Justice for Stephen

Source:Toronto Sun

Family wants answers after man badly injured in confrontation with cops

Columnists / Michele Mandel


This was her late son we were writing about.

Janet Gregory picked up the Sunday Sun last week and read in horror about an unnamed diabetic driver who was allegedly beaten by York Regional Police last year after he lapsed into a coma and was mistaken for being drunk.

She read about how tow truck drivers Rob and Andrea Mileto were coming forward to say they’d witnessed the whole thing and have been harassed by the cops ever since.

About how they were now willing to tell their disturbing tale to the Special Investigations Unit, which had previously looked into the May 14 incident and found no police wrongdoing.

Gregory read the story and wept, for it was her son Stephen who was badly injured that day.

It was her son, who she had just buried, and who would now never see the justice he sought.

Stephen Gregory, the 49-year-old father of four sons, died suddenly of an unrelated heart attack April 15.

Eleven months before, the small business owner was on his way to a Mr. Sub in Woodbridge when he lapsed into a diabetic coma and rear-ended another driver at Hwy. 7 and Weston Rd.

Andrea Mileto was in his tow truck that afternoon and went over to check on the accident.

The impact was so light that there was barely any damage to the other car’s bumper and the air bags hadn’t deployed. But the driver was unresponsive and his eyes appeared rolled back in his head.

Mileto called 911 and said the man seemed to be suffering from some kind of medical condition.

But when police arrived, Mileto says they seemed to become quickly frustrated that the dazed driver refused to get out of the car or identify himself.

His brother was watching from a nearby tow truck and they both claim they then saw one officer pummelling the man’s right arm and shoulder with his baton to loosen his grip from the steering wheel and at least two others punching him repeatedly after they dragged him out of his van and handcuffed him.

It was only after reading the brothers’ account of what they witnessed that Stephen’s family finally made sense of his extensive injuries.

Alan Gregory had rushed to York Finch Hospital after getting a call from police that his older brother had been in a minor fender-bender.

“He was an absolute mess, like he had been beaten up badly,” he recalls, as he scrolls through a CD of photos showing his badly bruised brother. “He had a huge welt on his forehead, bruised ribs and his shoulder was broken and in a sling.”

Stephen told them he couldn’t remember much.

“He had a memory of being pulled out of the van and being on the ground with cuts and gravel on his face and with handcuffs on him,” his brother says. “He was screaming at the officers to remove the cuffs because his shoulder was in extensive pain.”

He says an officer was in the hospital room and apologized for what had happened, saying the police thought Stephen was drunk. But his family and friends don’t understand how that would excuse what happened.

“He was only 150 pounds, he wasn’t a big guy,” says his best friend, Peter Johnson. “Just because people aren’t complying doesn’t mean you do this.”

York Regional Police deny there was any beating, but acknowledge that officers on the scene initially thought Stephen had been drinking and only later realized he was suffering from a severe drop in his blood sugar.

The injured man contacted a lawyer soon after and planned to sue the police, his family says.

“He was bloody angry and he was in a lot of pain,” his mom says. “He wanted to make sure that officers have special training so they can recognize the difference between a drunk person and a diabetic.”

SIU investigator Jon Ansell says they spoke to Stephen but he couldn’t recall much of what transpired. Andrea Mileto was also interviewed, he says, but gave a completely different statement than the one he’s offering now. “We exonerated the police based in part on what Mileto told us,” explains Ansell, who now plans to re-interview the tow truck driver.

The SIU, he says, found the police had a lawful reason to arrest Stephen for failing to identify himself because he appeared impaired and wouldn’t open the car door. “We determined that during the arrest process the (shoulder) injury likely occurred.”

But how can fracturing a man’s shoulder be justifiable?

It isn’t. As they should, his family is calling on the SIU to reopen the case now that these tow truck drivers have come forward.

After reading last week’s story, Stephen’s mother called to thank the Woodbridge men. “I can’t believe how brave they are,” she says. “We think those guys should get a medal.”

And as she says that, she is fighting back tears, wishing her son had lived long enough to know he was not alone.

“I just want justice for my brother,” adds Gregory. “I think they should lose their jobs for sure. Nobody should be doing that. It was absolutely dreadful.”

michele.mandel@sunmedia.ca or 416-947-2231