Danielle Stephanie Warriner sits alone in the lobby of a Toronto hospital wearing a pale blue medical gown. Moments later, she is wheeled away by the guards, her slight frame slumped into a wheelchair, her legs dangling over the edge.
What happens between them is not recorded on video.
Instead, the security camera was deliberately reversed as guards approached the 43-year-old woman, pushed her against a wall and held her to the ground before she lost consciousness – so she would never get it back.
Those scenes are part of the evidence that would be heard at the trial of security guards charged in Warriner’s death at Toronto General Hospital in May 2020.
Now that won’t happen. In a surprise move by an Ontario judge on Nov. 22, the case against the guards was thrown out and the trial, which had been set to begin this May, was dropped from the case.
For months, Warriner’s family has been waiting for their day in court. Instead, they say they are now blindsided.
“My first reaction was shock, horror,” Warriner’s sister, Denise, told CBC News. “There was no accountability and there was a hole in my heart.”
“She was a very small woman who was clearly not feeling well, she was sitting up, in respiratory distress and they were driving her to her death. There was no legitimate reason for them to touch her,” she said, who she believed.
“This should have been brought to justice.”
Denise Warriner says she is haunted by the scenes of her sister’s last moments of consciousness alone with guards at Toronto General Hospital in May 2020. With the sudden end of the case against the guards accused in Stephanie Warriner’s death, her family is left blindsided. (Talia Ritchie/CBC)
Amanda Rojas-Silva, 42, and Shane Hutley, 35, were charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence in Warriner’s death, charges they denied, saying they only used the force necessary to subdue her.
Those charges have now been dropped after a judge concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to take the case to trial – a decision CBC News has learned the Crown will not appeal
This is despite available video footage, two security officers testifying that the defendant placed weight on her upper body while she was held chest down, a forensic pathologist testifying that Warriner would still be alive if was not detained that day – and revelations one of the guards admitted he had falsely claimed Warriner had struck the first blow.
Until now, much of the evidence surrounding Warriner’s death has been covered by a publication ban. With the case dismissed, CBC News can now report on details that have never been made public and reveal footage that a jury will never see.
WATCH | She died after the guards detained her. Here’s the footage the jury won’t see:
She died after the guards detained her. Here’s the footage the jury won’t see.
WARNING: Video contains graphic footage. CBC News sought court permission to release the video of the altercation between Warriner and security guards at Toronto General Hospital in May 2020. Warriner was presumed to have COVID-19 and her mask was removed. A video shows the guards confronting her. Less than three minutes later, she was carried unconscious so she wouldn’t wake up.
Treated as COVID-positive
Warriner was the younger of two sisters, “small but mighty” and “loved dearly,” her sister recalled. She also struggled with bipolar disorder, substance abuse, and in the months leading up to her death found herself living in a shelter after separation.
She died on May 27, 16 days after the incident in the hospital lobby.
On May 10, Warriner, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, arrived at the hospital with a cough and shortness of breath. It was at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and Warriner was allegedly treated as positive for COVID, although her test for the virus was later found to be negative.
The next day, Warriner left the COVID floor to get something to eat, according to the medical examiner’s report, and was spotted by hospital staff in the lobby with a mask pulled down around her neck.
Security camera video captures some of what happened next.
Around 6:38 a.m., Warriner was seen sitting in a chair near a column in the hospital lobby. A few meters in front of her, Rojas-Silva dons personal protective equipment with the help of another security guard, all the while appearing to be talking to Warriner.
Toronto General Hospital is pictured in this file photo. On May 10, 2020, Warriner arrived at the hospital with a cough and shortness of breath. (David Donnelly/CBC)
The court heard Rojas-Silva knew Warriner had left hospital against medical advice before and repeatedly told her to put on her mask from a distance before approaching her. The defense claims Warriner refused, berated Rojas-Silva and threatened to fire her.
With her PPE gown on, Rojas-Silva walks toward Warriner and continues to speak to her, gesturing inches from her face.
When this happens, the second guard, Hutley, appears from the right and begins to put on a dress as well. Another guard comes into view to the right and also dons PPE.
By this time, Warriner is seen on his feet and appears to briefly raise his right hand before Rojas-Silva takes it to the near wall with Hutley closing in from behind.
A security guard who turned the camera around panicked
The camera then pans away – meaning what happens next is not caught on video.
At the preliminary hearing, the security guard who turned the camera testified that he did so because he was “panicking” and “very anxious.”
The court heard the guard was given permission to keep his job.
Asked about that decision and whether Rojas-Silva and Hutley will also be allowed to keep their jobs now that the charges against them have been dropped, University Health Network spokeswoman Jillian Howard told CBC News, “UHN will not comment on the decision of court, nor do we comment on individual hiring decisions or employee discipline.”
WATCH | The family reacted after charges were brought against guards in 2020:
Stephanie Warriner’s family have hit back after hospital security allegations were made in her death
Danielle Stephanie Warriner’s sister, Denise, for the loss caused by her sister’s death after guards detained her at the Toronto hospital.
Around 6:41 a.m., security was seen wheeling Warriner down a hallway, her body limp and her legs apart, not moving. They turn left into an elevator car and disappear from view.
The court heard that it was there that Rojas-Silva noticed something was wrong and began checking for a pulse. Security guards removed Warriner’s handcuffs when Rojas-Silva called “Code Blue” and began performing chest compressions.
The medical examiner’s report would have concluded that Warriner died of a brain injury resulting from a lack of oxygen “due to asphyxiation on restraint after struggle and exertion,” with her underlying lung disease a possible factor.
“But for her interactions with the appellants, Ms Warriner would likely be alive today,” the forensic pathologist testified at the preliminary hearing, according to the Crown.
The defendant’s attorneys argued that the forensic pathologist lacked the expertise to reach that conclusion.
Still, in overturning the case, Superior Court Judge Sean Dunphy noted, “There is evidence that the death may have been the culmination of the factors he described.”
Security claims force was used as a ‘last resort’
In the absence of footage of the moments on the ground, two witnesses testified that the defendant held the 125-pound woman by her upper body, despite training warning them of the risks of doing so.
“There is a risk of suffocation in positional restraints due to the person’s body weight pressing on their chest and the fact that the patient cannot support herself when her hands are cuffed behind her back,” the Crown noted, citing testimony from the supervisor of the security.
According to UHN policy documents seen at the preliminary hearing, guards can only use force when all other interventions have failed. They are also required to use only the amount of force necessary to control the situation and only in “extreme emergencies,” such as in self-defense, the defense of others, or under the direction of medical personnel.
As they huddled on the ground, two witnesses testified that Warriner flailed her arms and legs, yelling as the two guards, Rojas-Silva and Hutley, took control of her limbs. A third guard put handcuffs on.
It is not common for a judge to screen a case before it is scheduled for trial. – Frank Addario, Criminal Defense Attorney
In a document filed by her attorney, Rojas-Silva claims she took Warriner to the wall “as a last resort, after extensive efforts to verbally de-escalate an aggressive patient.”
Her boss testified that he thought her actions were wrong. Pointing at Warriner’s face and standing in her personal space, for example, would have been “triggering,” the supervisor said, adding that video of the incident is now being shown in hospital training.
But as to whether the guards used more force than was necessary to restrain Warriner, the judge concluded on November 22 that “there is no evidence that any of the defendants applied any weight to the upper body … other than that associated with gaining control and restraining her hands or arms while handcuffed.”
Guard ‘admitted he had not been honest’: Crown
After the incident, both guards alleged that Warriner repeatedly assaulted Rojas-Silva before she transferred herself.
But during an internal investigation into the hospital, the court heard Hutley later admitted that this had not happened.
“Mr Hutley went so far as to allege that Ms Warriner punched Ms Rojas-Silva several times from above and below her face and kicked her legs,” a Crown court document said.
Hospital staff then confronted Hutley with the footage of the incident, playing it for him several times.
“Mr Hutley later began to sob and admitted he had not been truthful in the report, saying ‘I’m sorry. I would never have said the things I said there if I had known there was a video recording,” the document says.
It’s rare to see a judge decide to dismiss a case like this, said Toronto criminal lawyer Frank Addario, who isn’t…
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