Dealer says he wasn’t Hamilton cop’s informant
Det.-Const. Craig Ruthowsky has pleaded not guilty in corruption trial
TORONTO — The Crown’s star witness in its case against a Hamilton police officer says the fact that he told Craig Ruthowsky the possible identity of a murder suspect in Toronto does not make him a confidential informant.
“You said that you did provide information to Det.-Const. Ruthowsky, correct?” Crown attorney John Pollard asked the witness Thursday during re-examination in Ontario Superior Court.
The witness agreed but drew a distinction. Reporting a crime to police that “he saw” was different than passing on information told to him by a murder victim’s cousin.
“This was a different situation,” the witness testified. “A friend ... came to me, he was hysterical ... and he asked me to pass on the information, so I did. I didn’t know it to be true. It could have been a lie for all I know.”
The identity of the witness, a cocaine dealer from Hamilton, is protected under a publication ban.
The drug dealer, who finished his final day on the witness stand Thursday, spent much of the previous three days jousting with Ruthowsky’s defence lawyer, Greg Lafontaine.
Ruthowsky, 44, a 17-year-veteran of the Hamilton Police Service, has pleaded not guilty to bribery, obstruct justice, breach of trust, trafficking and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. He is currently under suspension. His charges relate to allegations he accepted $20,000 a month from the drug dealer and his three associates, in exchange for information about impending raids, for help avoiding arrests and details on which rivals shouldn’t be trusted.
The witness testified Monday that the arrangement allowed him to sell cocaine with impunity, and that he was raking in money over a 12-month period the deal existed.
The position of the defence is that the witness, a cocaine trafficker, was a confidential informant who provided tips to Ruthowsky on criminal activity in and around Hamilton.
Lafontaine has suggested the dealer invented the “cop on the take” scenario because he feared his cover would be blown after his arrest in a Toronto police project in 2015.
Before he wrapped up his cross-examination Thursday, Lafontaine asked the witness if he agreed Ruthowsky was a hard-working police officer who was good at his job.
“Well, he was taking criminals off the street but he was ... taking money from people, selling drugs, all kinds of stuff,” the witness replied.
“I was going to suggest to you he was an incredibly productive police officer who was well-known on the street as somebody who was kicking down doors all the time?” the lawyer said following up.
“I heard he was very busy. He was also a dirty police officer,” the dealer responded.