PASSAGE ONE OF THE DAY: "Insp. Joyce Schertzer drove to a May 1, 2022 crash involving her nephew, dispatched a cop from her station to the collision — outside her division’s jurisdiction — and circumvented police protocol “to the benefit of your family,” according to a police document outlining misconduct allegations under Ontario’s police legislation. As a result, the nephew, identified only as “Calvin” at the tribunal Monday, was cleared to leave within 10 minutes of Schertzer’s arrival, the tribunal heard. By the time he was summoned back to the scene by the Traffic Services unit, more than three hours had passed and “there’s no ability to make a demand for a breathalyzer,” said police prosecutor Scott Hutchison in his opening statements. “The conduct here was problematic at the least because it blurred her role between the inspector — the unit commander for the officer doing the investigation — and her role as advocate for her nephew,” Hutchison said, adding her behaviour “impaired” the probe and was a conflict of interest. Schertzer has pleaded not guilty to three counts of professional misconduct under Ontario’s Police Services Act."
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Calvin was not criminally charged for the collision but was ticketed for careless driving by a Traffic Services officer, whose body-worn camera captured him asking Calvin why he’d left the scene of a collision and telling him he’d “made a big mistake today.” “Like I said, you’re very fortunate that you have family members who have helped this go away in the big scheme of things, right?” the officer can be heard saying.
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STORY: "‘You have family members who have helped this go away’: Senior Toronto police officer accused of interfering with investigation of nephew’s crash," by Crime and Policing Reporter Wendy Gillis, published by The Toronto Star, on June 4, 2024.
SUB-HEADING: "Insp. Joyce Schertzer has pleaded not guilty to three counts of professional misconduct under Ontario’s Police Services Act."
PHOTO CAPTION: "Insp. Joyce Schertzer, seen in this file photo, is facing a misconduct trial."
GIST: "A high-ranking Toronto police unit commander “blurred her role” between police officer and family member when she rushed to the scene of a collision caused by her nephew and “inserted” herself in the investigation, preventing colleagues from determining if alcohol was a factor, a police prosecutor told a misconduct tribunal Monday.
Insp. Joyce Schertzer drove to a May 1, 2022 crash involving her nephew, dispatched a cop from her station to the collision — outside her division’s jurisdiction — and circumvented police protocol “to the benefit of your family,” according to a police document outlining misconduct allegations under Ontario’s police legislation.
As a result, the nephew, identified only as “Calvin” at the tribunal Monday, was cleared to leave within 10 minutes of Schertzer’s arrival, the tribunal heard. By the time he was summoned back to the scene by the Traffic Services unit, more than three hours had passed and “there’s no ability to make a demand for a breathalyzer,” said police prosecutor Scott Hutchison in his opening statements/
“The conduct here was problematic at the least because it blurred her role between the inspector — the unit commander for the officer doing the investigation — and her role as advocate for her nephew,” Hutchison said, adding her behaviour “impaired” the probe and was a conflict of interest.
Schertzer has pleaded not guilty to three counts of professional misconduct under Ontario’s Police Services Act. Throughout the day Monday, she sat quietly in her senior officer’s uniform, at times covering her face with her hands.
If found guilty, she faces a penalty ranging from a reprimand to demotion or dismissal.
Calvin was not criminally charged for the collision but was ticketed for careless driving by a Traffic Services officer, whose body-worn camera captured him asking Calvin why he’d left the scene of a collision and telling him he’d “made a big mistake today.”
“Like I said, you’re very fortunate that you have family members who have helped this go away in the big scheme of things, right?” the officer can be heard saying.
The incident stems from a single-vehicle collision on Lake Shore Boulevard West, while Calvin was pulling out of The Boulevard Club, a sports and recreation facility, around noon on May 1, 2022. It was a rainy Sunday, and foot traffic was busier than usual because of a marathon, which had closed a lane of traffic on Lake Shore Blvd. W.
Surveillance video played Monday showed Calvin, in a white pickup truck, turning left across several lanes of traffic into the westbound lanes of Lake Shore Blvd. W. At the last minute, he appears to accelerate to avoid a fast-approaching eastbound car; he then loses control of the truck, which slams hard into a light standard on the north side of Lake Shore Blvd. W.. The truck was heavily damaged and the airbags had deployed, the tribunal heard.
Shortly after the collision, Schertzer — who was at west-end Toronto police 11 division, the station she headed — received a call from her daughter, also a Toronto police officer, advising that Calvin had been in a bad accident. Moments later, Schertzer arranged for an officer from 11 division to go to the scene and investigate the collision, which happened in neighbouring 14 division. She also drove to the collision herself.
The tribunal heard it is unusual for an officer to be dispatched to a call outside their division. When called to the witness stand Monday, the officer who attended the call, Const. Braden Doherty, said it was an “unorthodox” manner of being dispatched.
“Generally speaking, we handle incidents that occur within 11 division,” the officer testified, later acknowledging that the incident was right on the border between 11 and 14 division.
Body-worn camera footage played at the tribunal shows that immediately after arriving on scene, Doherty was greeted by Schertzer. She quickly gave Doherty a rundown of what Calvin said happened: a private security guard had waved him through to turn left but he’d had to suddenly speed up to avoid another vehicle, then lost control on the slick roadway, crashing into the light standard. The account aligns with the surveillance footage captured by the Boulevard Club.
Doherty then briefly questioned Calvin, who had been sitting in Schertzer’s car. He gave his account of the collision and told Doherty he is not injured but was rattled.
“I have to ask this, you haven’t been drinking or anything?” Doherty asked.
Calvin replied he had not.
On the witness stand, Doherty said he was, all the while, observing Calvin specifically for signs of impairment and hadn’t seen any, nor had he seen open liquor bottles in the truck.
In his opening statement, Hutchison had said he wanted to be clear that his position was not that Calvin was impaired at the time of the collision; the issue is instead whether impairment as a factor in the collision was able to be properly investigated.
After Doherty’s brief questioning of Calvin, his body-worn camera then captured the officer saying to Schertzer that he was going to switch off his camera.
When he turns it back on, Doherty can be heard stating he has determined there was “no criminality” involved and that Calvin could leave the scene.
Asked by Hutchison why he’d turned off his body-worn camera in that moment, Doherty said it was simply to discuss the next-step logistics with Schertzer — specifically, that they needed to call in the Traffic Services unit. That was required because city property had been damaged in the collision.
Doherty said he believed he was allowed to stop recording for such conversations, but said “in hindsight I wish I hadn’t” turned off the device, because it would show there was nothing nefarious discussed.
“There was no collusion,” Doherty said.
Doherty later added, under cross-examination by Schertzer’s defence lawyer, Joanne Mulcahy, that he hadn’t been directed to come to any conclusion by Schertzer, who was his boss.
“She didn’t influence you in any way, right?” Mulcahy asked.
“No, she did not,” he replied, later adding that he would have charged Calvin if there were grounds.
Hours after the collision, Calvin was summoned back to the scene by Toronto police’s Traffic Services, which had launched its own investigation.
“I have to ask: Why did you leave?” Const. Michael Clarke asked. “Why did you leave the scene after a crash?”
Calvin said he’d provided information to another officer and had been cleared to go home.
The hearing, expected to last through the week, continues Tuesday.
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
---------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
————————————————————————————
YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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