Testimony has concluded at a disciplinary hearing for a Hamilton police officer accused of randomly questioning the city’s only black councillor as he waited for a bus near the base of the escarpment.
The final witness, following days of a Police Services Act hearing at the Sheraton Hotel, was Constable Derrick Thomson who witnessed the April 2016 interaction that sparked the complaint.
Thomson’s police cruiser was behind that of Constable Andrew Pfeifer, when Councillor Matthew Green was questioned by Pfeiffer as he stood out of the wind and waited for a bus near the intersection of Victoria Avenue and Stinson Street.
Pfeifer is charged with one count of discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act but has pleaded not guilty
He insists that the Ward 3 councillor was “standing in mud” and “hidden from view” and that he had stopped his cruiser to check on Green’s well-being.
Pfeifer has also told the hearing that Green was “unnecessarily hostile”.
Const. Thomson has supported that position, testifying that Green seemed “anti-police” and rubbed him the wrong way during the interaction.
Green has complained that the stop was racially motivated adding that he felt “psychologically detained” and was “treated like a suspect in my own community.”
The hearing was expected to conclude on Friday, but that did happen, due in part to lengthy and at times tense cross-examination of witnesses.
A fifth day has been added on November 16 when lawyers will make their final submissions.
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