In the months after he claims an off-duty police officer and his brother beat him and hit him with a metal pipe, Whitby man Dafonte Miller says he didn’t want to leave his house. “I was just shaken up, I just looked different, didn’t want to be around people,” Miller said Wednesday, taking the witness stand for the first time inside a packed Oshawa courtroom. More recently, he continued, “I feel like I’m strong enough that I keep myself in a good place.“I have my ups and downs,” Miller said, opening his testimony in the ongoing aggravated assault trial of Toronto police Const. Michael Theriault and his brother, Christian Theriault.The brothers are jointly charged with aggravated assault and separately charged with attempting to obstruct justice. Both men have pleaded not guilty in the judge-alone trial before Superior Court Justice Joseph Di Luca.Miller, who was 19 at the time of the altercation, suffered severe injuries to his eye, which had to be removed. Under questioning by Crown lawyer Linda Shin, Miller began to tell his version of events on the night of Dec. 28, 2016, during the alleged assault on Whitby’s Erickson Drive, near the Theriault family home. Miller said he had been hanging out with two friends, Antonio Jack and Bradley Goode, earlier in the night. They’d stopped at the home of another man, whom Miller called Noble, smoked some marijuana on the porch and made arrangements to meet up with some girls. Learning the girls weren’t ready, Miller said the trio left Noble’s and began walking. They were on Erickson Drive when he said they was stopped by two men, one of whom had longer hair — the Theriault brothers. Miller said he believed the men had been in their garage before coming towards the trio to ask questions.Miller said the men asked what the three were doing in the area. After Miller asked “why are we being questioned?” he claimed Michael Theriault said ...
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