York police officer found guilty in fatal crash
In third trial, Remo Romano convicted of causing death of pedestrian while undercover
A York Regional Police officer who killed a pedestrian while speeding on a Toronto street has been found guilty of dangerous driving causing death after standing trial in front of a jury for a third time.
Det.-Const. Remo Romano was on duty and driving an undercover pickup truck as part of a surveillance team when he hit Natasha Carla Abogado as she crossed St. Clair Ave. E. around 8 p.m. on Feb.12, 2014.
Court was told Romano was travelling 115 kilometres per hour in a 60km zone, trying to catch up to and assist other members of his team.
The latest Superior Court jury deliberated for about eight hours be- fore delivering the guilty verdict Wednesday afternoon.
It was the third time the case was argued in front of a jury, each with different outcomes.
In May 2016, a jury was unable to come to a unanimous verdict, resulting in a mistrial. A different jury acquitted him at a retrial in September 2016. The Crown filed an appeal, arguing the judge had improperly instructed the jury.
Last fall, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered a new trial finding the second trial judge “made irrelevant and adverse comments” about the victim’s conduct during his charge to the jury.
The trial judge had asked the jury to consider that the 18-year-old victim was jaywalking and described it as an “inherently risky activity,” and said that “pedestrians must be aware, when they jaywalk, that drivers are not always paying attention, not al- ways concentrating on what is going on ahead of them.”
Those statements diverted the jury’s attention away from the main issue of whether or not Romano’s driving was, in fact, dangerous, the appellate court said.
Because of that direction, the prosecution in the latest trial focused the evidence almost entirely on the manner of Romano’s driving.
Wednesday’s jury verdict exposes the criminal justice system as a “crapshoot,” said Bill MacKenzie, Romano’s lawyer.
“How else do you explain how one jury not being able to decide a case, another jury acquitting, and the third jury saying guilty all on the same presentation of facts,” he said. “While I have the greatest respect for the jury system, I’m at a loss to understand what happened.”
He added his client, a father of five who is in his mid-40s, is “absolutely devastated.”
A York Regional Police spokesperson wrote in an email that Romano has been on administrative duties since the charges were laid and that he will continue until all criminal proceedings have concluded.
An internal review will also wait until the case has concluded, including the 30-day appeal period.