Off-duty London cop charged with impaired driving: police
A veteran London police officer faces charges after provincial police say they pulled over a driver who was speeding on Highway 401 with open alcohol in their vehicle.
An OPP officer made a traffic stop about 1:40 p.m. Wednesday on the 401 at Wonderland Road in London and determined the driver had consumed alcohol after administering a roadside screening, Middlesex OPP said Thursday.
The driver was arrested and taken back to the OPP detachment, for further tests, police said.
Darryl Horan, 35, of Woodstock, is charged with impaired driving, speeding and driving a vehicle with an open container of liquor, OPP said. He was released pending a June 4 court appearance.
Horan, a constable who has been with London police for 12 years, has been assigned to administrative duties, a London police spokesperson said.
The charges against Horan — the fifth London police officer now facing criminal charges and the only one still on the job — comes two weeks after the OPP pledged to beef up efforts to combat impaired driving in response to a surge in fatal crashes and charges.
Ontario police chiefs were recently given more power to withhold pay from suspended officers under the new Community Safety and Policing Act that replaced the Police Services Act effective April 1.
Under the old law, police chiefs only could withhold suspended officers' salaries if they were convicted
of a crime and sentenced to jail time, including house arrest. Chiefs now have authority to suspend officers without pay if they're in custody, under bail conditions that would interfere with their job, or charged with a serious off-duty offence.
The four other London police officers facing criminal charges all have been suspended, two of them without pay.
Const. Juan Romero, 46, was charged in December with two counts of assault, assault with a weapon, resisting arrest and obstructing police. The 19-year service member was charged less than two weeks later with failing to comply with an undertaking. Romero is on paid suspension and set to appear in court May 2.
A 46-year-old constable was suspended with pay in December 2022 after being charged with four counts of assault, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, unlawfully possessing an unrestricted firearm and mischief under $5,000. The charges relate to alleged off-duty incidents over four years. The accused's name wasn't released to protect the complainant's identity. The case returns to court May 13.
Constables Nicholas Doering, 32, and Eldin Omerovic, 27, remain suspended without pay pending appeals.
Doering was given an 18-month conditional sentence — half spent on house arrest — in October for failing to provide the necessaries of life in the Sept. 6, 2016, custody death of Debra Chrisjohn, 39. He is appealing his conviction and a hearing is set for Friday.
Omerovic, 27, was found guilty in October of two counts of sexual assault and given a nine-month conditional sentence, including house arrest and probation. A charge of sexual assault with choking was withdrawn. He has appealed the convictions and his case returns to court June 13 to set a hearing date.