A Toronto police detective, disciplined yesterday for drinking on the job the night his partner was killed, plans to appeal his conviction and sentence.
Detective Constable Larry Smith joins two other officers appealing convictions in connection with the night Detective Constable Bill Hancox was murdered.
The number of officers facing internal discipline charges could have been much greater, police union president Craig Bromell revealed yesterday.
"I heard anywhere from 15 to 20 more officers were to be charged," the grim-faced head of the police association said minutes after the adjudicator, retired Ontario Provincial Police superintendent Robert Fitches, slapped Det. Constable Smith with the loss of 12 days pay for drinking on the job and neglect of duty.
Two other officers were charged with covering up the fact that two other officers were drinking in bars in Markham and Oshawa the night of the murder. Both were acquitted. Five officers were charged.
Mr. Bromell said that Hamilton-Wentworth police, who investigated the allegations against five Toronto police officers, had recommended that many more officers be charged for their roles in covering up the events of Aug. 4, 1998. That night, two women fatally stabbed Det. Constable Hancox.
Mr. Bromell said there would not have been any charges if Toronto police had been allowed to conduct the investigation.
The convictions will be appealed to the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services, but if the ruling goes against the officers, the next step will be the courts. "We will take it as high as we can to get this overturned," Mr. Bromell said.
Det. Constable Smith was the last of the five officers to go before the tribunal.
Superintendent Paul Gottschalk, who headed the elite undercover team that included Det. Constable Hancox and the other four officers charged, received a reprimand. He was convicted of neglect of duty for failing to investigate allegations by the slain officer's widow that two team members had been drinking that night.
The fifth officer charged, Detective Elmer Manuel, retired before he could be sentenced for drinking on the job.
In reading out his decision, Supt. Fitches said that there was no connection between the drinking and Det. Constable Hancox's murder.
However, the adjudicator said, "Drinking alcohol while on duty is so offensive that it is truly not worthy of further comment."
Mr. Bromell took exception to these comments, saying Supt. Fitches failed to grasp the significance of the undercover work.
"They do a different job and it's a different situation," he said. "When officers are undercover they have to bend the rules a bit. It's not illegal. They're not breaking the law. It's just policies."