Charges against an Elgin OPP officer in the 2016 death of a London-area woman have been dropped, shocking and angering the woman's family.
Crown lawyer Jason Nicol withdrew charges of criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessaries of life against Elgin OPP Constable Mark McKillop on Monday.
McKillop and London police Constable Nicholas Doering were charged in July in connection to the September 2016 death of 39-year-old Debra Chrisjohn. The charges were announced following a probe by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit.
The Oneida Nation of the Thames First Nation woman died on September 7, 2016, hours after being arrested by London police for obstructing traffic in the area of Trafalgar St. and Highbury Ave. Following the arrest by London police, Chrisjohn was transferred into the custody of Elgin OPP on an outstanding warrant for shoplifting.
Aboriginal Legal Services lawyer Caitlyn Kasper, who represents the Chrisjohn family, said the Crown cited no reasonable prospect for conviction as one of the reasons for dropping the charges.
"The police, to lay a charge, only have to have reasonable and probable grounds. While when you are a Crown attorney who is actively doing the prosecution, they look at it through the lens of whether or not there is a reasonable prospect of conviction. And, in this case, the Crown attorney made a decision that the charges against Doering should proceed and those against McKillop would not," said Kasper.
The specifics surrounding Chrisjohn's death have not been released, making the Crown's decision to withdraw the charges against McKillop that much harder for the her family to process.
"They were upset, shocked, and angry when they first heard the news," said Kasper. "It's difficult for the family to listen to that and to not know the exact reasons but they have been incredible and exceptionally strong throughout all of this."
Doering has been on administrative duties since the charges were laid, while McKillop remained on active duty.
Kasper noted even though the charges against McKillop aren't going forward it is important for the OPP to conduct its own investigation into its officer's actions that day.
"There needs to be some really hard leaning on making sure the Ontario Provincial Police is doing their own internal investigation, of not only McKillop but all OPP officers who were at the scene at that time, to make sure there were no breaches of the Police Services Act and if there were that those be followed up with accordingly," said Kasper.
