Editor's note: The following story and accompanying video contain strong language that may not be suitable for some readers.
BARRIE, Ont. — A Barrie resident received a handful of surprise guests last month, as a city police tactical unit busted down his door to execute a search warrant.
On the afternoon of Feb. 19, Matthew Patton found himself in the middle of a flurry of chaos, with guns pointed at him and flash-bang grenades detonating around him. He was quickly placed on the floor and handcuffed.
It wasn't long after that police realized Patton was not the man they were after. They released him.
A suspect who lived in the basement apartment was then apprehended and taken away in handcuffs. North Bay police issued a news release the next day saying a man wanted by them was arrested at a Barrie home the previous day. The suspect was charged with three counts of failure to comply with a release order, in addition to numerous charges he was already facing.
In the end, Patton was not charged by police but was left with $11,300 worth of property damage to his apartment.
Patton, 33, who works as a long-haul truck driver, lives in the apartment with his grandmother, his wife, and their two-year-old son.
“A recent warrant executed in Barrie on behalf of the North Bay Police Service was done with full judicial authorization, and was carried out at the correct address, resulting in the arrest of a male wanted by the Repeat Offenders Parole (Enforcement) unit,” Barrie police communications co-ordinator Peter Leon told BarrieToday.
The unit is commonly referred to as the ROPE team.
Leon said police have also since been in contact with the property owner, but will not be providing any further details as the matter is now before the courts.
Patton said he was sitting down and about to have a “little bit of a nap” when police broke down his door.
“All of a sudden my door is being busted down and flash-bangs are going off,” he told BarrieToday. “I hit the floor right away, to cover, and next thing I know, I’m being thrown in cuffs and read my rights and charged."
Patton can be heard in surveillance video shouting, "You've got the wrong house, man!" He said he kept telling the officers they had the wrong residence.
“There was nothing they could be coming into my house for,” he added.
Patton claims police realized he was not their man after about six minutes.
“They were refusing to check my ID,” he said. “It wasn’t until they were starting to pull me out that I decided to put up a fight, and then one cop decided to check my ID, and he goes, ‘Whoa, we got the wrong guy here.’”
Patton claims police kept him handcuffed right up until they were leaving the home. They were there for between 20 to 30 minutes.
There are three apartment units in the house, including two on the main floor and one in the basement.
Patton claims police were then trying to obtain a warrant for the basement apartment.
“I heard one cop say they couldn’t get the warrant, so they just started shouting at everybody downstairs in the units to come out,” he said.
A second security camera shows police at the top of the stairs leading to the basement. A man is then seen surrendering to police and brought upstairs and out the back door.
“I believe it’s absolute bullshit,” Patton said of the raid on his apartment. “They should be held to a higher standard before kicking in random doors — make sure they know where they’re going. That shouldn’t even be a question."
Damage to Patton’s apartment included two doors and the kitchen floor.
“I guess (police) stomping around in their big heavy boots completely separated my floors … and they are completely trashed now,” he said.
He says he's looking to recover the cost of the repairs, as well as legal fees.
Patton says he also filed a complaint with the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA), which is responsible for receiving, managing and overseeing public complaints about misconduct of police officers.
“We will be advancing every possible argument with respect to holding the individuals and parties that were involved in this complete act of negligence … whether it be OPP or Barrie city police executing a search warrant at the wrong premises,” Michael Rombis, Patton’s Etobicoke-based lawyer, told BarrieToday.
“Clearly, my client has incurred both actual damages in the amount of monetary cost to repair … in addition to that, there’s the possibility that my clients have also … as a result of this incident, their mental health has been affected,” he added.
Rombis said he's in the process of obtaining all documents “in relation to addressing who was at fault here.”
He says he plans to review police documents to determine how the warrant was issued to search the premises.
“I don’t know who essentially dropped the ball in this case, to put it very mildly,” Rombis said.
Rombis said he would be looking for references in documents, such as surveillance reports.
“What premises were they surveilling? Because, clearly there was a target of this investigation, which were not my clients," he said.
The out-of-pocket cost to repair the damage to his apartment is weighing heavily on Patton.
“I had been saving for a while to get my AZ (upgraded truck driver's licence), as right now I’m a DZ driver. This is basically my driver’s licence money that just went down the tube,” Patton lamented.
He said he finally had the money saved and was about to get the licence.
“All that money just went out the door because it’s either get my AZ or look out for the safety of my children,” Patton said.
He said the incident is impacting his employment, as he had job offers and was able to get a raise through his current employer as well, once he obtained the AZ license.
Now all of that is on hold.
“To save all that money again will take me another year,” Patton said. “We’re losing a lot of sleep over it.”
— BarrieToday