His sexual assault charges were mysteriously dropped, but not before the case upended his life. Now he’s suing Hamilton police for $6 million

It started out an ordinary Thursday morning, as Muhammed Aydin remembers it.

He had settled in front of his computer to begin his classes which had moved online because of the pandemic. There was a knock at the door. It was a Hamilton police officer.

No big deal, Aydin thought, probably just a followup to the phone call he and his wife, Cara, had made to police a couple of weeks earlier about an incident that happened in his North End neighbourhood.

Aydin was quite wrong. That day - July 23, 2020 - would be no ordinary day at all.

Within 45 minutes of the door knock, Aydin was in handcuffs and on his way to the Central police station in downtown Hamilton.

Aydin was charged with six counts of sexual assault, kept at the station until late afternoon and then transferred to the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre, where he was held overnight and for most of the next day.

Police alleged - falsely, Aydin stresses - that he was the serial butt slapper they had been seeking for three weeks, the suspect who had been cycling up to women at various locations around central Hamilton slapping them on the buttocks and then riding away.

As part of his bail conditions, Aydin was banned from being anywhere within the City of Hamilton, placed under a curfew, and ordered to be in the presence of his wife any time he was away from home.

Eleven months later, all of the charges against Aydin were dropped. No explanation and no apology from the police or the Crown attorney's office.

Aydin, his wife and his family are now suing Hamilton police for $6 million for false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, among other things, as well as several violations of Aydin's Charter rights.

None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been tested in court.

A spokesperson for Hamilton police said the service will not be commenting on the lawsuit because the matter is before the court.

This really had a huge impact on myself and my family," said Aydin, who grew up in Hamilton. We really went through emotional trauma and we're still just recovering from it."

Aydin was banned from the McMaster University campus and lost his part-time job there as a parking officer.

He said McMaster hasn't lifted the ban even though the charges were dropped. McMaster said it can't discuss specific cases for privacy reasons.

Aydin and his wife were forced to give up their apartment and move in with his parents in Smithville because of the ban on being in Hamilton. Last year, the couple moved to Abbotsford, B.C. and they're not sure if they'll return to Hamilton.

I felt like I didn't belong anymore," Aydin said.

He said they became alienated from their social group and religious community, particularly because of the sexual nature of the charges.

The stigma that gets imposed when someone is even accused of a sexual offence of this nature does not go away overnight," said Danny Kastner, Aydin's lawyer. It doesn't go away ever in some cases.

Once you have been named and shamed, even if it is completely unfounded as in this case, there are going to be community members who will assume the police must have had grounds and therefore assume guilt."

Buttocks slapping incidents

During the first week of July 2020, Hamilton police began investigating half a dozen incidents of a suspect sexually assaulting women by slapping them on the buttocks as he rode past them on a bike.

Police received a number of descriptions of the suspect from the victims but most of the descriptions differed widely, the lawsuit alleges, and few of those resembled Aydin.

Three victims described the suspect as white. Aydin is brown-skinned," according to the lawsuit.

Three victims described the suspect as an older man, including one description of a greying goatee." Aydin was 28 at the time of the incidents.

Two victims said the suspect was wearing shorts. Aydin, a practicing Muslim, doesn't wear shorts in order to abide by the modesty requirements of his faith," the lawsuit states.

When police circulated a photo of the suspect - blurry, Aydin's lawyer said, and with no face visible - a neighbour told police she thought it was Aydin.

The Aydins say there was growing animosity between them and the neighbour that police never investigated as a possible motive.

Police confiscated Aydin's phone but, his lawyer said, there's no indication they tried to access any geolocation data from it, possibly because it would have exonerated Aydin.

They also placed him under surveillance for two days but uncovered no suspicious activity.

They found us going for a walk with his mom and sister," said Cara Aydin.

Kastner said it was a case of old-fashioned tunnel vision" by police.

They closed their mind to all other possibilities, locked in on our client and may have fit the facts to meet their narrative," Kastner said.

Megan Savard was Aydin's lawyer for the criminal charges. When she received the required disclosure of information from Hamilton police, she did something out of the ordinary.

Savard put together a document explaining the ridiculousness of the charges," Aydin said.

She turned it over to the Crown attorney which wasn't a common thing to do because you're essentially giving away your entire defence strategy," Aydin said.

Shortly after that, the charges were dropped.

By then, the damage was done, Aydin said. Now he wants a public apology from Hamilton police and he wants them to stop the practice of naming suspects who have been charged with a crime but not yet convicted. At the time of his arrest, Aydin's name was broadcast by some media outlets and circulated on websites. The Spectator did not publish his name.

Hamilton police declined to comment on whether the investigation into the incidents was reopened after the charges against Aydin were dropped or whether any new arrests have been made.

Aydin said he has unfortunately" concluded in his mind that his arrest was racially motivated.

They don't always publicize names but they specifically decided to publicize my name," Aydin said. I mean, my name is Muhammed - it's easy to target."

Steve Buist is a Hamilton-based investigative reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbuist@thespec.com