At 7 a.m. this morning, four veteran officers of the Toronto Police were arrested for perjury and obstruction of justice in the January 2014 arrest of Nguyen Son Tran.
Constable Jeffrey Tout, 41, Detective Constable Benjamin Elliot, 32, Detective Constable Fraser Douglas, 37 of Division 55 and Constable Michael Taylor, 34, of Division 51, are facing a total of 17 charges.
It is alleged they planted heroin in the car belonging to Tran, then a suspect, and provided false and colluded testimonies in court.
Police chief Mark Saunders spoke in a press conference this morning about the investigation. He did not say much about the case but he promised, “We will leave no stone unturned when we discover any information that raises the possibility that any of our members have not lived up to the high standards and expectations.”
Saunders said previous cases of these four officers would be “scrutinized” by a team of investigators whose job it will be to see “if there is any other cause of concern.”
Constable Tout and Detective Constable Douglas have each been charged with two counts of obstruct justice and two counts of perjury. Detective Constable Elliot has been charged with three counts of Obstruct Justice and three counts of Perjury. Detective Taylor has been charged with two counts of Obstruct Justice and one count of Perjury
The four officers are set to appear in court on March 11th at 2201 Finch Ave. West in room 202 at 1:30 p.m.