Cop killer Richard Kachkar is being sent to a secure unit at a psychiatric hospital in Whitby, where he may be granted supervised visits into the community.
In a decision released Monday morning, the Ontario Review Board agreed to a joint recommendation by Kachkar’s lawyer and the Crown to detain Kachkar at the lakefront facility, which has medium-and minimum-security units.
At a hearing last Friday, the lawyers said Kachkar, 46, should be held in a medium-security unit while he undergoes further treatment for his mental illness, and be granted escorted passes on hospital grounds.
In Monday’s decision, the review board went a step further and gave the hospital permission to allow Kachkar to go on supervised visits into the community, at the discretion of the person in charge of him.
The hospital will also determine whether Kachkar is fit to leave the facility for any medical, dental, legal or compassionate purposes.
The review board held its hearing a month after a jury found Kachkar not criminally responsible in the death of Toronto police Sgt. Ryan Russell.
Kachkar, who was tried on a charge of first-degree murder and has been held at the Don Jail, was behind the wheel of a stolen snowplow that fatally struck the 35-year-old officer, a husband and father, on a snowy morning in January 2011.
Russell’s widow, Christine, and the Toronto Police Association (TPA) were upset to learn that Kachkar may be allowed to leave the hospital with staff, and they are urging the provincial government to appeal the decision.
In a written statement, Christine Russell said she is “upset and shocked” with the board's decision to OK supervised trips, even though Kachkar’s lawyer and the Crown did not request them.
"By giving the appearance of accepting the joint submission, but deciding to give Mr. Kachkar community access privileges that he did not even ask for, is both an insult and a slap in the face to my husband, myself, our family, the police community, the public at large and victims of violent crime," Christine Russell said.
She said Kachkar should be detained at a maximum-security facility and then transferred to a medium-security facility if his treatment is successful.
Taking aim at lawmakers, TPA president McCormack said the board’s decision is another example of how the system has failed Russell and his family.
“It just shows there’s no place for victims. There’s no place for natural justice within the system right now,” McCormack told CP24 commentator Stephen LeDrew.
If and when Kachkar is allowed into the community for escorted visits, the hospital must notify police in advance and obtain random samples of his urine and/or breath to find out if he has ingested alcohol, drugs or any other intoxicant, according to the review board.
While Kachkar is a patient at the hospital, he is barred from the “non-medical use” of alcohol, drugs or any other intoxicant, and he is not allowed to possess any weapons or be in the company of anyone who is carrying a firearm, other than a peace officer.
The board did not provide reasons for its decision.
Because Kachkar is being sent to a mental health facility, his case will be reviewed by the Ontario Review Board on an annual basis.
If and when the board decides Kachkar is no longer a significant threat to public safety, he will be released into the community.
After the criminal trial ended, Kachkar was automatically referred to the Ontario Review Board because it has jurisdiction over people who have been found unfit to stand trial or not criminally responsible by Ontario’s courts due to a mental disorder.
Three psychiatrists who assessed Kachkar before the criminal trial found that he was psychotic when he stole the snowplow and killed Russell, but each expert was unable to categorize the mental illness.
This is not Kachkar’s first visit to Ontario Shores.
At Friday’s hearing, the Crown informed the five-member tribunal that Kachkar had a “positive experience” when he spent time at the psychiatric hospital in the past.
The panel also heard from Dr. Philip Klassen, who was one of the experts to testify at Kachkar’s weeks-long criminal trial.
The psychiatrist told the hearing that he would order a trial of anti-psychotic medication to treat Kachkar's illness, if Kachkar was his patient.
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