Three Toronto police officers are facing a total of five new charges in connection with allegations they planted drugs on a suspect and then lied about it in court.
The new charges come three weeks after Toronto police confirmed that four Toronto police officers are facing a slew of charges in connection with the incident, which dates back to Jan. 13, 2014.
Nguyen Son Tran was arrested during a traffic stop after police said they found 11 grams of heroin hidden behind his steering wheel.
However an Ontario Superior Court judge threw out the charges against Tran in September and accused the arresting officers of planting a smaller amount of heroin on the console in order to justify a search of the vehicle.
The judge said any heroin found in the search afterward was “fruit of a poisoned tree” and said he believed the officers had concocted a story about how they came to arrest Tran.
The Toronto Police Professional Standards Unit launched an investigation into the matter and the four accused officers were arrested Jan. 28.
Const. Jeffrey Tout, 41, was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice and two counts of perjury, Det.-Const. Benjamin Elliott, 32, was charged with three counts of obstruction of justice and three counts of perjury, Const. Michael Taylor, 34, was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury and Det.-Const. Fraser Douglas, 37, was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice and two counts of perjury.
On Monday police said Tout now faces one additional count of perjury and two additional counts of obstruction of justice. Elliott has been charged with one additional count of obstruction of justice. Douglas has also been charged with one additional count of obstruction of justice.
Police said the new charges are in connection with the same incident that gave rise to the original charges.
The four officers have been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the charges. They are scheduled to appear in court on March 11.
