SAULT STE. MARIE, ONT. - A Sault Police officer was fired last week, years after he was found to have made a bogus police report against a neighbour.
Cst. Craig Johnson was working on the duty desk on July 20, 2020 when he filed an anonymous traffic complaint that came in by phone. The complaint was in relation to a motorcycle being driven at high speeds in a school zone.
The police report filed by Johnson included the licence plate of the motorcycle, resulting in a warning being issued to a young man associated with the vehicle.
A hearing by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) determined that no such call came in and the complaint was fabricated by Johnson. Last week, an appeal of that decision was denied and Johnson was booted from the department.
"Effective December 19, 2024, Cst. Craig Johnson has been relieved of their duties with the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service," says a current post on the department's web site.
SooToday reached out to Johnson through his lawyer, Pamela Machado.
“The injustice of this entire proceeding was perpetuated by the Commission in their one-sided decision," she said in an email. "The process is flawed and the waste of resources and public money on what should have been resolved internally should be shocking to the public. We are considering Judicial Review of this decision.”
The OIPRD complaint was filed by the mother of the young man and a criminal charge of mischief was laid against Johnson in February 2021. That criminal charge was stayed, but the OIPRD complaint continued, with hearings held in 2022 and 2023.
It was suggested that Johnson and the family of the young man were known to each other prior to the traffic report being filed.
"Although Cst. Johnson and [the mother] lived in the same neighbourhood, it cannot be suggested that there was a friendly relationship between their families," said the Sault Police in a factum filed during the appeal process.
The young man who received that warning as a result of the July 2020 incident also filed another OIPRD complaint against Johnson months earlier on April 7, 2020, when the two had a confrontation about the motorcycle.
"Cst. Johnson was aware that [the young man] had attended at the offices of the Service to make a complaint about this interaction," said the Sault Police in the factum.
In 2023, Johnson was found guilty of four counts of discreditable conduct and five counts of deceit at the conclusion of the OIPRD hearing overseen by Supt. Robert Gould of the Waterloo Regional Police Service. Johnson was found not guilty of the single count of corrupt process.
"The Hearing Officer found that in fabricating the anonymous call, Cst. Johnson targeted the public complainant and her family," said the Sault Police in the factum.
He was ordered to resign or face termination, a process that was put on hold pending the appeal.
Johnson denied the charges and pleaded not guilty in the original hearing and appealed its findings of guilt through the Ontario Civilian Police Commission. His attorney requested that the Commission revoke the decisions, vacate the convictions, order a new hearing or reduce the penalty.
Machado argued in the appeal documents that call logs that could support her client's version of events were destroyed in an Aug. 26, 2021 cyber-attack that affected many of the department's computer systems, just over one year after the call the was allegedly taken by Johnson on the duty desk. She claimed this absence of evidence was not properly considered by Gould in the original hearing.
Johnson's defence also said the penalty, which included resignation or dismissal, was a disproportional penalty and did not take into account mitigating factors, like ongoing medical conditions.
The appeal, which was heard in October, was not successful and the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service relieved Johnson of his duties as of Dec. 19.
