The professional conduct hearing for a Guelph police officer who pleaded guilty to assault is underway again but it has hit a speed bump.
Const. Corey McArthur pleaded guilty to assault in a 2018 criminal trial and again last September in this disciplinary hearing that will determine whether he remains with the Guelph Police Service.
The charges stem from 2016 when the officer struck a minor who was handcuffed to a hospital bed.
The prosecution continued its effort to have McArthur fired on Tuesday as it tried to introduce a new piece of evidence, but that particular portion of the hearing ended in October 2020.
The evidence is a 2014 court decision that involved McArthur carrying out a traffic stop in downtown Guelph in 2012.
The incident saw McArthur draw his gun against a driver who then drove off and ran over McArthur’s foot. The man was charged with dangerous driving, flight from police and assault.
But in his ruling, Justice Gary Hearn described McArthur as an experienced officer who “overreacted in the extreme.”
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Hearn also described McArthur as an aggressive police officer who exaggerated his evidence.
In his current professional conduct tribunal, the prosecution said it is trying to show that McArthur has a pattern of aggressive and reactive behaviour.
They are asking for Hearn’s 2014 decision and that his comments about McArthur be admitted as evidence.
McArthur’s defence team has asked that the request be denied and argued comments in an unrelated case are not admissible as evidence.
Defence lawyer Kate Robertson said the comments by Hearn are not facts and McArthur couldn’t argue them in court. She added it also opens the need for due process, which would be costly and delay the hearing further.
The matter was reviewed by Guelph police’s professional standards unit, which determined no action would be taken against McArthur.
McArthur’s team has maintained the officer suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder that went undiagnosed until after he struck the teenager.
His condition stems from the death of Jennifer Kovach, a Guelph police officer who was killed on duty in a car crash while responding to a call for assistance from McArthur in 2013.
A psychiatric expert who testified on behalf of the defence also said the incident at the hospital was an isolated incident and there was no pattern of aggressive behaviour.
The defence argues that McArthur can return to work with a plan to properly treat his PTSD.
However, the prosecution argued that the traffic stop downtown happened before Kovach died in 2013, as did another incident in 2008 that saw McArthur convicted of assault.
In that case, McArthur struck a man with his knee before forcing him into a police cruiser.
The officer was found guilty of assault two years later, but he was also granted an absolute discharge.
Whether McArthur can return to duty is up to former York Regional Police deputy chief Terence Kelly, who is the hearing officer.
The hearing is scheduled to continue on Wednesday.
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