A senior Toronto police officer has been found guilty of two counts of professional misconduct for permitting her nephew to leave the scene of a single-vehicle collision in 2022.
Toronto Police Service Insp. Joyce Schertzer was found guilty on one count each of discreditable conduct and neglect of duty during an Aug. 7 disciplinary hearing.
She was found not guilty on a second count of neglect of duty for her actions after her nephew crashed his vehicle into a city utility pole on Lakeshore Boulevard May 1, 2022.
Schertzer had pleaded not guilty to all three counts.
Retired OPP Supt. Lisa Taylor, who presided over the disciplinary hearing, said there was “clear and convincing evidence” to support both the discreditable conduct charge and one count of neglect of duty.
Schertzer told the tribunal during a June hearing that her daughter, who is also a police officer, called to tell her about the collision not long after it occurred.
She arranged for the dispatch of an officer from her division to 14 Division, where the crash took place, bypassing normal protocol “for the benefit of [her] family,” the tribunal heard.
She also became “actively involved in the investigation,” Taylor said, noting that she was the first officer to attend the scene and to speak with the driver.
Schertzer told the hearing she did not really consider herself “technically on-duty” and therefore wasn’t the first officer on scene.
Schertzer maintained that she did not interfere with the investigation and visited the scene only to make sure her nephew, identified only as “Calvin,” was safe.
Taylor, however, disagreed.
“The evidence is clear, Inspector Schertzer was the first to arrive at the scene and the first officer to speak with the driver, her nephew,” she wrote. “Inspector Schertzer testified Calvin blurted out what had occurred when she arrived, and she took him into her vehicle as it was rainy and cold.”
Const. Braden Doherty, an officer from Schertzer’s unit, arrived on the scene not long after and his body-worn camera footage captured Schertzer relaying to him what her nephew had told her. Calvin also spoke with Doherty and was cleared to leave the scene not long after, the tribunal documents show.
The tribunal decision also criticized Schertzer for allowing Doherty to turn off his body-worn camera. Only some of the footage of the investigation was captured as a result.
Taylor said she “cannot fathom” why Schertzer, a 30-year police veteran, would have made such a decision.
“You failed to ensure that a thorough investigation was conducted into the collision,” she wrote. “In so doing, you have committed misconduct in that you did act in a disorderly manner or in a manner prejudicial to discipline or likely to bring discredit upon the reputation of the Toronto Police Service.”
She did not fault Schertzer’s assertions that her nephew was not drunk or high, however. After reviewing the available footage, Taylor said, she also concluded that Calvin was not impaired by alcohol or drugs, but she did question whether his blood alcohol level was zero, a condition of his G2 licence.
An Oct. 28 hearing will be conducted to consider Schertzer’s penalty.
