A police investigation into the conduct of three Toronto officers in the high-profile arrest of Umar Zameer has concluded that concerns from a judge that they potentially colluded were “not supported by evidence.”
Zameer was cleared after the death of a Toronto police officer two years ago and, in her final instructions to the jury, a judge said they should consider the possibility the three officers who gave evidence had colluded.
Police had charged Zameer with the first-degree murder of Det. Const. Jeffrey Northrup, a plainclothes officer, who was fatally run over by a vehicle in an underground parking garage at Toronto City Hall in July 2021.
The trial focused on whether Zameer meant to run over Northrup, or even realized it had happened, and whether he knew the constable and his partner were police officers. Zameer testified he thought his family was being ambushed by criminals when two strangers ran over and started banging on his car.
After the judge made her comments to the jury and Zameer was cleared, Toronto police asked officers with the Ontario Provincial Police to investigate if there was evidence that those involved had conspired.
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The report found in favour of the three officers: Lisa Forbes, Antonio Correa and Scharnil Pais.
“The OPP has found no reasonable grounds to believe that Detective Constables Forbes, Pais or Correa lied or colluded to lie,” part of the report concluded.
“Assertions to the contrary are unsupported by physical evidence, witness testimony or investigative findings. There is no evidence to support the belief that any of these officers have committed the criminal offences of obstruction of justice or perjury.”
Even before the report was released, Zameer’s lawyer expressed “serious misgivings” about it, saying neither he nor his client had been consulted.
He raised concerns provincial police had been asked to take on the investigation, rather than an independent agency.
“We await the release of this report with serious misgivings,” lawyer Nader Hasan said. “Although I would love to be proven wrong, this process does not inspire confidence that this review has been undertaken in good faith.”
During her closing instructions to the jury, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy asked them to consider the fact that all three officers who testified appeared to have the same incorrect memory of events.
“When three versions of an event are wrong, and wrong in the same way, you
must also consider whether there has been collusion between those witnesses,” she said.
The specific detail all three shared a memory of was Northrup standing in front of the vehicle with his arms spread wide when he was hit by the car.
The judge also raised questions about why two of the officers completed their notes more than a month after the incident had taken place.
— more to come
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