A woman bitten by a police dog is turning to the courts to do what the Special Investigations Unit couldn’t, suing Peel police after they would not fully cooperate with the investigation.

The SIU said it could find no reasonable grounds to lay a criminal charge against the officer involved in Michelle Rosales’s injuries because the force would not release the dog’s history.

Rosales’s lawyer said a civil lawsuit will petition a judge to order police to disclose whether the German shepherd has a history of attacking and not letting go when ordered to do so by his handler.

Four armed officers and a police dog named Wyatt were looking for robbery suspects in Mississauga Valley Park at about 10 p.m. June 28 when the dog leapt off a rock and lunged at Rosales who was sitting with her boyfriend.

The SIU learned Wyatt only released his grip after repeated commands from his handler and seconds later bit Rosales again.

The 21-year-old Sheridan College student suffered severe cuts to her arm and was taken by ambulance to hospital.

Peel police Const. George Tudos said at the time officers ordered the couple to come out from behind some bushes with no success.

“This all could have been avoided if the two parties involved would have responded to the officers’ demands to come out,” he said.

But Rosales said she and her boyfriend heard no warning.

Rosales has filed a complaint with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director about the conduct of Const. Marty Kirwan.

In its investigation, the SIU complained about the lack of transparency on the part of Peel police.

SIU director Ian Scott said the agency only learned of the attack from the victim’s lawyer when police should have reported the incident to the SIU. The watchdog investigates police incidents involving death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault.

The SIU said Peel police also would not release Wyatt’s history of occurrences, formally called Police Dog Services Search Reports, to determine if there were reasonable grounds for a criminal charge.

“These reports would be very useful in determining if Wyatt had a prior propensity to bite and not release,” Scott wrote. “Further they may inform the question of the subject officer’s prior knowledge of the dog’s propensity.”

During the investigation, the SIU learned that the Peel dogs are each assigned to one handler who works with the animal over its working life.

As is his right under the Police Services Act, the subject officer declined to be interviewed by the SIU and Peel police say they don’t have to turn over his notes.

Scott argued this regulation was never intended to prohibit disclosure of “prior records in the usual and ordinary course of business of a police service.”

In closing the case, Scott said he would reopen the file if police turn over a copy of Wyatt’s history.

SIU spokesman Frank Phillips said the agency does not see any avenue to pursue the police records through the courts on a criminal matter.

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However, Rosales’s lawyer, Nainesh Kotak vows he will get them by petitioning a judge in a civil action.

“I can obtain a court order forcing a disclosure of all of their notes,” said Kotak. “That’s the route we will take. I really don’t see much defence they will have at the end of the day.”

Kotak said his client has suffered “permanent scarring and some serious psychological damage” from the attack.

Rosales said Monday she is “disappointed” in the SIU decision to end its investigation but is looking forward to the civil suit. She said she is receiving treatment to tend to her wounds, which are still bandaged.

Peel police Chief Mike Metcalf issued a statement saying the force “did comply with the SIU during this investigation, and in accordance with the Police Services Act and the SIU regulation.”

Peel police confirm the dog and his handler are still on active duty, but are not responding to calls in the field until the force completes an internal investigation.

SIU stymied in the past

Here are some cases reopened by the Special Investigations Unit after it initially couldn’t proceed for lack of evidence.

June 2011: After nearly a year, two closed investigations and a public squabbling match between the Toronto Police Service and SIU, criminal charges are laid in the case of Dorian Barton’s arrest at the G20 summit. Const. Glenn Weddell was charged with assault causing bodily harm on the same day the Star revealed Weddell was the previously unnamed officer photographed during Barton’s violent arrest.

March 2011: SIU reopens case of Canute (Kenny) Fernandes, 42, who was overrun and injured during the G20 protests. The SIU said it had been unable to determine whether civilians or police caused the injuries. But the agency announced it would reopen the file after new video showing Fernandes’s arrest was received from Reuters.

January 2011: After new video and images surface, the SIU reopens the case of Joseph Thomson, who claims he was struck in the face and suffered a fractured nose during his arrest at the G20 protests.

November 2010: The SIU reopens an investigation into the arrest of Adam Nobody after a second, clearer video of the incident surfaces, leading to an allegation excessive force was used. The SIU later charges Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani with assault with a weapon in the case.

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