16 months after being found not guilty of sexually assaulting a colleague on a boozy night out, three Toronto Police officers are about to face another round of judgement.
NEWSTALK 1010 has learned that Joshua Cabero, Sameer Kara and Leslie Nyznik have been called to a police tribunal December 13 to answer to Police Services Act charges of discreditable conduct. The process will determine their future with Toronto Police.
CBC reports the charges are tied to allegations of public drunkenness, sex with a subordinate, and accepting a drink without paying.
The tree officers were found not guilty of sexual assault in August 2017. The judge overseeing their case called testimony from the complainant--a parking enforcement officer whose identity is protected by a publication ban--"fraught with problems".
Three cops accused of sexual assault found not guilty
Toronto city councillor and former Toronto Police Services Board member Shelley Carroll thinks the hearing will be welcomed by people disappointed by the verdict.
"There are still all sorts of factors to get looked at. There is still a high bar for police officers' behaviour, both on the job and off the job and that is being carried out, however much delayed," Carroll told NEWSTALK 1010 Monday.
Nyznik said during the trial that it was the female colleague's idea to go to a hotel room rented out by two of the accused after on "rookie buy night" where she instigated sex with all three men.
The woman had testified she had several drinks during the course of the night and was powerless to stop the men from having sex with her.
Justice Anne Molloy said the case came down to the reliability and credibility of the woman, which she found lacking. There were many problems with the complainant's evidence, Molloy said, finding some aspects "simply untrue."
"Given frailties of evidence I simply cannot be sure to make a finding of criminal guilt," she said.
Molloy said, however, that she didn't necessarily believe Nyznik's testimony, which "appeared to be scripted or rehearsed" and rang false at times. But the judge said she could not reject it as untruthful.
Cabero, Kara and Nyznik have been suspended with pay since their arrest in February 2015. Kara and Nyznik both earned north of $110,000 a year prior to being pulled off the job.
Carroll could not explain what took so long, but suggests the complicated nature of a three-officer case and difficulty populating a hearing panel in an election year may have played a role.
The Toronto Star reported this summer that police had to appeal to their police board to grant them an extension of sorts because the window in which they were able to lay misconduct charges had long closed.
with files from the Canadian Press