Ex-Hamilton police officer in prison for corruption won't be prosecuted on a dozen other charges

A former Hamilton police officer currently serving a 13-year prison sentence for corruption won't be prosecuted for a slew of other charges, including bribing officers, perjury, obstructing justice, and trafficking weapons and drugs.

The Crown's request to stay proceedings for 12 charges against Craig Ruthowsky was granted by Ontario Superior Court Justice Harrison Arrell on Tuesday. 

The stay ends a decade-long legal saga involving "extremely serious" allegations but that aren't in the public's best interest to take to trial, assistant Crown Attorney John Pollard told the court. 

"In the Crown's view, it is unwise to use precious court time to try Mr. Ruthowsky again when he has been punished in the strictest terms possible for offences that significantly overlap with those that would have been adjudicated during the second trial," Pollard said. 

Ruthowsky's sentence is believed to be the longest ever imposed in Canada for police corruption, and even if he were found guilty of the 12 other charges, it's unlikely he'd get more prison time, Pollard said. 

In exchange for the Crown staying the remaining charges, Ruthowsky has agreed to not try to appeal his current sentence to the Supreme Court, said Pollard. 

Ruthowsky, who is at the federal Bath Institute in Millhaven, did not attend the hearing in person or virtually. 

The Crown isn't required to give reasons for the stay, but decided to as the case has "rightly attracted significant media attention and public scrutiny," Pollard said. 

"The allegations are serious and have the potential to affect public confidence in the administration of justice," he said. "Consequently, the public should know why the Crown has exercised its discretion in this way." 

Ruthowsky, who served on Hamilton police's guns and gangs unit, was already suspended from the force when he was first arrested in 2015.

Toronto police had caught him on wiretaps giving advice to a drug dealer. The calls were intercepted as part of Project Pharaoh, a massive Toronto police investigation into gang activity. 

Ruthowsky's trial took place in 2018, when he was 44. A jury found him guilty of providing protection to criminals for cash and selling police secrets. 

Justice Robert Clark sentenced him to 12½ years in prison, with six months already served, more than was originally requested by the Crown and defence, and to pay $250,000 — the amount he took in bribes.

"The conduct for which [Ruthowsky] must now answer was motivated by sheer, unbridled greed," Clark said at the time.