Sansone Report Released By Regional Police
Posted Jun 4, 2012 10:07:36 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Waterloo Regional Police shedding some light into the case of a Kitchener father who was arrested and strip-searched after his daughter drew a picture in kindergarten of him holding a gun.
The February arrest of Jessie Sansone after his 4-year old sketched him fighting “monsters and bad guys” with what turned out to be a toy gun in her junior kindergarten class sparked a number of questions about how WRPS handled the incident.
In an email, Regional Police Chief Matt Torigian says “The results of this review have determined that Waterloo Regional Police officers acted in accordance with the law by arresting Mr. Sansone and made every effort to preserve his dignity and the safety of this community, however, the review also found that due to a miscommunication in the processing of Mr. Sansone, he was subjected to a Thorough Search instead of a less intrusive Frisk Search – an oversight which we regret. Deputy Chief Thomlison and I recently met with, and personally apologized to Mr. Sansone for the impact this has had on him and his family.”
Here is video of Torigian addressing the media earlier today.
Speaking on the weekend to QMI Agency, Sansone is quoted “police asked me to come down to the station to look at it – they said that they messed up and they were sorry.” He says “we are still going to take legal action. This happened from a four-year-old girl’s drawing that nobody’s seen and that’s not okay.”
The 26-year old father of 4 was arrested at the school after officials called family and children services. He was strip searched, before eventually being let go without any charges laid.
The full report into the incident can be read here.
The summary of the report says: A child provided descriptive information of a firearm including it being wrapped, in a locked drawer with the key accessible to the children and it had been used in a threatening manner.
The child believed the firearm to be real. School Board staff, in conjunction with ongoing contacts with the SANSONE family, appropriately notified Family &Children Services (F&CS) to the safety concern.
F&CS upon being advised of child access to and/or endangerment from a firearm in the home notified the WRPS.
Officers, while travelling to the school, were provided the criminal record information pertaining to Mr. SANSONE which included a history of violence and a current prohibition from possessing firearms and other weapons. The combination of: (1) the firearm as described by the child, (2) the concerns of F&CS and the School Board staff, (3) the time constraint of Mr. SANSONE about to pick up his children from school accompanied with (4) the knowledge of Mr. SANSONE’S criminal record, placed the police in a position to act to protect the children and the public from exposure to the firearm. Mr. SANSONE was treated with dignity and given the most privacy possible at the school and was arrested and Frisk Searched. At the Cell Block, Mr. SANSONE was Thoroughly Searched when he should have only been subjected to the original or subsequent Frisk Search. Mr. SANSONE was released from custody once it was determined the firearm was not a firearm as stipulated in the Criminal Code. Mr. SANSONE freely signed a ‘Consent to Search’ his residence which he attended with the officers. The officers found an Air Soft Pistol and left the residence. The officers, as required by law, did have further contact with F&CS reporting unsafe conditions within the residence.
