Parents file $12.5M lawsuit against Toronto police
Couple claim that detectives ignored, lost or concealed information in son’s death
John Kevin Connelly had just aced two exams at the University of Toronto. He was a thriving third-year pharmacy student. On the day before his death, he was making social arrangements — a meetup with his sister, plans with one of his best friends for the following day.
Instead, on the morning of Dec. 9, 2001, Connelly’s body was discovered in the parking lot outside of 15 Walmer Rd., where he lived in a third-floor bachelor apartment.
Summoned by a 911 call, Toronto police arrived and quickly ruled Connelly had died by suicide by taking a running jump off the roof of the building.
It’s a conclusion his parents, John and Gloria Connelly, have fought ever since.
Fifteen years since the death of their son, the Connellys are filing a $12.5-million lawsuit against the Toronto police, alleging that detectives failed to properly investigate their son’s death as a homicide. Instead, they allege police concealed, ignored or lost evidence in order to support the conclusion Connelly’s death was a suicide.
In a statement of claim filed in Toronto earlier this year, the Connellys ask the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for a declaration that police should reinvestigate their son’s death, this time as a homicide.
“This has moved beyond our son John and beyond us,” Gloria Connelly told the Star in an interview from Ottawa on Wednesday. “Now, it’s about accountability. It’s about public safety.”
None of the allegations contained in the statement of claim have been proven in court. Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash said police have not yet filed a statement of defence.
“We will be defending the case,” Pugash said.
Since the day they were told of their son’s death, the Connellys have ques- tioned if police did enough to rule out homicide.
The lawsuit, they say, is a last-resort effort following a 15-year odyssey to collect information and evidence surrounding their son’s death — through meetings with investigators and the coroner’s office, freedom of information requests, appeals to oversight bodies and more.
Gradually, in a piecemeal manner, the couple claims to have collected sufficient evidence to show the bulk of the information police used to determine Connelly’s death was a suicide was incorrect.
The statement of claim contains what the Connellys say are more than a dozen examples of police mistakes, loss of important evidence and more, foremost among them a significant discrepancy concerning where Connelly’s body was found.
According to the statement of claim, police told the Connellys he was found approximately 10 metres from the base of the apartment building and inferred that the distance supported the theory of a running leap off the roof.
But in 2006, the Connellys received materials from the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board indicating the distance had actually been about five metres, half what they had originally been told.
The difference is significant, the Connellys maintain, because it calls into question previous assumptions by Toronto police that John had taken a running leap off the roof. It also opens up the possibility that John was dropped off a balcony.
The statement of claim also highlights what it alleges are other significant problems with the investigation, including: that police failed to thoroughly interview witnesses or obtain a list of the tenants in the building; investigators did not secure the apartment and contaminated it; police lost or destroyed evidence, including 911 calls; and police failed to properly fingerprint and photograph the apartment, leading to the improper treatment of a bloodstained pillowcase found in Connelly’s room.
It also alleges police concealed the fact that there had been “a violent and noisy confrontation in Connelly’s apartment shortly before his death,” and that they failed to investigate a neighbour’s report of two “miserable looking” men accessing Connelly’s apartment with their own keys in the days before his death.
Cameron Fiske, the Connelly’s lawyer, said the family has suffered greatly as a result of a “lack of a proper investigation” into their son’s death.
“There is a public need for this kind of lawsuit,” Fiske said in an emailed statement Wednesday. “I am confident that justice will prevail if we are provided with a full forum to present all of the evidence in court.”
John Connelly, Connelly’s father, said the family would have preferred to work collaboratively with police to prompt a re-investigation.
But over the years, they reluctantly concluded a lawsuit was necessary to shine a light on what he says are the larger issues of oversight and accountability.
“We are always hopeful,” he said. “Every time we do this we always end up with more evidence and more information that always gets us closer to the truth.” Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca