MORE (OLD) WATERLOO REGION POLICE CORRUPTION?

The information for this posting comes from a two year old newspaper clipping from the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. Dated January 21, 2010 via The Canadian Press the title is "Former Waterloo police officer wins right to sue two judges". Now this is interesting. A Justice Joseph Henderson of Superior Court has ruled that the former Waterloo Region police officer can sue two current judges for malicious prosecution which allegedly occurred while they were both prosecuting attorneys. Kevin Hawkins was charged in 1988 with corruption charges alleging he was selling tips to an outlaw biker gang and conspiring to obstruct justice. Notice in particular that last charge. Well Mr. Hawkins was eventually acquitted after it came out that the O.P.P. investigating officer was sleeping with the prosecution's star witness against Mr. Hawkins. This possibly salacious information while known to the two prosecuters was not shared with the defence counsel, contrary to disclosure rules among others. Not surprisingly Mr. Hawkins law suit was launched in 1998 and only two years ago got the go ahead. The two defendants, Justice Brian Trafford and Justice William Wolski are joined by the attorney general for Ontario, the Waterloo Regional police board and the three police officers who handled the investigation.

I am aware that there have been other civil suits against the Waterloo Regional Police. Suits against sitting judges I would expect are rare and even rarer is for them to advance. Regarding our local Police I would expect that all Settlement offers would include confidentiality clauses. A skeptic would term these clauses as financial bribes, paid for by the taxpayers, specifically to keep these very same taxpayers in the dark. I wonder how much of our annual Police budget is paying for either settlements or insurance premiums for future settlements. This is the lack of transparency that allows bad police behaviour to continue without accountability.