Dafonte Miller takes the witness stand
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
The young Black teen at the centre of a high-profile case of police brutality took the stand last week at the preliminary inquiry into the assault charges against Michael and Christian Theriault, the two brothers accused of attacking him with a metal pipe in 2016.
The 19-year-old was soft-spoken during his time on the witness stand as he answered lawyers’ questions surrounding the night that led to his egregious injuries and the loss of his eye.
A publication ban prevents the details of Miller’s testimony, and any information shared during the preliminary inquiry from being shared outside the courtroom.
The incident has gained nation-wide attention since it occurred in December of 2016.
At that time, Miller and two friends were walking through a Whitby suburb when, according to claims released by Miller’s lawyer, they were confronted by Michael and Christian Theriault in the driveway of their home. Michael Theriault is a constable with the Toronto Police Service and was off-duty at the time of the incident.
The details of the attack have yet to be tested in court, but allege that Miller was beaten by the Theriault brothers with a metal pipe. The attack has left Miller with permanent vision loss in his left eye along with also suffering a broken orbital bone, broken nose and a fractured wrist.
When the DRPS responded to the incident, they first arrested Miller, charging him with assault with a weapon, theft under $5,000 and possession of marijuana.
It wasn’t until months later that those charges were dropped after the Special Investigations Unit were summoned to investigate the case by Miller’s lawyer Julian Falconer.
It is here that the case began to gain serious attention in the media and members of the public as questions began to circle as to why the SIU was not contacted by either the Durham Regional Police or the Toronto police. The SIU is generally notified when a civilian is injured during a police-involved incident.
Demonstrators and members of Black Lives Matter have been present at several of the court dates for the accused.
Following the SIU findings, Falconer filed a complaint with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD), alleging a cover-up coordinated between the two police forces.
“Both the TPS and DRPS conspired to deliberately conceal the crime committed by PC Theriault and his brother Christian Theriault to assist in protecting them from prosecution for the brutal and heinous attack they perpetrated against Dafonte,” the complaint states.
Further, according to the complaint, the DRPS failed to interview eye witnesses of the attacks, including nearby residents who viewed the attack from their windows, as well as those who presented themselves to DRPS that night. Instead, DRPS “blindly” accepted the accounts of the Theriault brothers who stated they had been “repeatedly struck by Dafonte with a metal pipe despite not sustaining any injuries or even a single scratch.”
The complaint further alleges that Theriault’s father, a detective with the Toronto Police Service, communicated with DRPS investigators about the case and “thereby furthering the concealment of his sons’ brutal crime.”
In response to the complaint, the DRPS announced in August of 2017, that they were reviewing their policies and procedures for contacting the SIU. Just over a month later, the DRPS announced sweeping changes to their notification guidelines, noting that the they will notify the SIU in any case when a Durham citizen is injured when police are involved, regardless of the police force.
And while DRPS Chief Paul Martin never stated it was a mistake not to inform the SIU, he notes that the DRPS procedure did not go far enough to address the situation.
“What I have come to realize as a result of the Dafonte Miller case is that these, our policies, were inadequate and that the expectations of our community were greater than that for accountability and transparency and I’ve taken some steps today to make sure that accountability and transparency is addressed,” Martin said following the Sept. 11 meeting and the release of his lengthy statement. “From here on, if a conflict between one of our citizens and a police officer takes place in our community, and the incident meets the criteria for calling in the Special Investigations Unit, then I will do so,” he said at the time. “There will be no exceptions: if the officer is from our police service the procedure will apply. If they are from another Service, the procedure will apply, on duty or off.”