Durham detective to face discreditable conduct charge over inappropriate tweets: Police
Posted September 9, 2013 1:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Durham Regional Police detective will face a discreditable conduct charge after the force says it found the source of inappropriate tweets made to the Ontario Ombudsman and a Toronto city councillor.
The detective’s name will not be released until a public hearing on the case begins Oct. 1 in Whitby, the force says. It says this is normal protocol.
The force began an internal investigation after it said inappropriate comments were made on Twitter to the Ontario Ombudsman and a Toronto city councillor regarding the police shooting of 18-year-old Sammy Yatim.
Ombudsman Andre Marin apologized late last month for wrongly naming another Durham Regional detective as the culprit behind the series of offensive tweets.
The lawyer for Det.-Const. Scott Dennis later said his client accepted the apology.
Marin had said he believed Dennis was behind a Twitter account using the fake name “Joe Mayo” that was directing offensive messages at him.
But the Durham police force said Dennis was on annual leave at the time and did not know about the account, which investigators said was set up by a fellow officer without his knowledge or consent.
The tweets appeared Aug. 8, before ombudsman Marin was to give a news conference on the shooting death of Yatim on a Toronto streetcar.
Durham police Chief Const. Mike Ewles has asked a veteran OPP officer to serve as the hearing’s officer to ensure openness and transparency.
Meanwhile, police say the officer facing the disciplinary charge has been moved to a different assignment in a non-supervisory role.
