Winnipeg Crown: no basis for charges against Allooloo

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — A Crown prosecutor in Winnipeg has cleared Cst. Colin Allooloo of any criminal wrongdoing in the alleged assault of a prisoner in his custody.

Crown lawyers, using an internal RCMP report, concluded that there is no basis for criminal charges to be laid against the constable, and that if charges were laid, there would be no reasonable prospect of conviction, RCMP Insp. Dan Fudge said this week.

Allooloo’s boss also said that details of the report itself would not be made public.

“We have no intention of releasing that report, ever,” Fudge said.

Euan Mackay, a lawyer representing the injured prisoner Mathew Petooloosie, questioned the findings and the secretive nature of the police investigation.

“Certainly the RCMP investigating the RCMP, particularly with a serious allegation like this, disturbs me,” MacKay said. “They could have at least brought in the OPP or some other police force.”

Petooloosie complained that he was kicked by Allooloo while detained in a police holding cell March 2. He subsequently required emergency surgery at the Baffin Regional Hospital to repair a bleeding, ruptured bladder.

Fudge said the report does not ascertain exactly how Petooloosie’s bladder was ruptured, and admits the possibility that it resulted from a confrontation with the police officer.

“There was medical evidence to conclude that the bladder could rupture with a very minor blow,” Fudge added.