Judge rejects claim Ruthowsky was a victim of bias
Suspended Hamilton Police Service officer Craig Ruthowsky will be sentenced May 23 after a judge refused to halt to the proceedings because of an investigator’s alleged bias.
A Toronto jury last month found Ruthowsky guilty of accepting bribes from Hamilton drug dealers, obstructing justice, breach of trust and cocaine trafficking. Defence lawyer Greg Lafontaine then asked the judge to stay the proceedings based on what he alleged was an abuse of process because Ruthowsky once dated the wife of Hamilton police Staff-Sgt. Ben Thibodeau.
Superior Court Justice Robert Clark rejected the argument Monday, saying he found no evidence that Thibodeau demonstrated any animus toward Ruthowsky.
“I find no unfairness in the applicant’s trial arising from anything Thibodeau did or failed to do,” Clark said, reading his reasons. “I see no improper motive nor bad faith on Thibodeau’s part and I conclude that there was nothing about his conduct that directly affected the applicant’s trial.”
Ruthowsky told court he dated Thibodeau’s wife for about a year shortly prior to her commencing a relationship with Thibodeau, who contradicted that claim in an affidavit that said the relationship lasted only half as long, back in 2000-2001. Thibodeau’s affidavit said he did not meet his future wife until June 2004, almost three years after her relationship with Ruthowsky ended.
Clark cited several examples that he said demonstrated Thibodeau “bore no animus toward” Ruthowsky. Ruthowsky and his wife attended many social functions with Thibodeau and his partner, the judge stated.
“It appears to me that their relationship was normal and unremarkable and in all the circumstances. I could not imagine why Thibodeau would have an animus toward the applicant simply because the applicant had a prior, unproblematic (relationship) with his now wife,” the judge said.
Clark also noted Thibodeau did not “seek out” the assignment to investigate Ruthowsky in relation to the charges tried before the court. Rather, “it fell to him because of his position as head of intelligence services.”
Ruthowsky was also convicted of charges laid by the Toronto Police Service in 2015.
And the judge added while Thibodeau’s prior relationship was “irrelevant,” it would have been better if he had disclosed it to senior Hamilton police management, “precisely because it would have diverted what I consider to be in all the circumstances a baseless and specious argument.”
Prosecutor John Pollard has said he will be seeking a penitentiary term. Ruthowsky remains suspended with pay and is facing more than a dozen other criminal charges, along with Police Services Act charges.