Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (May 03/99) - A report detailing the events of the night that an RCMP officer allegedly assaulted a man in police custody is one step closer to being resolved, say officials.

According to Pam Clarke, the regional director, who oversees the Crown lawyers in Nunavut, the report containing the criminal investigation into Const. Colin Allooloo's alleged assault on Iqaluit resident Mathew Petooloosie was forwarded to her by Insp. Dan Fudge last Tuesday afternoon.

While the police performed the investigation and carefully reviewed the report themselves, it is customary for them to forward cases concerning potential charges against their own members on to crown prosecutors for a legal opinion.

Clarke, who said her office had established a working relationship with Allooloo, decided to pass the report and the recommendation for charges on to colleagues employed outside of Nunavut.

"Given that Const. Allooloo works in Iqaluit and works quite closely with our office, it was inappropriate for our office to give an opinion," said Clarke.

"I sent it out to the Department of Justice in Manitoba and asked them to provide an independent legal opinion on the information contained in the report, on whether there are sufficient grounds for laying charges and what those charges should be."

Possible outcomes

Clarke added that the report, which contained two binders full of information, would arrive in Manitoba by the end of the week and that it would take that office two to four weeks to reach a decision.

Once that opinion has been forwarded back to her, Clarke said they would review the decision before sending it on to the RCMP. She explained that there were several different possible outcomes concerning the matter.

If all parties agree that there are insufficient grounds to lay charges, the matter will be dropped.

In the event that there is a disagreement between the Crown and the police concerning potential charges, Clarke said the parties would continue to meet and discuss the opinion until a satisfactory decision was reached.

"We would go up the ladder and meet with whoever we had to meet with," said Clarke.

She added that in her 12 years as a prosecutor, she had never seen the police disagree with a Crown decision.

If the police and the Crown feel that criminal charges should be laid against Allooloo, he will be treated accordingly.

"If he was charged, he would basically be dealt with the way any other accused would be dealt with," said Clarke.

Depending upon what kind of charges are laid, Allooloo would either be arrested or receive a summons to appear and he would be granted his day in court. If he chose to plead not guilty to the charge, Clarke said an outside prosecutor would be brought in to argue the matter in court.

Insp. Fudge noted that whatever the decision was, it would be made public after the Crown provided their opinion.

Fudge said he's already made a decision concerning the alleged assault, but he chose not to comment on it.

"I have an opinion, but I'm not going to share it with you," said Fudge.

Meanwhile, Allooloo remains on active duty and will continue to do so until the legal opinion comes back from the Crown. If charges are laid against him, the commanding officer will then decide if Allooloo will continue to work as a police officer during his court proceedings.

Emergency surgery

The matter first came to light three months ago when Mathew Petooloosie spent the night in police cells and was forced to undergo emergency surgery to repair his ruptured bladder following his release. He alleged that Allooloo kicked him while he was in custody. The 24-year-old carver has also asked that the RCMP Public Complaints Commission look into the incident.

And while similar excessive force allegations against police officers are not unheard of, Clarke said they were infrequent.