News Release
Toronto Police Officer Charged with Assault
Case Number: 15-TCI-157
A Toronto Police officer has been charged with assault for his involvement in an arrest last July near Dundas and Bathurst Streets.
An SIU investigation found the following:
- Shortly after midnight on July 5, 2015, four men were seen entering a vehicle in a parking lot at 113 Denison Avenue.
- Not long after, a number of unmarked police cruisers and several officers from the Toronto Police Major Crime Unit attempted to arrest the men in the vehicle.
- During the arrest, the 24-year-old driver of the vehicle was injured.
- Doctors at St. Joseph's Health Centre later determined the injury to be a fractured right orbital bone.
As a result of this investigation, the Director of the Special Investigations Unit, Tony Loparco, has reasonable grounds to believe the officer committed the criminal offence of assault causing bodily harm. Director Loparco has caused a charge to be laid.
Toronto Police Sergeant Darren Worth is now facing one count of assault causing bodily harm, contrary to s. 267(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada.
The officer is required to appear before the Ontario Court of Justice at Old City Hall Courthouse in Toronto on February 18, 2016.
The matter is now properly before the courts. In consideration of the fair trial interests of the accused, the SIU will make no further comment.
The SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of officials (police officers as well as special constables with the Niagara Parks Commission and peace officers with the Legislative Protective Service) that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person. All investigations are conducted by SIU investigators who are civilians. Under the Special Investigations Unit Act, the Director of the SIU must
- consider whether the official has committed a criminal offence in connection with the incident under investigation
- depending on the evidence, cause a criminal charge to be laid against the official where grounds exist for doing so, or close the file without any charges being laid
- publicly report the results of its investigations