Nearly three years after Dafonte Miller was seriously injured in a beating on a residential Whitby street, the Toronto police officer and his brother charged in the case are set to stand trial in an Oshawa courtroom Tuesday.

Centring on the actions of Const. Michael Theriault and Christian Theriault on a frigid December 2016 morning, the high-profile case has nonetheless come to represent issues far greater than an isolated incident.

What began with the severe beating of a young Black man has ballooned into allegations of an attempted coverup and a failure of police oversight, inspiring protests, online campaigns supporting Miller and calls for accountability.

“The facts as we know them now speak to larger issues in the justice system in general, and police oversight in particular,” said Kate Puddister, assistant professor of political science at the University of Guelph, who focuses on police accountability.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of public attention on this case.”

Michael and Christian Theriault are jointly charged with aggravated assault and separately for attempting to obstruct justice in connection to the Dec. 28, 2016 beating. Then 19, Miller sustained serious injuries, including damage to his eye so severe it had to be removed, a broken orbital bone, broken nose and fractured wrist.

None of the charges the brothers face have been proven in court.

The judge-alone trial is set to begin Tuesday before Superior Court Justice Joseph Di Luca.

Michael Theriault has been suspended with pay from the Toronto police since July 2017. His lawyer Michael Lacy said, given the proximity to the trial, “it would not be appropriate to discuss the allegations or anticipated evidence.” Alan Gold, the lawyer representing Christian Theriault, could not be reached for comment Friday.

Michael Theriault is also facing professional misconduct charges under Ontario’s Police Services Act. Police documents outlining the allegations claim that, following the assault, Theriault provided Durham officers on scene with “an account of the confrontation ... which was not accurate.” The allegations have not been tested at the police tribunal.

The context of the alleged assault is unclear. A preliminary inquiry into the case was held last year, but the evidence heard is covered by a court-ordered publication ban.

Since erupting in July 2017, the case has prompted outrage and protests, not just because of Miller’s injuries but how the case was handled by police.

Immediately following the incident, Durham Regional police were called to the scene and charged Miller with theft under $5,000, assault with a weapon and possession of a small amount of marijuana. The charges were later withdrawn by the Crown.

The criminal charges against the Theriaults, meanwhile, were not laid until seven months after the incident — and only after Miller’s lawyer, Julian Falconer, contacted Ontario’s police watchdog the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), which investigates officer-involved deaths and serious injuries.

Once informed of the incident, the police watchdog launched an investigation that culminated in charges against both Michael Theriault and — in a rare move because he is a civilian — Christian Theriault, due to what the SIU director called the “exceptional circumstances” of the case.

Why neither police in Durham, where the incident took place, nor Toronto reported Miller’s injuries to the SIU on the day of the assault has become the subject of controversy.

The SIU typically does not investigate incidents involving off-duty officers, but will under certain circumstances, including if the off-duty cop identifies himself as a police officer during an occurrence that leads to serious injury. In general, police forces are expected to notify the SIU if they are in doubt about whether the situation warrants an investigation by the watchdog.

Toronto police have further come under fire because the Theriaults’ father, Det. John Theriault, a 30-year veteran of Toronto police, worked at the time in the professional standards unit, which deals with officer misconduct.

In a complaint to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) filed last year, Miller alleges that John Theriault “repeatedly contacted (Durham police) investigators to gain information relating to the status of the investigation” and provided false information about injuries suffered by Christian “to aid in the concealment of the crimes committed by his sons.”

The allegations made in Miller’s complaint have not been proven. John Theriault has not responded to requests for comment by the Star, and he is no longer working with the force’s professional standards unit.

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Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders has denied allegations of a coverup, calling them “misleading.” He said his professional standards unit determined that the incident did not meet the threshold to report to the SIU with the information they had at the time.

“Many months later, a very different version of the events of Dec. 28 was presented to the SIU,” Saunders said in 2017.

Saunders and the Toronto Police Services Board called in the Waterloo Regional Police to conduct an external review into their handling of the situation.

That review has been put on hold until the conclusion of the criminal trial. That delay has prompted further protests, including at the August meeting of the Toronto police board, where demonstrators briefly halted the meeting saying too much time had passed since any action has been taken on the case.

The police board has said it is a normal procedure to delay such a review until the conclusion of a criminal trial.

Durham police, meanwhile, said they did not contact the SIU because it was Toronto police’s role, as the officer’s employer, to contact the watchdog. Durham police has since created a policy requiring that the SIU be contacted after serious injuries involving a police officer that happen in the region, regardless of whether the officer was from its force or off duty at the time.

“This process of notification — it’s not just a minor issue,” said Puddister, the police accountability expert.

“For police oversight to function and to be perceived as legitimate by the community, the process is fundamentally important. It’s essential for effective and efficient police oversight. The SIU can’t investigate unless they are notified.”

Falconer, Miller’s lawyer, would not comment on the issues that will be presented at trial next week. But he said the notification issue “isn’t a function of a criminal trial” and said he didn’t understand why Waterloo’s external review had to wait for the trial’s completion.

“There would be no reason that I can understand that you’d need to wait years to address these issues,” Falconer said.

The Miller case has attracted widespread attention and anger because of the “critical issues” it raises, including police use of force against those in the Black community, said Kingsley Gilliam of the Black Action Defense Committee.

Last year, an unprecedented review by the Ontario Human Rights Commission of police watchdog data found Black people were “grossly overrepresented” in cases in which Toronto police used force. That review, A Collective Impact, was so named because of a comment made by one of the 130 members of the Black community interviewed as part of the inquiry.

“The Dafonte Miller matter affects everyone in the community because it was so egregious and it was hidden and was allowed to be hidden for so long until someone else brought it forward,” the unnamed Black community member said. “For sure, someone in your family has experienced some sort of trauma with the police — so it always brings you back to that event … it’s a collective impact.”

“This is a significant case,” said Gilliam, who will be attending the trial beginning Tuesday. “We have to be there to show support for Dafonte Miller, his family and others who have been victimized.”

Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing. Reach her by email at wgillis@thestar.ca or follow her on Twitter: @wendygillis

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