Exclusive: Four Toronto cops facing obstruction and perjury charges

By Francis D'Souza

Just days after a Toronto police officer was found guilty of attempted murder, CityNews has confirmed through multiple sources that very serious charges are pending against four officers at 55 Division.

The charges stem from a traffic stop at Gerrard Street and Broadview Avenue in January 2014. Various sources with direct knowledge of the case say the four officers will soon be charged with obstruction and perjury in an alleged conspiracy to take down a low-level drug dealer.

In court, police presented the case as open and shut. One officer alleged he saw a driver run a red light and pulled him over at a parking lot in Chinatown East. He testified when he approached the car he noticed white powder spilled on the console and found a baggie of heroin behind the steering wheel.

But the defendant told a very different story. He testified he did not run a red light, but said he was being followed by another officer who had previously arrested him.

The drug charge was stayed after Ontario Superior Court Judge Edward Morgan found major inconsistencies in the stories of the officers that testified.

Morgan found two officers “concocted a false story” and didn’t disagree with the defence that police orchestrated the stop.

“I conclude from all of this that the loose heroin was placed on the console of the Toyota by the police after their search, and was not left there by the defendant prior to the search,” Morgan ruled.

In his ruling, Morgan said “This police misconduct outweighs the roughly 12 grams of heroin found by the police. That quantity of drugs is, of course, a serious matter; but the misconduct evidenced here is entirely beyond anything that the courts can accept.”

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