Arden Man Says he was Assaulted be Off-Duty OPP Officers

Jeff Green | Nov 22, 2012

Photo: Bob Srigley at his property on the Salmon River, near Arden.

Three years ago, Bob Srigley bought a narrow rural property nestled between the Arden Road and the Salmon River, about 10 kilometres south of Arden. Srigley does not have a lot of money to work with, so he bought a trailer for his property, and has been renovating and building on to it ever since. He also has plans to build a house at some point in the future.

He was injured a couple of years ago when he was struck by a car on the road near his house, but has been able to carry on. But an event that took place two weeks ago has really set him back.

“It was the 6th of November, about 4:00 in the afternoon. I was showing my neighbour Harry, who lives a kilometre away, where there was a deer lay next to the road. After Harry left, I started to walk home when I passed the driveway to the hunt camp across from my property. Two of the men came down from the hunt camp to confront me. They started getting verbally abusive toward me, so I turned and started walking away. They then grabbed me and threw me to the ground, flipped me over and one of them put me into a kind of restraint hold using my leg. One of them started punching while the other was kicking with his boots on,” Bob Srigley recalled, when he phoned the News last week.

He added that the two men then left, leaving him to drag himself 600 metres to his own property. He called 911 and was taken by ambulance to the Napanee hospital.

“There was blood in my urine because of the kicking in my kidneys, and my L4 vertebrae was broken,” he said.

Two weeks later, he is back on his feet, but the pain persists, and he is taking painkillers around the clock.

“The biggest problem that I have is that my winter's wood is down the hill from my house and I can’t get it up and into the woodshed because I can’t lift. I also have other work to do to get ready for winter, and I can’t do it. It all makes me worry how I am going to get through the winter this year,” he said.

When Bob Srigley reported the incident, the OPP came to his house, and he told them of the alleged assault that he suffered. The two men involved are known to him, and he said that they are both OPP officers who were off duty at the time, one from the Toronto region and one from the Eastern Region.

Among the investigating officers is Detective Sergeant Mark Allison, who works in the Professional Standards Division of the OPP out of Kingston, and another is Det. Kelly Skillen from the Lanark OPP. Constable Leanna Hawley from the Sharbot Lake OPP was also on scene.

While we were unable to contact any of the officers early this week, we were able to contact Sgt. Kristine Rae, the communications officer for the Eastern Region.

She confirmed that a criminal investigation is underway in the case, but said that all of the details are confidential, and did not say whether any OPP officers are suspects in the case

Bob Srigley said on Tuesday that he had not heard from the officers for almost two weeks until he received a call from Det. Sgt. Allison that day to set up a meeting with him for later in the week.