While Craig Ruthowsky is asking that his corruption-related charges be stayed because an investigator was allegedly biased against him, a prosecutor says the accusation is groundless and “barely rises above the level of office gossip.”A Toronto jury convicted the veteran Hamilton Police Service officer last week of bribery, obstruction of justice, breach of trust and cocaine trafficking after accepting a drug dealer’s testimony that he paid Ruthowsky protection money. But Ruthowsky’s lawyer, Greg Lafontaine, says his client did not receive a fair trial because Sgt. Ben Thibodeau, the “primary driving force” behind the investigation, is married to a woman Ruthowsky once dated, according to a factum Lafontaine filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. It’s unclear whether Thibodeau ever disclosed the nature of their “jagged past” with anyone involved in an internal investigation into his conduct, including Hamilton Police Service senior management, the court document states. “It is respectfully submitted that the central involvement of an officer in an investigation when there is such a plainly apparent potential for bias and partiality — or at least, its possible perception — is an abuse of process.”

Source: thestar May 02, 2018 20:48 UTC