Convicted cop claims bias tainted trial

Crown says allegation ‘barely rises above level of office gossip’

While Craig Ruthowsky is asking that his corruption-related charges be stayed because an investigator was allegedly biased against him, a prosecutor says the accusation is groundless and “barely rises above the level of office gossip.”

A Toronto jury convicted the veteran Hamilton Police Service officer last week of bribery, obstruction of justice, breach of trust and cocaine trafficking after accepting a drug dealer’s testimony that he paid Ruthowsky protection money.

But Ruthowsky’s lawyer, Greg Lafontaine, says his client did not receive a fair trial because Sgt. Ben Thibodeau, the “primary driving force” behind the investigation, is married to a woman Ruthowsky once dated, according to a factum Lafontaine filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

It’s unclear whether Thibodeau ever disclosed the nature of their “jagged past” with anyone involved in an internal investigation into his conduct, including Hamilton Police Service senior management, the court document states.

“It is respectfully submitted that the central involvement of an officer in an investigation when there is such a plainly apparent potential for bias and partiality — or at least, its possible perception — is an abuse of process.”

While there is no “direct admission of animus or ill intent” in Thibodeau’s notes, there are instances “from which the animus and ulterior motivations can be inferred,” it says.

Consequently, Ruthowsky’s constitutional rights to a fair trial were violated and, given the “pervasive and far-reaching” nature of Thibodeau’s con- tributions to those violations, a stay of proceedings should be granted, Lafontaine argues.

A stay would put a temporary or permanent halt to the proceedings.

“Our position is that there is no evidence of animus on the part of Thibodeau or any other investigator,” prosecutor John Pollard wrote in a text message. “The relationship cited by Ruthowsky took place over ten years ago — it is a complete non-issue that barely rises beyond the level of office gossip.”

Pollard said it is also incorrect to suggest Thibodeau was the “driving force” behind the investigation ensnaring Ruthowsky. Ruthowsky was swept up in a massive 2015 Toronto Police Service investigation called Project Pharaoh.

Lafontaine’s factum states Thibodeau was involved in a 2014 internal Hamilton Police Service probe.

Ruthowsky still faces more than a dozen criminal charges.