Accused in fake ticket trial a ‘good cop’: witness
Four officers accused of making out ‘ghost’ or bogus tickets to the down-and-out in downtown Hamilton
A street person brought in to testify against police officers accused of writing fake tickets recognized one of them and told the court “He’s a good cop.”
David Vaughan, 64, is the fourth down-and-out man police have found downtown to testify this week at the trial of four Hamilton constables.
It’s the only way to find the vulnerable people whose names appear on alleged bogus tickets that were never issued.
Vaughan, too, had received a lot of tickets, but never paid them. His were for drinking in a public place.
When asked Thursday to recall getting some of the tickets, he said, “I’m not here to hurt Gulati.”
He then appealed to the judge, saying, “I thought he was a good cop.”
Gulati is Const. Bhupesh Gulati, 33. He and constables Steve Travale, 41, Dan Williams, 34, and Shawn Smith, 38, have pleaded not guilty to obstructing justice and fabricating provincial offence notices in 2014. Those charges were filed in May. A fifth constable, Staci Tyldesley is being tried separately.
Court heard from a police witness at the start of their trial on Monday that the fake tickets — which were never handed out to the supposed offenders — were written up sometimes on days when the officers hadn’t issued any.
Vaughan, whose name was put on one of the fake tickets, said he didn’t know how many legitimate tickets he received, usually in Gore Park downtown.
The four accused were members of Team One of the ACTION unit, which was made up of five teams.
ACTION (Addressing Crime Trends in Our Neighbourhoods) has 40 officers who primarily patrol the downtown on foot and on bicycles.
Witness Const. Edward Penner later testified that sometimes he’d write tickets and people wouldn’t take their green copies.
“It happened that people refused to take the tickets … It happened before, for people to refuse their copy. They’re upset.”
That people sometimes didn’t accept their copies was an issue raised by the defence. Early testimony was that if tickets had been refused, officers were to attach the green copies to notes.
Penner was called to the stand to establish dates he’d worked with Const. Shawn Smith in 2014 and, in particular, on the dates Smith was to have written his bogus tickets.
Penner told defence lawyers that on a ticket, it was his copy that mattered, and the two that are inserted into the Crown box (to be sent to provincial offences court and noted for yearly records).
The green copy that someone didn’t accept, he’d discard in the garbage, he said. When asked if he ever put them in the bins destined for the shredder, he quickly said, “yeah, yeah.”
The five constables were initially charged in June 2015 with conspiracy and multiple counts each of fabricating evidence and breach of trust. Those charges were withdrawn in July after the May charges were filed.