OTTAWA — Ottawa police have formally withdrawn all internal charges against two constables who were criminally acquitted of assaulting a homeless man.
Const. Thanh Tran and Const. Colin Bowie were charged by the special investigations unit after Hugh Styres alleged the two officers roughed him up on a Sandy Hill sidewalk in August 2011 when he was waking up from a hangover. An internal investigation is automatically triggered by the laying of a criminal charge against any officer.
Prosecutor Christiane Huneault told the hearing officer, Ottawa police Deputy Chief Jill Skinner, on Monday that the internal charges were stayed to allow for the criminal trial but now with that matter resolved, her motion was to withdraw all the charges.
“You understand those charges have been withdrawn by the prosecution,” Skinner asked the officers. The officers emphatically said “Yes.”
Police union president Matt Skof said the charge withdrawal is the final resolution in what has been a lengthy process. With the charges withdrawn, the whole ordeal is over.
“They can move forward with their careers now,” Skof said.
In addition to the criminal trial, the officers were also facing a lawsuit by the alleged victim.
But, Styres dropped the $500,000 civil suit against Tran, Bowie and the service earlier this year
Following the criminal acquittal on Oct. 11, investigators in the professional standards section, the unit that investigates alleged police misconduct, found that there were no grounds to proceed with the charges under the Police Services Act. In ruling that the officers were not guilty of criminal assault, Justice Charles Vaillancourt said much of the evidence relied on flawed testimony by unreliable mother-daughter witnesses Tasha Doucette and River Doucette-Raymond.
Ottawa police had intended to withdraw the charges Monday if the crown attorney didn’t appeal the criminal acquittal.
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Commentary
The fact that the Crown withdrew the charges means diddly squat in Ottawa Ontario Canada.
The Ottawa Crown Attornies are very much "similar authorities", they work together, they are hadly independant of each
other and Ottawa, is the Corruption Capital of Canada.
Ottawa Police, Children's aid Society all work together with the CAS often directing prosecutions to be laid, withdrawn
more than the Ottawa Police who are unlikely to lay criminal charges against police officers.
For example, Constable Peter Vanderzander fabricated evidence and obstructed justice in a blatant fashion.
The Ottawa Police then fabricated more charges and withdrew more charges to hide the crimes of Peter VanderZander, Ottawa's Rotten Cop.