THUNDER BAY — A security guard testified he felt intimidated by two city police officers after expressing concern about their treatment of an intoxicated man during an interaction nine years ago.
Michael Dimini, a Thunder Bay Police Service sergeant, was charged in 2023 by the OPP with two counts of assault, one count of breach of trust and one count of obstruction of justice.
In late February one of the assault charges was dismissed after a four-day trial.
On Monday, a trial began at the Thunder Bay Courthouse for the second assault charge, which stems from an incident on Oct. 25, 2016 outside of St. Joseph’s Heritage on Carrie Street. It's alleged Dimini used excessive force when arresting the complainant, an intoxicated man.
Dimini entered a plea of not guilty before the Crown called the security guard who had been working at the building the night of the incident to testify.
The guard testified he attended to a noise complaint at a unit in the adjoining PR Cook apartment building around 12:45 a.m. and when he attended the unit, he could hear yelling in the hallway.
The tenant of the unit asked the guard to remove two people — her adult daughter and the daughter’s common-law spouse, the complainant.
After convincing the pair to leave, the guard escorted them out of the building with their belongings packed in several bags.
The guard noted the pair were intoxicated, particularly the complainant who was frequently falling down. Because of this, he took them down the elevator instead of the stairway.
Once outside, the couple confessed they had nowhere to go and the security guard was worried for their wellbeing as it was cold outside.
He went inside to call 911 to ask for paramedics. The guard said the couple were upset he had called 911 and the complainant was agitated with him and appeared to take a swing at the guard. The guard said he easily stepped aside as the man was still highly intoxicated.
“It wasn’t the type of punch that made me fear for my safety,” the guard told the court.
An ambulance and a police SUV arrived and then the guard received a call about a smoke alarm. He left to attend to the alarm and when he returned, an officer — who the guard noted held badge No. 744 — had the complainant on the ground and was restraining his hands.
When the officer lifted the man off the ground, the security guard said he noticed the complainant's face was in worse condition than when he left to attend to the smoke alarm. Previously, the guard said he had only noticed a small cut on the bridge of the man’s nose.
The guard said “it appeared there were more injuries than when I left him.”
The same officer then put the complainant in the back of the police cruiser.
“He wasn’t actively resisting arrest but the state he was in, I don’t think the officer was having an easy time getting him in the vehicle,” the guard said.
The woman was also upset and the guard said he believes she was voicing objections to what was going on, stepping up to the same officer, telling him to let the complainant go, that they didn’t do anything wrong.
“She is shouting and getting in their face,” said the guard. “(The officer) responds by taking a hand and shoving her by her collarbone.”
The police then left, followed shortly after by the ambulance, leaving the woman behind with her belongings.
The guard told the woman he would keep her bags at the Heritage building until she could come pick them up the next day, but she couldn’t stay at the building. She left but returned shortly after and the guard said he tried calling some friends for her and was unsuccessful.
He then again called 911 and said he specifically asked for paramedics. Instead two police officers arrived. They were different officers from the ones who had attended the first call.
Eventually the woman left with the officers but not before the guard explained what happened earlier and his concerns that something may have happened earlier to the complainant that he did not see because he had left to attend to the smoke alarm.
“My presence there was bothersome to one of the officers. He tells me if I don’t leave, he’s going to put me in the back of the vehicle,” the guard said.
The guard then returned to his duties and when he was on patrol, walking through the main parking lot around 3 a.m., the first responding officers returned.
The two officers exit the vehicle, the guard testified, and the officer with badge no. 744 said the other two officers who had attended the scene contacted him and said the guard had been interfering in some way by observing.
“He seemed to want to scold me for that,” the guard said, noting the officer wasn’t shouting but was very stern.
The officer told the guard what happened earlier with the complainant was necessary, that he had dealt with the complainant before and he was dangerous.
The guard said the officer began asking him questions about his work, how long he worked there, how he got home, when he worked.
“They made me uncomfortable,” the guard said. “I would back away, he would re-enter my space.”
“I felt extremely intimidated. A lot of these questions pointed to where I might be found outside of work and outside of home.”
While the one officer was asking the questions, the other officer was out of the vehicle, “staring at me and helping to corral me as I was walking ... I felt that he was still an active participant.”
The guard said he felt he was being ganged-up on by the two officers.
During cross-examination, the security guard said the complainant would go between being calm and agitated and that he doesn’t know why the man was arrested as he was not present at the time.
“It was clear to you that (his) level of intoxication was a danger to himself,” the defence asked.
The guard agreed and also agreed when asked that when the arresting officer returned around 3 a.m., he told the guard the complainant had tried to fight the police.
And when asked if he felt intimidated, the guard said “I didn’t know if it would ever be safe for me to call police again.”
The trial is expected to resume Tuesday.
None of the allegations against Dimini have been proven in court.
Dimini is on leave from the Thunder Bay Police Service as per the Police Services Act.
