GUELPH – Charges against a Wellington OPP officer have been withdrawn more than three years after they were first laid.
Sukhvinder Singh Toor was arrested and charged by the OPP’s Professional Standards Bureau (PSB) with four criminal offences on Feb. 12, 2020, following an investigation launched by the bureau that month.
At a Guelph assignment court hearing, held virtually on Aug. 28, Crown attorney Jason Nicol requested charges of breaching trust, attempting to obstruct justice, intercepting private communication, and disclosing private communication all be withdrawn.
Nicol told Superior Court Justice Gordon Lemon complainants in the case were in favour of the Crown’s request, and said the matter has weighed heavily on them for years.
A lot of the delay in proceedings “lies at the feet of the defence,” Nicol remarked.
Dropping the charges “brings finality to [the] proceedings,” he said, calling it a “fair resolution.”
Secretly recorded conversations between officers at the Rockwood OPP detachment in 2020 purportedly captured discussion about unproven sexual assault allegations lodged by officers against long-time Wellington OPP officer Michael Dolderman.
Charges against Dolderman, stemming from those allegations, remain before the court and are untested.
The secret recordings were later provided to Dolderman’s wife, Brenda Dolderman, who was convicted of obstructing justice in connection with a PSB investigation into the recordings. She was sentenced to house arrest and probation this year.
Toor was criminally charged in connection to the recordings.
Nicol construed the Crown’s request to withdraw charges as being more complex than it may seem.
There was “no evidence Mr. Toor knew what she (Dolderman) was going to do with the recordings,” Nicol told court last week.
“His career is now over as a police officer,” Nicol said, adding that point factored in the Crown’s decision.
West Region OPP media coordinator Derek Rogers confirmed in an email that Toor’s employment is ending with the OPP on Oct. 31, but would not say whether his employment was terminated or Toor resigned.
“The change in status is a personnel matter and we cannot elaborate,” Rogers wrote.
Toor has been suspended from duty with pay since he was criminally charged in 2020, earning an average of $112,495 per year from 2020 to 2022. According to public sector salary disclosure records, Toor earned $117,510 in 2020, $107,668 in 2021, and $112,308 in 2022.
Provincial law requires police agencies to continue paying a full salary to suspended officers while they are facing criminal charges.
The only time suspended officers cannot be paid is when the officer is convicted and sent to prison.
Toor is also facing a charge of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act, but Rogers explained the charge will no longer apply once Toor’s employment ends.
Rogers confirmed there are no hearings scheduled for Toor before Oct. 31, meaning the charge will not be dealt with.
Last week, defence lawyer Leo Kinahan told the court Toor has professed his innocence since “day one,” and was “fully prepared” to defend himself in a trial.
Trial dates before a jury had been scheduled for May and June but were later vacated.
Responding to emailed questions from the Advertiser, Kinahan wrote that “circumstances arose” during proceedings resulting in trial dates being dropped.
‘Just and proper’
Kinahan indicated “those circumstances” would have resulted in more trial time to allow for applications to the court, including that more evidence be provided to the defence, and for certain evidence to be presented to a jury.
Kinahan opined that the Crown used “just and proper” discretion in dropping the charges.
“I believe this saved certain individuals in the Ontario Provincial Police, and the organization overall, what I believe would have been considerable embarrassment on both a personal level for some, and on an overall organizational level as well,” Kinahan wrote in part, reiterating statements made before the court.
Kinahan told court the complainants were “extremely relieved,” adding the Crown’s decision benefits the complainants and the police more than it does Toor.
Information neither the complainants nor the OPP wanted the public to know would have come out through a trial, court heard.
Nicol was unavailable for comment before press time, and the Ministry of the Attorney General, which is responsible for the province’s justice system, declined to provide clarity on the Crown’s decision to withdraw charges. A follow-up email from the Advertiser was not responded to.
