed it and her own decision on to Fudge and all three concurred that no excessive force had been used and that there was no evidence nor a reasonable prospect for conviction if charges had been laid.

"Based on what I observed and reviewed of the evidence, there was no evidence to suggest that anything Colin did was criminal activity," said Clarke.

Allooloo, who remained on active duty during the investigation, was not available for comment and Petooloosie has also been directed by his counsel not to speak to the media.

Mackay did, however, say that while he was not surprised by the decision -- he was shocked.

"I'm shocked not only as a professional, but as a member of the community that this actually happened. I hoped in the back of my mind that justice would prevail. In my opinion, there was more than enough evidence there to lay the charge...it's very, very troubling," said Mackay.

While he intends to proceed with a complaint lodged with the RCMP Public Complaints Commission, as well as a substantial civil action against the RCMP and "others," Mackay said he and his client had been through the emotional wringer.

"There's absolutely no accountability for the force in this community. They're acting with impunity."