Officer resigns and avoids misconduct conviction penalties
Jeff Todoruck had been found guilty of neglect of duty, discreditable conduct and more
A Hamilton police officer has resigned, thereby avoiding any penalty after being found guilty of four disciplinary charges stemming from his controversial arrest of two photojournalists.
Const. Jeff Todoruck — who became infamous thanks to viral videos showing him sputtering with rage — resigned effective Feb. 19, his disciplinary hearing was told Friday. That means he is no longer a police officer and therefore no longer under the jurisdiction of the Police Services Act. The hearing was meeting for the fourth time since his conviction in an effort to impose a penalty. Todoruck has been missing from each of those meetings and he has had no legal representative.
The hearing was previously told he was on a medical leave from Hamilton police, where he was a veteran patrol officer.
Hearing officer Peter Lennox, a retired Toronto police superintendent, imposed a stay of proceedings against Todoruck after learning of his resignation during Friday’s conference call.
What that does, under the PSA, is it allows Todoruck’s hearing to be reopened for a penalty to be imposed if he is hired by any police service in Ontario in the next five years.
It is remarkably common for police officers facing serious disciplinary charges to resign during the final stages of their hearings, collecting their full salaries until the last possible moment. In Ontario, the law says that even suspended officers must be paid.
In Todoruck’s case, he was not suspended from duty and continued to work in some capacity until he went on sick leave.
On Aug. 18, Todoruck didn’t come to police headquarters for what was supposed to be the start of penalty submissions. He also didn’t show up a month before when the hearing officer rendered his guilty decision.
In May 2017, Todoruck was caught on video losing his cool and arresting two photojournalists at the scene of a terrible fatality in Waterdown.
Jasmin Hanif, 10, was killed by a vehicle while trying to cross a road near her home.
Jeremy Cohn, with Global News at the time, and freelancer Dave Ritchie arrived at the scene after her body was removed.
Let’s be clear about that. The child was no longer at the scene when Cohn and Ritchie got there. They did not take photos or video of her.
Ritchie prepared to film the aftermath of the fatal accident, but was confronted by Todoruck and told to leave. Ritchie was handcuffed and put in the back of Todoruck’s cruiser.
Ritchie was charged with obstructing police and resisting arrest. Later, he entered into a peace bond.
When Cohn arrived at the scene, he asked Todoruck why Ritchie was in the cruiser. Todoruck told Cohn he wasn’t allowed to speak with Ritchie and had to leave. The hearing heard Todoruck shoved Cohn to the ground, put his knee into his back, zip-tied his hands and put him into a second cruiser.
Cohn was released without charges. He now has a $900,000 lawsuit against the Hamilton police services board and Todoruck.
In photos and videos shot by
other media, Todoruck is flushed, aggressive and loud. He can be seen “grounding” and handcuffing Cohn, shouting and intentionally shining a search light into cameras. He confiscated camera equipment.
Todoruck’s actions drew criticism from journalists and from some police officers.
The hearing heard the Hamilton police media relations officer at the time was so upset by the incident — he raced to the scene on his day off to try to intervene — that he quit policing. He is now a firefighter.
Media coverage of Jasmin’s death led to roads in her neighbourhood being made safer.
Representing himself at his hearing after parting ways with his lawyer, Todoruck argued Cohn and Ritchie were obstructing him at the scene. Lennox ruled they weren’t.
Last June, Todoruck was found guilty of one count of unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority for arresting Cohn; two counts of neglect of duty for failing to read Cohn and Ritchie their rights to counsel and one count of discreditable conduct for leaving Ritchie handcuffed in a cruiser unattended.
He was found not guilty of a fifth charge of discreditable
conduct related to Cohn being left unattended in a cruiser because he may have thought another officer was watching him.
In his decision, Lennox wrote that while he recognized it was a traumatic scene for Todoruck to attend, “it is incumbent on police officers to overcome such limitations as quickly as they can, to maintain a clear head, to remember the law, service policies and particularly the rights of people around them and to never lose a sense of what is reasonable, legal and professional under the circumstances.”
Until he went on sick leave, Todoruck was continuing to perform his duties while collecting full pay. In 2019, according to the public sector disclosure list, he earned $127,341.80 and $506.39 in benefits.
It was never said what penalty was being sought for Todoruck. The possibilities could have ranged from a demotion and pay cut to being fired.
The charges against Todoruck were triggered by a complaint from Mackay Taggart, regional news director at Global News.
Taggart is critical of the PSA system, which took nearly four years to get to this point, with no real closure.
“There’s a conviction, but zero accountability,” he says.
From the beginning, Taggart has said publicly that he would like to work with Hamilton police to improve media training for officers so that an incident like this wouldn’t be repeated. The service has never responded to his invitation.
Ritchie was also critical of the hearing process. It was clear by the delays Todoruck repeatedly caused that he wasn’t respectful of the process and yet the hearing officer allowed that to continue for months. “And Todoruck’s now used this escape route to avoid discipline.”
“But if this weeds out the bad apples like this one, I’m happy to see him gone,” says Ritchie. “I want to be safe when I’m out there doing my job.”
Cohn says he was surprised Todoruck resigned, considering he always insisted he was in the right and showed no remorse. What bothers Cohn most is that Todoruck’s behaviour and everything that followed detracted from the real story of that day — the death of a child.
“None of us want to be at the scene of a dead child,” he says. But without reporting on the tragedy, improved safety measures might not have happened.
When asked for comment on Todoruck’s resignation and the service’s relationship with the media, Hamilton police said: “Media play a vital role in our society and we value our relationship with media. Hamilton Police Service will continue to work collaboratively with our media partners in order to deliver public safety in our community.”
Hamilton police has never apologized to Cohn and Ritchie.