As corrupt cop lands in jail, what of his constable wife?
Cloud of suspicion, some of it cast by husband’s trial judge, hangs over 16-year police veteran
CONST. CHRISTINE Ruthowsky-Bezeau hasn’t been charged with anything, but her career with the Hamilton Police Service is likely over anyway.
A massive black cloud of suspicion hangs over her head — along with the damning words of her husband’s trial judge — because she is married to the most corrupt cop in this city’s recent history.
It seems implausible the veteran officer can continue to serve and protect while her spouse, disgraced guns and gangs detective Craig Ruthowsky, serves 13 years in prison for his paid protection of drug dealers.
“I think continuing as an officer would be a challenge for Christine,” says Clint Twolan, president of the Hamilton Police Association.
“Her name has been quite prominent in the media. Clearly it’s going to be difficult to come back.”
Ruthowsky-Bezeau, on the job for at least 16 years, has been off on stress leave following her husband’s arrest in November 2012, confirmed Twolan. The Ancaster couple have two young children.
Ruthowsky, 44, was sentenced to his penitentiary term Tuesday after a jury convicted him of bribery, obstructing justice, breach of trust and trafficking cocaine.
He has also been ordered to pay a $250,000 fine, which is about what he pocketed in a year’s worth of bribes from drug dealers who he protected and supplied with confidential police information.
If he doesn’t pay the fine within 12 months, he will spend three additional years in prison.
Last year the couple made the provincial sunshine list, though neither one was working.
On Wednesday, the Hamilton Police Service was finally able to take Ruthowsky off its payroll. He had been suspended with pay — the only option given to Ontario police chiefs — for six years.
Last year, the couple made the provincial sunshine list though neither one was working.
He collected $104,334 in salary even as his criminal charges made their way toward trial. She took home $106,863.
Now that Ruthowsky is actually behind bars and incapable of reporting for duty, he is suspended without pay. It will still take an upcoming hearing under the Police Services Act to fire him.
Ruthowsky’s lawyer has indicated his client will apply for bail pending appeal, but the disgraced officer is still facing another 16 criminal charges laid last August, including bribery, two counts each of breach of trust, obstructing justice, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, trafficking cocaine and weapons trafficking, as well as single counts of public mischief, fraud under $5,000, trafficking marijuana, perjury and robbery.
Ruthowsky is not the only Hamilton cop to wind up behind bars (his former partner, Rob Hansen, is doing five years right now for planting a gun at a suspected drug dealer’s home).
But none have had sentences nearly as long as the one Ruthowsky is facing down.
A once-celebrated cop, Ruthowsky was known for his high arrest rate and his unparalleled record of getting drugs and guns off the streets.
He was also credited with saving the life of a fellow member of the guns and gangs unit in 2009 by shooting a teen who pulled out a gun during a drug arrest.
Ruthowsky fired several shots at the 18-year-old during the high-risk takedown on James Street North after the suspect pulled a handgun out of his car.
The teen survived his wounds and the province’s Special Investigations Unit cleared Ruthowsky of any wrongdoing.
Ruthowsky-Bezeau faithfully supported her husband throughout his corruption trial by being in the courtroom.
At one point, while handing down his scathing sentence, Justice Robert Clark unleashed his scorn toward her.
The judge cited evidence that showed Ruthowsky-Bezeau was in a car with her husband while he was talking to a drug dealer he was protecting. The conversation was captured on a police wiretap.
That raises questions about “exactly how much his wife knew about her husband’s illicit activities,” Clark said.
Ruthowsky-Bezeau shook her head at that suggestion.
But it does seem a stretch that Ruthowsky-Bezeau, who has worked as a detective, could not have known something was amiss when her husband was bringing in an extra $20,000 a month.
Twolan was Ruthowsky’s friend and housemate years ago when they were starting their careers.
He describes him as a fun guy who cares about family.
Twolan was also RuthowskyBezeau’s supervisor in a patrol squad. He described her as a “great police officer” to whom he often assigned the most challenging tasks.
He said Ruthowsky-Bezeau is not facing any criminal or disciplinary charges and he is unaware of any investigation into her activities.
Hamilton police said it cannot comment on employee/employer matters.
But the black cloud of suspicion created by her husband’s conviction and bolstered by the judge’s stern words is “a difficult hurdle for her to overcome” in having the trust of her police service and the public, said Twolan.