Toronto cop to be tried on allegations he groped women

Toronto Police Sgt. Christopher Heard, will face allegations that he groped two women in his police crusier at a second trial. (Toronto Sun file photo)

A Toronto Police sergeant will face a second trial on allegations he sexually assaulted two women while driving them home in a cruiser from the entertainment district in the fall of 2015.

Sgt. Christopher Heard was acquitted last October, but Justice Tamarin Dunnet ordered a new trial, determining the trial judge’s approach was “flawed.

“At the outset of the trial, the Crown submitted that … similar fact evidence was relevant of the following issues: To demonstrate a pattern of behaviour, to counter the defence of innocent association or outright denial and (the criminal action) of the offences,” wrote Dunnet.

The prosecution listed distinctive similarities between the two incidents that allegedly demonstrated a pattern of behaviour by Heard.

Those similarities included the targeting of females who appear to be alone in the entertainment district late at night, driving a marked police vehicle, offering a presumably safe ride home, turning off the in-car camera, not advising dispatch, no use of overt violence or aggression and engaging in sexual touching until rebuffed and no follow up, Dunnet said in her judgment.

The trial judge “failed to consider the Crown’s position and assess the similar fact evidence along with all of the evidence, including the improbability of coincidence, in deciding whether or not to believe the complainants’ evidence,” wrote Dunnet.

“The trial judge rejected (the complainants’) evidence and, in a cursory and conclusory statement, he concluded that the similar fact evidence did not make their evidence believable,” wrote Dunnet.

“In this case, the similar fact evidence was directly relevant to … the complainants’ credibility,” wrote Dunnet. “Absent the trial judge’s errors, the verdicts would not necessarily have been the same.”

Both women, who were in their 20s, testified that Heard, 47, groped them inside his police SUV after offering a late-night drive home from the Blue Jays Way area in the city’s entertainment district. Heard, a veteran officer, agreed he’d picked up each woman, but denied any touching occurred in his vehicle.

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