Why the name of former cop Craig Ruthowsky keeps coming up in court
Once a celebrated Hamilton police detective known for his penchant for recruiting informants and seizing guns, Craig Ruthowsky's name now seems synonymous with being a dirty cop.
Whether fairly or not, his name continues to come up in everything from murder cases to lawsuits, all while he remains out on bail awaiting an appeal and another trial in relation to his own ongoing charges. Ruthowsky has already been convicted of bribery and trafficking cocaine, among other charges, and is awaiting trial on other similar alleged offences.
It seems the name Ruthowsky is thrown out, even when only tangentially related, as a way to cast doubt on the integrity of police investigations and trustworthiness of evidence. This includes everything from an alleged killer claiming he was a Ruthowsky informant, to a witness in another murder case claiming Ruthowsky coached him in prison, to allegations of gun planting.
The disgraced former Hamilton guns and gangs detective became a central figure in a murder trial over the summer, where a witness said he interfered and stopped her from coming forward with crucial information. However, Hamilton police say Ruthowsky will not face charges in that case.
Hamilton homicide detectives thoroughly investigated" the allegation Ruthowsky tampered with the investigation into the shooting death of 22-year-old Michael Parmer in 2005, said Det. Sgt. Steve Bereziuk.
But after the star witness was found not credible by Superior Court Justice Joseph Henderson last month, the investigation into the former Hamilton cop is done.
Based on the judge's finding, it wouldn't be a fair process for anybody" for the investigation into Ruthowsky to continue, Bereziuk told The Spectator.
On Sept. 2, Henderson found Jermaine Dunkley not guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting, in part because testimony from that star witness - a former Ruthowsky informant - was unreliable and contained illogical inconsistencies."
The woman, whose identity is shielded by a publication ban, took 12 years to give a formal statement to police. She was an admitted crack dealer who testified she kept quiet because Ruthowsky told her to. She alleged Ruthowsky was working with Dunkley, who spent his youth in Hamilton before returning to Toronto where he was a gang leader.
Parmer, 22, of Niagara Falls, N.Y., died when he was shot in the eye in a parking lot outside CDs Sports Bar on Ottawa Street North. He had travelled to the east-end bar Sept. 8, 2005, for a night out with friends. The Crown had argued Dunkley shot him after he flirted with Dunkley's girlfriend. However, in his judgment, Henderson questioned whether the girlfriend - Colley" - even existed.
In 2018, Ruthowsky was convicted of bribery, attempt to obstruct justice, criminal breach of trust and trafficking cocaine and sentenced to 13 years in prison. The charges stemmed from a Toronto police investigation dubbed Project Pharaoh that targeted the Toronto street gang Monstarz. Dunkley was among those arrested in the June 2015 raids.
During his trial, Ruthowsky admitted to using unorthodox policing tactics, but maintained he was motivated by getting guns and drugs off the streets.
The Crown argued he accepted bribes and was in cahoots with his own informants, helping them evade arrest while targeting their adversaries.
At this trial it was another former drug dealer, identified as Mr. X., who was the prosecution's star witness. Among the things he told court was that Ruthowsky once invited him to a raid at a grow-op to get a look at the goods - half of which were being returned to the drug trafficker. In this case, the jury believed the drug dealers.
Justice Robert Clark did not hold back when he sentenced Ruthowsky to 13 years - three more than the Crown had suggested. Clark said Ruthowsky was arrogant, motivated by sheer unadulterated greed" and a man of profoundly flawed character."
Ruthowsky appealed both the verdict and the sentence, arguing the original trial was conducted in an atmosphere of unabated oppression" toward the defence.
He is also awaiting trial on more than a dozen other similar criminal charges in Hamilton, including bribery, breach of trust, obstructing justice, weapons trafficking and trafficking cocaine.
No court dates have been set for either the trial or the appeal.
In March 2020, Ruthowsky was released on bail from Bath Institution - a medium-security prison about 20 kilometres west of Kingston - under strict conditions.
As a young officer, Ruthowsky quickly built a reputation for hard work and a knack for attracting informants. That led him to the guns and gangs unit, where he and others had free rein. Ruthowsky boosted big numbers in terms of guns and drugs seized. But that came to a crashing halt as he and others in the unit started getting into trouble.
Ruthowsky was first suspended by Hamilton police in 2012, and he was charged with obstruction of justice and breach of trust for allegedly leaking confidential information to an informant. But in 2013, those charges were stayed over fear of identifying a confidential informant.
By early 2013, federal Crown attorneys had dropped 50 federal cases - largely Controlled Drugs and Substances Act charges - tied to Ruthowsky and another former guns and gangs detective, Rob Hansen, who also sent to prison. Essentially any case where they swore the information to obtain the warrant was tossed because the information was no longer credible.
Ruthowsky remained suspended until he quit in August 2018 following his conviction on the Toronto charges.
Bereziuk was not the original case manager on the Parmer murder, but took over the case in 2017 after returning to the homicide unit as a staff sergeant from professional standards. Police got a call from the woman, who would become the ill-fated star witness in that case.
Immediately, she told police that the reason she didn't come forward a dozen years before was because of Ruthowsky. Bereziuk said his homicide team essentially launched two parallel investigations. One into solving the Parmer murder and the other into Ruthowsky's alleged interference in the Parmer case.
But the priority was solving the murder case, he said, noting Ruthowsky had already been long suspended from active duty as a police officer at that time.
The detectives never approached Ruthowsky during the investigation. So when details about the allegations emerged in court this year, it was a surprise to him and his lawyers.
Neither the police nor the Crown have ever sought to speak to Mr. Ruthowsky about any of these allegations," Ruthowsky's lawyer, Scott Hutchison, said in an emailed statement sent to The Spectator during the trial.
We have learned of them from press reports about the prosecution's opening argument. Mr. Ruthowsky denies in the strongest possible terms any of the wrongdoing alleged by the prosecutor and this witness."
Hutchinson did not respond further when asked to comment for this article.
There are numerous other cases where Ruthowsky's name has surfaced, even briefly.
Most recently, Mark Champagne, who is on trial for first-degree murder, suggested he was once a Ruthowsky informant. It was mentioned briefly and without explanation when Champagne, who is self-represented, was cross-examining a police officer.
Ruthowsky's name also came up during the case of Jabril Abdalla, who faced charges in connection to two Mob murders, but pleaded guilty to participating in a criminal organization this summer.
During the preliminary hearing in that case, a witness, Amir Kayvan, who owned the spy shop where trackers used to follow the victims were purchased, disrupted the case by accusing the Crown of pressuring him to change his evidence. Kayvan testified to getting advice from Ruthowsky about how to deal with police and the prosecution - both were inmates at Bath Institution. Kayvan's testimony was ultimately found to not be credible and the Crown remained on the case.
On the morning of Dec. 13, 2011, Pamela Markland and her children were terrified when police burst into her Roxborough Avenue townhouse as part of a series of pre-dawn raids led by Toronto police targeting drug dealers.
But the raid was a mistake, there were no drug dealers in her home - just the mother and six of her children, including her then nine-year-old son who has autism. The botched raid led to a lawsuit and has been featured in a documentary. In December 2019, Markland settled the lawsuit, but the terms and payment were confidential.
However, one detail her lawyer, Davin Charney, revealed was that Ruthowsky allegedly supplied the bad intelligence that led to the raid.
When Ruthowsky was released on bail in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic was new in Ontario and no one knew how long it could last and the delays it would cause in the justice system. Under the supervision of three sureties, he was sent back to live with his family in his Hamilton home under strict conditions. He is prohibited from having contact with a dozen individuals.
Now, more than a year and a half later, there is no clarity as to what will happen with his cases. The appeal has not been set and the Hamilton case is back up in assignment court Jan. 21.
Nicole O'Reilly is a Hamilton-based reporter covering crime and justice for The Spectator. Reach her via email: noreilly@thespec.com