Fire Neptune Four officer, lawyer argues
Tribunal to decide penalties for pair of cops, including one who punched teen during stop
A near decade-long saga that began with a “random” stop and arrest of four Black teenagers — and damaged community trust in Toronto police — edged one step closer to an end before a police misconduct tribunal Monday, with calls for penalties ranging from loss of pay for the two officers involved up to dismissal for one who threw punches.
In a case that became known in the Lawrence Heights neighbourhood and beyond as the “Neptune Four,” lawyers representing the complainants and Consts. Adam Lourenco and Sharnil Pais made virtual sentencing submissions before hearing officer Richard Hegedus on penalties.
Lourenco and Pais were found guilty in January of misconduct by Hegedus for unlawfully arresting two of the teens. Lourenco was found guilty of an additional count of using excessive force.
While lawyers for the officers — Lawrence Gridin for Lourenco and Joanne Mulcahy for Pais — and prosecutor Supt. Domenic Sinopoli jointly called for a loss of 12 days’ pay for Lourenco and three for Pais, Jeff Carolin, representing the complainants, argued Lourenco should lose his job.
Lourenco has been before the tribunal twice before for drinking and driving incidents, including one that landed him a forfeiture of 15 days’ pay and a demotion. Though Carolin acknowledged positive reports on Lourenco’s employment record, he argued it is “no longer acceptable” to continue to employ him.
Citing case precedents, Gridin called the proposed loss of 12 days’ pay for Lorenco a “heavy” penalty and Carolin’s call for dismissal “outside the bounds of reasonableness.”
Lourenco and Pais were assigned to the now-disbanded Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) unit on Nov. 21, 2011, when they entered the parking lot of a Toronto Community Housing complex on Neptune Drive in an unmarked van. The TAVIS unit was known for its aggressiveness and high level of documenting people — Black people disproportionately so —in carding or street-check encounters.
The tribunal heard Lourenco and Pais were there to enforce a trespassing law. They arrived and in a matter of seconds 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 right to not answer questions or identify himself, Lourenco separated that boy from the group, punched him twice and then pulled and aimed his firearm at the others when two of the three remaining boys made moves to help.
The boys — twin brothers, then 15, and two friends, aged 15 and 16 — were charged with assaulting police, and the teen who did not want to answer police questions was additionally charged with threatening death and assault with intent to resist arrest. None were convicted in connection with the incident, captured on security cameras; they later launched a public complaint.
Lourenco, the senior officer that night, and Pais, four years on the job and new to TAVIS, were each found guilty of discreditable conduct under Ontario’s Police Services Act for arresting without “good and sufficient cause” two of the boys. Lourenco, who faced additional charges, was also found guilty of using excessive force when he punched one of the boys. Hegedus found Lourenco not guilty of excessive force for pulling out his firearm and pointing it at the others.
Though race and anti-Black racism was acknowledged in the hearing, there was no mention of that in the charging documents. Hegedus found race was not a factor, but that the stop of the boys was “random.”
The Monday hearing began with a victim impact statement read aloud by the teen — now an adult — who was punched by Lourenco. (The names of the complainants remain subject to a publication ban under the Youth Criminal Justice Act).
“I know that the hearing officer did not find that racial profiling played a role in how we were treated, but I know that this incident taught me in clear terms what my social rank was as a young, poor, Black, Muslim teenager,” the man said in his statement.
Police tribunals can impose penalties ranging from a reprimand to dismissal. Hegedus said he hopes to have a decision on penalty ready by end of April.