Toronto cops launch $5 million lawsuit against own police service
Toronto Canada May 6 2019 Three Toronto cops acquitted of sex assault charges that stemmed from a night of booze-soaked partying with a parking enforcement officer have launched a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against their own police service.
In their 20-page statement of claim the 51 Division constables — Leslie Nyznik, Sameer Kara and Joshua Cabero — allege the Toronto Police service engaged in negligent investigation, misfeasance in a public office and malicious prosecution related to the initial criminal investigation and charges recently laid against them under the Police Services Act.
None of the allegations in the lawsuit, filed a month ago in Ontario Superior Court, have been proven in court.
The suit names the police chief, three officers in the Professional Standards Unit (one now retired) and the Toronto Police Services Board.
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders holds his year-end news conference at Police Headquarters in Toronto on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018. Dave Abel / Toronto Sun
During the highly publicized trial in the summer of 2017, the parking enforcement officer — whose name is protected by a publication ban — claimed she’d been assaulted multiple times by the three constables on Jan. 16, 2015, following a “rookie buy night.”
The alleged assault, she claimed, occurred in a room at the Westin Harbour Castle hotel.
The three officers were acquitted in August 2017 by Ontario Superior Court Judge Anne Molloy who said it was “simply not safe” to convict them due to inconsistencies in the complainant’s testimony.
The officers have repeatedly insisted the sex was consensual.
Suspended with pay since they were charged criminally in February of 2015, they were subsequently charged late last year with a slew of misconduct charges.
Besides the alleged sex assault, the charges involve allegations related to taking “advantage of their position and authority” to have sex with an underling in the police service hierarchy and other behaviour that allegedly included taking free food and booze at Pravda Vodka Bar and not paying a cover charge at the Brass Rail strip club.
Toronto Sun
