Durham police investigators have charged the police officer behind a series of insulting tweets sent to Ontario’s ombudsman with disciplinary action.
However, the alleged offender is not the police officer originally identified by Ombudsman Andre Marin.
Prior to Marin’s Aug. 8 press conference about the shooting death of Sammy Yatim, a twitter user, under the handle Joeymayo12, sent several tweets claiming Marin was a card-carrying member of Al-Qaida.
In one of the tweets, which Marin retweeted, JoeyMayo12 wrote: “You sir are a complete douche bag! Why don’t you stick your big French nose up your a** instead of business it doesn’t belong.”
Tweets from the same account had previously derided a Toronto city councillor for her position on the Yatim shooting. The account has since been deleted.
Marin claimed that the twitter user was actually Durham Regional Police Detective Scott Dennis. A subsequent investigation however found another officer had created the account linked to Dennis who was on leave at the time.
“It’s also troubling to me that a high-ranking public official like the Ombudsman of Ontario would rush to judgment and identify any person, without the benefit of some sort of objective investigation and evidence, particularly given Mr. Marin’s experience,” Durham Chief Constables Mike Ewles said in a press release Monday.
Marin issued a statement Monday afternoon commending the Durham police service for promptly investigating the matter.
“Regrettably, it appears that a Durham police officer not only personally attacked public officials on Twitter, but impersonated a colleague in doing so – hiding behind the name and badge number of Det.-Const. Scott Dennis,” Marin said in the statement. “Both Det.-Const. Dennis and I were duped by this disgraceful, malicious act.”
Ewles added Det. Dennis is an “outstanding” police officer who had his “professional life turned upside down for no reason.”
The police officer faces disciplinary charges under the Police Services Act.
The police force however would not publicly identify the officer in the press release. Instead, his name will be released during a public hearing over the charges.
The officer has not been suspended and remains on duty.
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