Joyce Schertzer: Ontario: Major (Welcome) Development: This high ranking Toronto police officer who meddled in her nephews collision investigation has been demoted for nine months, the Toronto Star (Reporter Wendy Gillis) reports, noting that: "The high-profile incident prompted widespread outrage, including — and especially — from her own colleagues. At Schertzer’s discipline hearing last summer, an officer from the traffic unit frankly testified that it “appeared that police investigation had been obstructed” by Schertzer, who at the time was the top cop at a west-end police division near where the crash happened."

STORY: "High-ranking Toronto cop who meddled in nephew’s collision investigation demoted for nine months," The Toronto Star (Reporter Wendy Gillis) reports" on May 23, 2025.  (Wendy Gillis is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and policing for the Star.)

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SUB-HEADING: "Schertzer was found guilty of two counts of professional misconduct for inserting herself into a 2022 investigation involving her relative."

PHOTO CAPTION: "Senior Toronto police officer, Insp. Joyce Schertzer, accused of interfering with an investigation into a relative's crash, denied any wrongdoing."

GIST: For behaviour that marked “a major deviation from the expectations of a senior officer,” Toronto police Insp. Joyce Schertzer has been sentenced to a nine-month demotion at a police tribunal after she meddled in a collision investigation involving her nephew.

Despite an otherwise sterling career, Schertzer — a high-profile former homicide cop and veteran leader in Toronto’s force — must face a “significant penalty” for inserting herself into a May 2022 collision investigation involving a relative, retired OPP Supt. Lisa Taylor, who presided over the hearing, said on Monday in a much-anticipated sentencing decision. 

Simply put, Taylor said, her high rank required it.

“A reasonable citizen, understanding the full circumstances of the misconduct, would find it significantly incompatible with the high expectations for a senior police officer and so would expect a strong penalty to follow,” she wrote. 

The lengthy sentencing decision, read out to a police tribunal room filled with fellow senior officers, comes three months after Taylor found Schertzer guilty of two counts of professional misconduct under Ontario’s policing legislation for actions she found influenced an investigation into Schertzer’s nephew — including dispatching a subordinate to the scene of the collision, then driving there herself.

The high-profile incident prompted widespread outrage, including — and especially — from her own colleagues. At Schertzer’s discipline hearing last summer, an officer from the traffic unit frankly testified that it “appeared that police investigation had been obstructed” by Schertzer, who at the time was the top cop at a west-end police division near where the crash happened. 

Schertzer has always maintained that she was acting in her capacity as an aunt when she jumped into action after her nephew’s single-vehicle collision. On Monday, wearing her white senior officer uniform, she showed little emotion as Taylor read her decision and left without comment.

Her lawyer, Joanne Mulcahy, declined to comment following the decision, as did police prosecutor Scott Hutchison. 

Schertzer will be demoted one rank, from inspector to staff sergeant, for a nine month period, after which she will be automatically reinstated to inspector. 

The case stems from a May 2022 incident, when Schertzer’s nephew crashed into a light pole on the side of Lake Shore Boulevard West, while pulling out of The Boulevard Club, a licensed facility. Schertzer was on duty when she was called about the crash by her daughter. She personally asked a subordinate at her division to send a police car to the crash — circumventing the Toronto police priority call system — then drove to the collision herself. 

These actions, Taylor found, set off a chain of events that “deformed” the probe into the collision, rendering it a “lacklustre” investigation that saw Calvin, Schertzer’s nephew, sent home from the crash minutes after the officer dispatched by Schertzer deemed the collision non-criminal. That officer did not ask basic questions such as when Calvin’s last alcoholic drink had been and did not see Calvin’s licence to confirm it was G2, a status that requires drivers to have a blood-alcohol level of zero.

Taylor’s sentencing decision also criticized Schertzer for allowing the subordinate to briefly turn off his body-worn camera in the midst of his investigation; when the camera was turned back on the officer declared he hadn’t found any criminality.

“I find her agreement to have the camera turned off, to recognize the lacklustre investigation, and her overall failure to recognize the conflict of interest issues, add weight to the seriousness of this matter,” Taylor wrote, noting the circumstances of this misconduct “are exactly why conflict of interest rules are in place.”

That the case attracted significant and unflattering media coverage was another sentencing consideration for Taylor — “I have no doubt there is reputational damage to the Service,” she said, noting it was an aggravating factor.

She added that media attention was greater because of the timing of the incident: Schertzer “unfortunately joined a number of Toronto Police Service senior officers who were facing misconduct.” Around the same time, Supt. Stacy Clarke and Supt. Riyaz Hussein were charged with and later convicted of professional misconduct, Clarke for helping subordinates cheat during their promotional process and Hussein for impaired driving in a police-issued vehicle. 

Taylor’s decision did, however, repeatedly praise Schertzer for a lengthy and otherwise unsullied career. The hearing officer noted she was “unaware of a hearing where so many letters of support have been filed,” saying that among the 73 notes of support were commendations from police chiefs, subordinates, Crown lawyers and neighbours. The letters overwhelmingly portrayed Schertzer “as focused on ‘service before self,’” Taylor wrote.

Taylor credited Schertzer, too, for “holding her head high” throughout the proceedings and continuing to work and contribute positively to the police service. Many officers facing discipline go off work and develop a negative attitude, she said. 

Prosecutors previously argued Schertzer — a longtime member of the Toronto police — should be knocked down to the lower rank of staff sergeant for a year.

Mulcahy, Schertzer’s lawyer, has called the incident a one-off — a rare mistake in an otherwise impeccable decades-long career. She argued for a penalty in the range of a formal reprimand to the forfeiture of five days’ pay, about $3,200." 

The entire story can be read at:

article_d88a7614-cf97-11ef-ab59-efe8f9478fd4.html

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;