Warning: This article contains details that may be disturbing and triggering to readers.
A now former Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer accused of historical sex crimes and assaults has been granted bail following a review in the Superior Court.
Longtime OPP officer Ted Oderkirk, 51, will be released from custody days before a scheduled trial in Barrie.
Oderkirk, who recently resigned from the OPP after 23 years of service, had been behind bars since February. He is accused of historical sexual assaults, obstruction of justice, assaults, and uttering threats.
According to court documents obtained by CTV News, the allegations against Oderkirk stem from alleged incidents six and 16 years ago involving two complainants. One trial is set to begin in December.
Defense lawyer Alexa Banister-Thompson secured Oderkirk’s release from custody Monday afternoon, with two sureties under strict house arrest conditions with a GPS ankle monitor.
In August, Oderkirk was found guilty of two counts of breaching an earlier release by failing to abide by a non-communication order. He was given a conditional discharge and three years of probation when, the court heard, investigators lost video surveillance evidence against him in Perth. The judge called the disappearance of the video ‘inexplicable.’
Oderkirk was listed as an officer trainer. The OPP confirmed his resignation and that Oderkirk had been suspended without pay.
Oderkirk has had a checkered past. According to the Toronto Star in 2009, while intoxicated after a night out drinking with colleagues, Oderkirk admitted he and two other officers went back to their police detachment, and he got into the gun vault. Moments later he deployed a tear-gas canister into a room where his colleagues were sleeping, causing $52,000 in damage. Oderkirk was then recorded shirtless and wearing a gas mask.
Oderkirk pleaded guilty to causing mischief over $5000 and was granted an absolute discharge. He was later handed a three-month demotion and docked 160 hours of pay.
Publication bans protect the identities of the complainants from being revealed along with evidence heard during the bail review.
The first of Oderkirk’s two trials is scheduled to begin later this week. The allegations against him have not been tested in court.
