One Toronto police constable’s lawyer says he has intended to plead guilty for months on charges that were laid as part of the Project South investigation—but that he wasn’t part of the alleged corruption ring that the investigation targeted.
Const. Elias Mouawad did break Toronto Police Service rules to use their computer system to look up a licence plate for a friend and was caught up in the review of police databases as investigators sought to find out the source of leaks that were sparking shootings and the attempted murder of a jail supervisor.
“Unfortunately, when the information was released to the press, it made our client appear as if he was part of the very, very serious misconduct that has been alleged in Project South when that is not the case,” Mouawad’s lawyer Peter Brauti said outside the courthouse on 361 University Avenue in Toronto.
“My client indicated literally upon arrest that he was going to take responsibility. And within four days, we had contacted the Crown to say, ‘Look, he wants to take responsibility. He wants to plead guilty.’ Unfortunately, his plea couldn’t be accommodated for almost seven months,” he said.
Mouawad was among six current and one retired Toronto police officers who were charged in Project South, which is one of the largest corruption investigations in the history of the force.
The allegations, as outlined by investigators at the time, are that officers, including Const. Timothy Barnhardt, were feeding information to members of the criminal underworld, who used the information to plan shootings.
One of those targeted was a jail manager at the Toronto South Detention Centre who was known for running it with a heavy hand.
Another former Toronto officer has pleaded guilty to two charges in the investigation and received a 10-month conditional sentence.
Mouawad himself didn’t speak to the media. He did choose to come out of court and be videotaped by reporters and photographers.
Mouawad is charged with unlawfully using a police computer system and a breach of trust, something Brauti described as “looking up a licence plate for a friend… that had nothing to do with the criminality that’s alleged.”
Whether or not the information was leaked to someone who used it for a crime, misusing those databases is a serious matter, said former Toronto detective Mark Mendelson, who pointed out that every officer is trained on the importance of confidentiality.
“The problem is, he has no control where that information goes. Once he tells that ‘personal friend’ where the information is going to go, once he informs that individual of that personal information, he’s lost control of it.
“Sometimes it lands in the wrong places and in the wrong hands,” Mendelson said.
