“This behaviour we expect from gang members on the street, not the police. The idea that someone who committed a crime like this would be allowed to ever possess a handgun, let alone be sent into volatile situations requiring judgment and restraint while armed is simply out of the question.”So said Justice Elliott Allen on Tuesday as he sentenced Toronto Police Const. Edward Ing and Const. John Cruz to 12 months of house arrest and prohibited them from carrying weapons for 10 years after they were found guilty of assault causing bodily harm in the beating of a 60 year old disabled pensioner.
Richard Moore was walking by the two constables questioning a drunk when, according to Const. Cruz, Moore said : "You’re the rich man’s army. Why don’t you take on some real gangsters."
So Ing and Cruz chased him home and gave him a dislocated shoulder, fractured ribs, a broken finger, a gash on his scalp requiring stitches, and abrasions to his abdomen, hip, and shoulder that Justice Allen described as "consistent with being struck constantly."
Then they arrested him for being drunk in public, charges that did not stick when Moore tested zero for alcohol because he has not had a drink in ten years.
The judge also rejected the officers’ testimony that they were trying to protect Moore from wandering out into traffic on Gerrard St. E.At about this point I'm guessing you're remembering the Ottawa Police claimed they stripped Stacy Bonds for her own safety because she was at risk of suicide.
Back to Ing and Cruz and their Rare guilty verdict
The outcome is notable because such accusations rarely hold up in court, said Paul Bailey, former president of the York Regional Police Association.
He estimated that 95 per cent of accusations of assault against on-duty police officers do not end in guilty verdicts.
“The vast majority of officers are either found not guilty or the charges are stayed or withdrawn,” said Bailey, a past administrator with the Police Association of Ontario.Moore's lawyer Barry Swadron said he doubts the charges would have been laid at all if he hadn’t written directly to the SIU director.
Ing and Cruz will not begin their house arrest sentences until they have exhausted the appeal process they have now started - which will probably take at least a year or so. In the meantime they have returned to their jobs on the force.
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