A high-ranking Toronto police officer, charged with misconduct for allegedly intervening in a probe into her nephew’s car crash, told a tribunal on Monday that she acted solely as an advocate for a family member when she attended the scene.
On Day 6 of what is expected to be a seven-day disciplinary hearing, Inspector Joyce Schertzer testified in her own defence, telling the tribunal that she was not serving in an official capacity at the time.
“I was going there as an aunt, to advocate for his wellness – for no other purpose other than to make sure that he was okay,” she said.
A high-profile former homicide detective, Insp. Schertzer was charged with three counts of misconduct in 2022 over allegations that she involved herself in the collision investigation. Calvin Dejak, her nephew, drove his white pickup truck into a light pole in Toronto’s west end in May, 2022. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Calvin Dejak’s white pick-up truck can be seen on security camera footage leaving the Boulevard Club parking lot and hitting a pole on Lakeshore Blvd.
The internal disciplinary hearing, which began a week ago, is being administered by the Toronto Police Service and adjudicated by a retired Ontario Provincial Police superintendent.
Mr. Dejak crashed while exiting the upscale Boulevard Club, a lakefront club, around 11:20 a.m. on May 1, 2022, according to surveillance footage played during the hearing. The video shows the truck creeping past a lane reserved for people running a marathon, turning left onto the westbound lane of Lake Shore Boulevard before accelerating and hitting a pole, significantly damaging the vehicle.
The prosecution, led by lawyer Scott Hutchison, has maintained that Insp. Schertzer instructed the front desk at 11 Division to dispatch an officer to the scene – despite the crash having occurred in the catchment area for the neighbouring 14 Division.
“I thought that the Boulevard Club was within the 11 Division boundaries,” Insp. Schertzer told defence lawyer Joanne Mulcahy. “I wasn’t aware that it was in 14 Division.”
Last week, Staff Sergeant Matthew Routh, who works in traffic services, said that he’d never heard of an officer from one division attending a collision investigation call in a different division’s boundaries – a point Insp. Schertzer contested.
“It’s very common,” she said. “As the unit commander of 11 Division, I would routinely hear during the morning meeting how many times 11 Division went into 14 Division, 13 Division, 12 Division and 22 Division, which are all bordering divisions.”
In police body-camera footage, Mr. Dejak tells Constable Braden Doherty of 11 Division – Insp. Schertzer’s subordinate officer – that he sped up to avoid a car approaching in the eastbound lane, but lost control and crashed. Last week, Constable Doherty said he had determined there was “no criminality” in the crash, and that he did not believe alcohol was a factor.
The prosecution focused last week in part on a nearly two-minute gap in Constable Doherty’s body-camera footage. Immediately before shutting it off, he asks the inspector whether he can disable the camera.
Constable Braden Doherty asks Inspector Joyce Schertzer if it's okay to turn off his body camera at the scene of the collision.
“Constable Doherty turned to me and asked me if it would be okay if he turned off his body-worn camera,” Insp. Schertzer told the hearing. “It’s his investigation. I said yes. I didn’t know why he wanted it turned off.”
Constable Doherty’s footage also shows him releasing Mr. Dejak from the scene. Mr. Dejak returned only after a superintendent for the Traffic Services unit demanded Insp. Schertzer bring him back, according to testimony heard last week.
A traffic services officer, Constable Michael Clarke, said on Thursday that he suspected Mr. Dejak had been consuming alcohol prior to the crash – but said he could not administer a breath test because Mr. Dejak returned to the scene outside of the three-hour window for a test.
Constable Michael Clarke speaks with Calvin Dejak, saying he he suspected Mr. Dejak had been consuming alcohol prior to the crash.
On Friday, the prosecution played roughly an hour of audio from Insp. Schertzer’s interview with the Toronto Police Service’s professional standards investigators in August, 2022. Monday’s hearing began with the remaining 45 minutes of the recording, in which Insp. Schertzer speaks with Inspector John Babiar, the officer in charge of the misconduct investigation.
Neither she, nor Constable Doherty, nor her daughter – who is also a police officer and was also at the scene – detected alcohol, Insp. Schertzer says in the audio. “This is like a Twilight Zone for me,” she says. “Are we all colluding?”
“I’m not suggesting that,” Insp. Babiar replies.
At one point, Insp. Babiar tells Insp. Schertzer that there were “a couple of potential witnesses” that could have been interviewed at the crash site, and inquires into the questions Constable Doherty put to Mr. Dejak at the scene.
“It’s like, ‘You haven’t been drinking, have you? I have to ask you.’ So he gives him a closed-ended question,” Insp. Babiar says. “Is that not problematic?”
“I’m not here to assess the investigation,” Insp. Schertzer replies. “I didn’t listen half the time. I don’t care if I was within hearing range – I didn’t listen. I am not going to insert myself in the investigation. I am not going to second-guess Braden Doherty.”
During her testimony on Monday, Insp. Schertzer insisted that she was acting only in her capacity as a family member.
“Nobody from the Boulevard Club called the police,” she told the hearing. “Nobody running in the marathon that day called the police. Nobody driving by called the police. Nobody called the police. I called the police to the scene. Me.”
The hearing continues Tuesday.