After many years of complaints, Thunder Bay cop Michael Dimini has been found guilty of ‘Militantly illegal police conduct.’ “In the context of an unlawful residential search and unlawful arrests, this case was as marked a departure as can be contemplated short of significant brutality,” the judge said. Dimini entered an apartment without a warrant and without reasonable and probable grounds. “He then searched the apartment, seized items and directed the arrest of several of the occupants, who were then held for bail.” He then attempted to change reponding cop’s notes.
“The degree of misconduct was not trivial,” the judge said. “Here was a trail of actions which started with intentional involvement in a police duty in the interest of a relation, continued with a profound breach of constitutional rights, immediately followed by the defendant’s expression of cynical contempt for the acknowledged illegality and then concluding with multiple acts of dishonesty designed to obscure the complete absence of legitimate grounds.”
A date for sentencing will be set next month. Dimini has been a central figure in a series of allegations of corruption and systemic racism within the Thunder Bay police service for years, facing three separate trials over the past year alone. He was acquitted in the two previous trials.
Two years ago, former police Chief Sylvie Hauth and the service’s former lawyer, Holly Walbuorne, were also charged with multiple counts of obstruction of justice with their joint trial set for early April.
Continuing harassment came from Hauth and Walbourne after a lawyer refused to share the identity of a cop from inside the police department who informed of police corruption through a leak to a local blogger. That leak eventually resulted in criminal charges against all involved.
Five years ago a stream of cops broke ranks and made allegations against Staff Sgt. Dimini and Walbourne. They included dealing drugs, forcing officers to break and enter, conducting illegal searches and filing false charges.
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