Prosecutors are appealing Toronto sergeant’s acquittal

Senior cop was found not guilty of sexually assaulting two women

The Crown is appealing a ruling last month to acquit a Toronto sergeant of sexually assaulting two women in separate incidents inside his police vehicle while on duty.

Sgt. Christopher Heard, a longtime Toronto police officer, was found not guilty of two counts of sexual assault by Ontario Court Justice Russell Otter at a Scarborough courthouse last month.

Otter concluded that much of Heard’s testimony during the trial was “not credible” — including the officer’s denial that he inappropriately touched two women in their 20s that he’d picked up on separate occasions in the fall of 2015.

But the judge equally had doubts about the complainants’ accounts, concerns that were significant enough that he said he could not find the officer guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

In appeal documents filed at the Ontario Superior Court this week, Crown prosecutor Roger Shallow said the judge made errors in his judgment, including that he “failed to consider the evidence in its totality and did not assess individual pieces of evidence in the context of the evidence as a whole.”

Shallow also said the judge failed to give sufficient reasons for acquitting Heard.

The officer’s lawyer, Gary Clewley, could not be reached for comment Thursday. When his client was acquitted in October, Clewley called the judgment “lengthy and thorough.”

Heard was charged in connection to two alleged assaults within the span of six weeks. In both, he was alleged to have picked up a woman who was alone, offered her a ride home, then groped her at some point during the drive.

The women, who were strangers to one another and whose names are covered by apublication ban, had “strikingly similar” accounts, Otter found, adding that there was no evidence of collusion.

That similar evidence includes that they both alleged Heard touched their inner thigh without their consent, that he picked them up in the Entertainment District after they had been drinking.

Heard was supervising a group of constables in downtown’s 52 Division at the time, but had been working alone on the shifts in question.

He had agreed that he’d picked the women up, but denied any inappropriate touching.

The sergeant is currently facing professional misconduct charges under Ontario’s Police Services Act in connection to both incidents. That includes for his failure to activate his in-car camera, which meant there is no audio or video evidence of his contact with the complainants.

Heard also faces a misconduct charge for his failure to record all of his interaction with one of the complainants in his police notes.

“His failure to abide by police policies and protocols in the use of police equipment defies logic and common sense. I agree with the Crown that such a failure created the opportunity to engage in wrongful conduct that would go undetected,” Otter wrote in his Oct. 25 decision.

Heard has been suspended with pay from the Toronto Police Service since May 2016. Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca