Two officers guilty in unlawful arrest of four Black teens
But Police Act tribunal rejects racism as a factor in ‘Neptune Four’ case
Nearly a decade after four Black teenage boys who came to be known as the Neptune Four were arrested and charged outside their Lawrence Heights homes — causing deep community mistrust in police — two Toronto officers have been found guilty of unlawful arrest in a professional misconduct hearing, and one additionally of excessive force.
Both Const. Adam Lourenco and Const. Sharnil Pais were each found guilty of discreditable conduct under Ontario’s Police Services Act for arresting without “good and sufficient cause.”
Lourenco, who faced additional charges, was also found guilty of using excessive force when he punched one of the boys. He was found not guilty of excessive force for pulling out his firearm and pointing it at the others.
The boys — twin brothers, then 15, and two friends, aged 15 and 16 — faced criminal charges, none of which ended in convictions, in a high-profile incident captured on security cameras.
The four lodged complaints, which led to the years-long misconduct hearing, during which time one boy withdrew and another was shot to death in a homicide that remains unsolved.
No date has been set for arguments about what penalties the officers will face. Penalties range from a reprimand to demotion or dismissal.
While not alleged in the misconduct charges, racial profiling surfaced early in the hearing and Jeff Carolin, the lawyer representing the complainants, asserted it was at play: “You can’t look at this case without talking about racism,” he said at the outset of the hearing in 2017.
Hearing officer Insp. Richard Hegedus said the tribunal could not ignore the issue of racial profiling, but he said he could not infer from the evidence that the boys’ race influenced the actions of the officers, although he found the initial stop was “random.”
That conclusion is a disappointment to Carolin and his clients. In an interview Friday, Carolin said the facts of the case — including the random stop, and the excessive force used after one boy asserted his right not to speak to an officer — are part of a larger phenomenon that can’t be separated from systemic racism “and particularly anti-Black racism.”
“In my opinion, this is part of a broader pattern,” Carolin said.
Carolin also took issue with Hegedus’ decision not to find Lourenco guilty of excessive force for pulling out his firearm. He believes it was a clear contravention of legislation stating police should not draw their weapons unless there is risk of loss of life or serious bodily harm.
“It was so close to one or more of my clients being shot,” Carolin said.
Lawrence Gridin and Joanne Mulcahy, lawyers representing Lourenco and Pais, both declined to comment this week because the hearing has not yet concluded.
Lourenco and Pais were in uniform and assigned to the now-disbanded Toronto AntiViolence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) unit on Nov. 21, 2011, when they entered the parking lot of a cluster of Toronto Community Housing buildings on Neptune Drive in an unmarked van.
TAVIS was known in areas of the city with higher rates of violent crime for aggressively stopping, questioning, documenting and often searching citizens in non-criminal encounters.
Star investigations revealed TAVIS officers filled out contact cards at much higher rates than other units, and had the highest percentage of cards documenting Black citizens.
The tribunal heard Lourenco and Pais were at the housing complex to enforce a trespassing law. They arrived and almost immediately intercepted the boys on foot as the four were headed to an evening Pathways to Education mentoring session.
After one of the boys tried to exercise his rights and not answer questions and identify himself, things quickly became dangerous, with Lourenco separating that boy from the group, punching him and then pulling and aiming his firearm at the others when two of the three remaining boys made moves to help.
Each of the boys was charged with assaulting police, and the young man who did not want to answer police questions was additionally charged with threatening death and assault with intent to resist arrest.
A police adjudicator delivered the misconduct decisions at a police tribunal hearing at Toronto police headquarters in December, at a time when media and the public were unable to attend such hearings, and written reasons were released Jan. 15.
Hegedus found both officers guilty of unlawful arrest of two of the boys, but not of the boy who was punched.
In his written ruling, Hegedus acknowledged “that systemic racism exists in every area of our society.
“That has also been acknowledged by our institutions and in our laws. Systemic racism undermines public trust and erodes the faith people have in those institutions, including our police services. It is unacceptable and cannot have a place in our diverse communities, certainly not in policing.”
But Hegedus said he could not infer from the evidence that the boys’ race influenced the officers’ actions.
“I do, however, find that the initial action of the officers in stopping the public complainants was random and was not based on any observable actions by the public complainants or in response to any specific complaint.”
Lourenco had been in other trouble at the tribunal for two incidents involving drinking and driving. While he did not testify at the tribunal in the Neptune Four case, he did speak with a complaint investigator and provided notes.
Lourenco alleged the boy he punched spat at him, which Hegedus questioned and was not backed up by witnesses. Video appeared to show Lourenco delivering two strikes on the boy, and “did not demonstrate that the resistance used by” the boy “was such that strikes were appropriate.”
Hegedus found Lourenco “was cavalier in his actions, which did not demonstrate good faith” and intended to arrest the boy, “whose resistance at that point did not warrant being struck.”
Lourenco’s actions “did not meet the reasonable expectations of the community,” Hegedus found.
In clearing Lourenco of using unneeded force by drawing and pointing his firearm, Hegedus noted a quick decision was made and that Lourenco reholstered the firearm after the potential threat was gone.
“Whether the right choice should have been a verbal command, an empty hand technique, or an intermediate use of force option, Constable Lourenco used one that was available to him,” wrote Hegedus. “I do not find he intentionally selected one that was inappropriate or unlawful.”
The arrests by the officers of two of the boys for assaulting police, Hegedus found, were unnecessary.
Carolin said he is awaiting instructions from his clients regarding whether to appeal.
The Star agreed not to name the complainants because of their age at the time of the incident.
On Nov. 14, 2018, came reason to name one of the boys. Yohannes Brhanu became Toronto’s 89th victim of a homicide that year, one beset by gun violence.
Killed in what police described as a midnight “gun battle,” Brhanu was 22 years old. There was no indication he fired a firearm that night and his death left family, friends and advocates shocked. The crime remains unsolved.
Brhanu was one of the two boys the tribunal found had been unlawfully arrested by Lourenco and Pais. He testified he’d been stopped by police 30 to 40 times before the 2011 incident and had not been arrested before.
Hegedus found Brhanu, who is identified in the ruling by initials, to be “the most credible” of the complainants.
“You can’t look at this case without talking about racism.”
JEFF CAROLIN LAWYER REPRESENTING TEENS