Three officers from 51 Division of the Toronto police force have been charged with sexual assault and gang sexual assault in connection with an alleged attack in January.
TORONTO – A South Asian cop is among three Toronto police officers who have been charged with gang sexual assault in an alleged attack on a woman last month.
Constables Sameer Kara, 31, Leslie Nyznik, 38, and Joshua Cabero were arrested and charged with sexual assault and gang sexual assault in connection with an incident on Jan. 17, police said in a statement released Thursday, reported Toronto Star newspaper.
The officers were off duty at the time of the alleged assault and have been on the force for six or fewer years.
All three appeared in court Thursday, where they were each released on $15,000 bail.
Toronto Police Services spokesperson Mark Pugash said the officers have been suspended with pay. The Police Services Act requires all suspensions to be with pay unless an officer is sentenced to jail time.
“At the conclusion of the criminal process, there will be a Police Services Act investigation and the maximum penalty is dismissal,” he said.
Nyznik was present at a 2010 incident that a judge later called an “unlawful extrajudicial punishment that will shock the public.”
In that case, Judge Ford Clements found that Nyznik’s then-partner, Const. Christian Dobbs, had used his elbow to repeatedly strike Toronto cook Raymond Costain, who was lying on the ground and handcuffed. The incident was captured on the patrol car’s dashboard camera.
No police officers were ever charged.
“There was a contrived effort to justify the use of force,” Clements said in a 2013 ruling in reference to police testimony that included Nyznik’s.
Clements called the police officers’ testimony “indifferent to the truth.”
Chief Bill Blair used a clip from the dash cam in a video message sent out to the entire police force that year, reprimanding officers for bad behaviour.
“If you want to be an idiot, you don’t get to be an idiot wearing our uniform,” Blair told this force. “I am quite prepared to hold people accountable for their actions.”
Courtesy Toronto Star
