A former Hamilton police officer at present serving a 13-year jail sentence for corruption will not be prosecuted for a slew of different {charges}, together with bribing officers, perjury, obstructing justice, and trafficking weapons and medicines.
The Crown’s request to remain proceedings for 12 {charges} in opposition to Craig Ruthowsky was granted by Ontario Superior Courtroom Justice Harrison Arrell on Tuesday.
The keep ends a decade-long authorized saga involving “extraordinarily severe” allegations however that are not within the public’s greatest curiosity to take to trial, assistant Crown Legal professional John Pollard informed the courtroom.
“Within the Crown’s view, it’s unwise to make use of treasured courtroom time to attempt Mr. Ruthowsky once more when he has been punished within the strictest phrases attainable for offences that considerably overlap with those who would have been adjudicated in the course of the second trial,” Pollard stated.
Ruthowsky’s sentence is believed to be the longest ever imposed in Canada for police corruption, and even when he had been discovered responsible of the 12 different {charges}, it is unlikely he’d get extra jail time, Pollard stated.
In alternate for the Crown staying the remaining {charges}, Ruthowsky has agreed to not attempt to attraction his present sentence to the Supreme Courtroom, stated Pollard.
Ruthowsky, who’s on the federal Bathtub Institute in Millhaven, didn’t attend the listening to in individual or nearly.
The Crown is not required to offer causes for the keep, however determined to because the case has “rightly attracted vital media consideration and public scrutiny,” Pollard stated.
“The allegations are severe and have the potential to have an effect on public confidence within the administration of justice,” he stated. “Consequently, the general public ought to know why the Crown has exercised its discretion on this method.”
Suspended from police service after arrest
Ruthowsky, who served on Hamilton police’s weapons and gangs unit, was already suspended from the power when he was first arrested in 2015.
Toronto police had caught him on wiretaps giving recommendation to a drug vendor. The calls had been intercepted as a part of Venture Pharaoh, a large Toronto police investigation into gang exercise.
In 2015, Jim Ramer, Toronto’s performing police chief on the time, introduced that Ruthowsky confronted a number of {charges} stemming from the Venture Pharaoh investigation. (Toronto police/YouTube)
Ruthowsky’s trial came about in 2018, when he was 44. A jury discovered him responsible of offering safety to criminals for money and promoting police secrets and techniques.
Justice Robert Clark sentenced him to 12½ years in jail, with six months already served, greater than was initially requested by the Crown and defence, and to pay $250,000 — the quantity he took in bribes.
“The conduct for which [Ruthowsky] should now reply was motivated by sheer, unbridled greed,” Clark stated on the time.
Ruthowsky appealed his conviction whereas going through a slew of different {charges} from a parallel Hamilton police investigation into occasions that came about between 2009 and 2012.
These {charges}, which had been stayed Tuesday, included one rely every of bribery of officers, perjury and obstructing justice, two counts of breach of belief of a public officer, three counts of drug trafficking and 4 counts of weapons trafficking.
Choose agrees with keep
The Crown determined to carry off on a trial for these {charges} till after Ruthowsky’s attraction, stated Pollard. If he had gained and a brand new trial was ordered, the Crown would prosecute each units of {charges} directly in a “a lot bigger trial.”
However the attraction was delayed, partially by the COVID-19 pandemic, stated Pollard. It wasn’t till earlier this yr that the courtroom upheld Ruthowsky’s conviction and sentence.
In that point, the Crown’s case hasn’t collapsed, however components of it have “naturally eroded,” stated Pollard.
“The dynamics of the litigation can be completely different now than they had been again in 2019.”
Ruthowsky additionally “strongly disputes” the allegations, and the trial would have had to cope with complicated authorized points and be not less than two months lengthy, Pollard stated.
Defence lawyer Kelsey Flanagan supported the Crown’s choice. She informed the courtroom Ruthowsky has suffered “vital collateral penalties.”
The proceedings have impacted his household, together with two youngsters, Flanagan stated.
He resigned from the Hamilton Police Service in 2018.
The trial on the second set of {charges} would have been “hotly contested” and the end result “removed from sure,” she stated.
The decide agreed, saying a keep “makes nice sense to me.”
