Hamilton cop says ‘why not’ allow informant to enter busted grow-op

Hamilton police officer Craig Ruthowsky defended his decision to allow one of his alleged drug dealer informants to go inside a marijuana grow operation while police were still on the scene following the execution of a raid.

In the face of stiff cross-examination from Crown attorney John Pollard in a Toronto court Tuesday, Ruthowsky testified he couldn’t see any reason not to allow his source to make a quick trip inside to inspect the electrical setup of the operation.

The source had provided a tip about the grow-op on the Stoney Creek Mountain that led to the bust.

Ruthowsky has described the source as an informant. The identity of the source, known as Mr. X, is protected by a publication ban.

Ruthowsky is facing criminal charges of bribery, obstruction of justice, breach of trust, trafficking in a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. He has pleaded not guilty.

Ruthowsky had alerted Mr. X that a search warrant was being executed on the grow-op, which was located in an outbuilding on the property. Not long after, Mr. X showed up at the site in the middle of the night while police still had the area secured.

Mr. X had told Ruthowsky he had invested money in the growop and thought he was being ripped off. In earlier testimony, Mr. X also testified that he had an arrangement with Ruthowsky to take some of the marijuana from the operation after the bust and that Ruthowsky had agreed no one living in the adjacent house would be arrested.

“You understand you were breaching a number of policies” by allowing Mr. X to enter a crime scene, the Crown suggested.

“Actually, I was thinking the opposite,” Ruthowsky replied. “Which law would I be breaking, which policy would I be breaking?”

He decided he couldn’t think of one, so he allowed Mr. X inside.

“I thought ‘Why not?’ ” Ruthowsky said. “It’s upfront. There’s nothing covert about it.”

Ruthowsky acknowledged he made no notes about his decision to allow Mr. X inside the grow-op. Ruthowsky denied there was any plan to divert some of the seized marijuana to Mr. X, noting there were a number of other police officers on site.

“If my plan was to steal it, it was a bad plan,” Ruthowsky said.

The Crown suggested that Ruthowsky waited to execute a second search warrant on the house at a later date “because you wanted to honour your promise to (Mr. X) that no one would be arrested.”

“That doesn’t make any sense to me,” Ruthowsky replied. “There was no agreement for him to come and steal the marijuana and there was no agreement to not arrest anyone.”

The Crown displayed a number of text messages showing instances where Ruthowsky had alerted his informants to search warrants that were about to be executed or provided information from criminal investigations that were underway.

Ruthowsky testified it was common to give a head’s up to a confidential informant about a pending bust so that the informant wouldn’t accidentally be on-site and get arrested. Passing along information, meanwhile, was an effective way to follow leads and get new tips, he added.

In the morning, the Crown showed excerpts of Ruthowsky’s notes and text messages exchanged with an informant. The Crown alleged he had fabricated his notes with information obtained by texts a day later.

Ruthowsky denied he fabricated his notes and testified it was not unusual for officers to confirm details and “make sure your evidence is truthful.”

The trial continues Wednesday.