A Toronto Police Services logo is shown at headquarters, in Toronto, on Friday, August 9, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher KatsarovChristopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
A high-ranking Toronto police inspector impaired an investigation when she left her division and intervened in a car accident involving her nephew, a lawyer representing the police said on the first day of the officer’s disciplinary hearings.
Inspector Joyce Schertzer, a high-profile former homicide detective who was involved in the criminal probe of former mayor Rob Ford, committed misconduct by inserting herself into a 2022 traffic investigation involving nephew Calvin Dejak, police lawyer Scott Hutchison said Monday.
“My submission to you at the end will be that the conduct here was problematic,” Mr. Hutchison, representing Toronto Police Service (TPS), told the disciplinary hearing.
“Her conduct on that morning and afternoon impaired the ability of that investigation to be completed in an appropriate fashion, and that she acted in a conflict of interest.”
Insp. Schertzer faces three counts of misconduct for the alleged intervention in her nephew’s car crash. She pleaded “not guilty” to all three charges on Monday.
The allegations stem from an incident on May 1, 2022, when Mr. Dejak drove his pickup truck into a hydro pole when he was exiting Toronto’s Boulevard Club on the city’s lakeshore.
The tribunal was told that once Insp. Schertzer learned of the incident, she instructed the front desk at 11 Division, the district where she was unit commander, to dispatch an officer to the scene – despite the crash having occurred in the catchment area for the neighbouring 14 Division. By the time an officer had arrived, Insp. Schertzer was already there, Mr. Hutchison said.
Video and body camera footage of the crash and its aftermath were played during the hearing’s first day. One set of videos depicts the crash at around 11:20 a.m.; another shows that the truck was severely damaged.
Mr. Dejak was released after roughly 10 minutes of conversation with Constable Braden Doherty, the officer from 11 Division who first arrived on the scene, according to Mr. Hutchison. Mr. Dejak returned to the scene hours later, after being called back to answer additional questions from a separate officer from TPS’s Traffic Services unit, who was conducting his own investigation.
“You made a big mistake today,” the officer, who was not identified by name at the hearing, tells Mr. Dejak. “Like I said, you’re very fortunate that you have family members who have helped this go away in the big scheme of things.”
Much of Monday’s hearing focused on the basic events surrounding the crash, and the body camera footage and testimony of Constable Doherty.
The car crash happened as a marathon was under way, and one of the road’s eastbound lanes was closed to traffic.
Around 11:20 a.m., while a final clutch of racers work their way to the finish line, Mr. Dejak’s white pick-up truck can be seen on security camera footage driving up to the exit of the Boulevard Club, an upscale athletic club. As the pick-up turns and merges into the westbound lane, it speeds up before colliding with a light pole.
In body camera footage collected in the aftermath of the crash, Mr. Dejak can be seen explaining to Constable Doherty that he was waved through by Boulevard Club security staff, and that he sped up to avoid hitting a car driving in the eastbound lane, but lost control and crashed.
During testimony, Constable Doherty said his dispatching to the accident was “unorthodox” because he generally didn’t get assigned to calls by front desk personnel, and he generally didn’t handle incidents outside of 11 Division.
During her questions to the officer, defence lawyer Joanne Mulcahy, who represents Insp. Schertzer, focused on the boundaries of 11 Division’s policed area, which falls just outside of the Boulevard Club. Ms. Mulcahy also asked Constable Doherty about whether he believed alcohol was a factor in Mr. Dejak’s crash, and whether Constable Doherty had released Mr. Dejak from the scene.
“It was abundantly clear to you that alcohol was not a contributing factor to that accident, correct?” Ms. Mulcahy asked. “I don’t believe it was, no,” Constable Doherty replied.
Mr. Dejak did not respond to The Globe and Mail’s request for comment.
In the body camera footage, Constable Doherty tells Insp. Schertzer that he has determined there is “no criminality” and that Mr. Dejak is allowed to leave.
The 2022 document notifying Insp. Schertzer of her hearing outlines three charges: that she failed to ensure a thorough investigation was conducted, that she failed to collect evidence and that she was in a conflict of interest.
The charges also note that, as a result of Insp. Schertzer’s intervention, an investigating traffic officer wasn’t able to determine whether alcohol played a role in Mr. Dejak’s collision.
The hearing resumes Tuesday and is expected to last a week.