Hamilton cop, Crown attorney spar over ‘dirty cop’ allegations

TORONTO — Hamilton police officer Craig Ruthowsky denied that he was trying to make one of his drug dealer sources believe he was a “corrupt cop” in his dealings with him.

“Not corrupt, no,” Ruthowsky testified in the face of aggressive cross-examination by Crown attorney John Pollard in a Toronto court Wednesday.

“You wanted him to think you were a little bit dirty,” countered Pollard.

“I won’t use the term dirty,” Ruthowsky responded.

Ruthowsky, who has been under suspension since 2012, is facing criminal charges of bribery, obstruction of justice, breach of trust, trafficking in a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. He has pleaded not guilty. Ruthowsky and the Crown have been sparring for the past few days over testimony given earlier in the trial by a Hamilton drug dealer, whose identity is protected by a publication ban.

Ruthowsky adamantly claims Mr. X, as he must be referred to, was an informant who was trying to “work off” his drug charges by providing useful information.

The Crown claims Ruthowsky was in a “corrupt relationship” with Mr. X, which Ruthowsky denies.

Mr. X testified he was paying Ruthowsky $20,000 a month and in exchange, Mr. X was receiving valuable information from Ruthowsky about police drug surveillance and enforcement activity.

The Crown stated that Ruthowsky never registered Mr. X as a confidential informant.

Ruthowsky testified he didn’t feel Mr. X was far enough along in the process of having his charges dealt with in court to begin the paperwork to register him, and then Ruthowsky was suspended.

A significant portion of Ruthowsky’s time on the stand for the past week has been spent discussing the protocols and rules around the handling of informants during his five years in the Hamilton police guns and gangs unit.

Ruthowsky has explained repeatedly about the concept of what he calls “perceived benefits” for his stable of informants.

He would provide them with information or updates on actions he might be taking to help them with smaller charges they faced so they’d continue to trust him and provide him with information about higher-level criminals.

“It means that he’s getting a little bit more from me, making people feel comfortable,” Ruthowsky testified.

“When I have informants risking their lives, providing information, I like to keep them in the picture so they know what’s going on.”

But the Crown pointed out that Ruthowsky had a duty to ensure he didn’t identify informants to one another.

Pollard showed examples of text messages where Ruthowsky had shared information about Mr. X with one of his other informants.

“(Mr. X) wasn’t a source for you so you felt comfortable identifying him,” Pollard suggested.

“(Mr. X) was a source and I think that’s abundantly clear,” Ruthowsky replied.

Ruthowsky testified that the criminal drug subculture in Hamilton is relatively small, so it’s inevitable that some of them will know each other.

“Unfortunately for me, I have so many informants that they start to overlap,” Ruthowsky said. “They all know each other, they all talk with each other, they all know they’re informants.”

The trial continues Thursday.