No more paycheques for corrupt Hamilton officer Craig Ruthowsky as police start firing process

The Hamilton Police Service has suspended corrupt Const. Craig Ruthowskywithout pay and has begun the process to have him fired.

The police service moved quickly to cut off Ruthowsky'spay, taking action just a dayafter he was sentenced on charges of bribery, obstruction of justice, breach of trust and cocaine trafficking.

• Corrupt Hamilton police officer CraigRuthowskysentenced to 12 years
• Judge saysRuthowskyused badge 'as an ATM,' calls for harsher sentence than 10 years

The service has been obliged to keep paying Ruthowskyfor six years while he has been under suspension.

That obligation ended Tuesday when he received a prison termfor his role in a pay-for-protection scheme with a crew of Hamilton drugdealers.

The service issueda statement Wednesday morningsaying it willalso be pursuing Police Service Act charges against Ruthowskyand seek to have him fired through that process.

Pay during suspension called 'unacceptable'

The 44-year-old wasconvicted on the chargesin Superior Court in Toronto late last month.

He was actually suspended in June2012.

During three of those years, Ruthowsky even showed up on the Sunshine List, which tracks the province's highest paid public sector earners. Hemadeover $104,000 last year, over $107,000 in 2015, and over $109,000 in 2012.

Ruthowsky's pay while undersuspensiondrew criticism fromHamilton Coun. Lloyd Ferguson, who heads up the city's police board. He called the officer a"poster child of suspension without pay" in a previous interview.

Ferguson said Ruthowsky'spayouts were "unacceptable to taxpayers."

Even though Ruthowsky was facing corruption charges, Hamilton police were still mandated to pay him because ofthe Police Services Act.

The act says that it's only when an officer is "convicted of an offence and sentenced to a term of imprisonment," that the chief of police or a city's police board can cut offpay.

• Ruthowsky's sentencing delayed, pay continues for corrupt officer

However, the actalso dictates that the decision to suspend an officer without pay can be upheld even if a conviction or sentence is under appeal, which isan important distinction, asRuthowskyhas decided to appeal his sentence.

A bail hearing will be heard at the court of appeal Thursday.

On Tuesday, Ruthowsky was also ordered to pay a $250,000 fine the amount the judge said Ruthowskytook in bribes. If Ruthowsky doesn't pay that fine within a year, three more years will be tacked onto his sentence.

Ruthowsky was arrested after being caught on police wiretaps as part of a massive Toronto police guns and gangs investigation called Project Pharaoh.

Suspensions with pay could end

Cases likeRuthowsky's,where an officer is paid for over half a decade while on suspension, could soon be a thing of the past. Ontario ismakingsweeping changesto its policing laws, including strengthening oversight of the system and making it possible to suspend officers without pay.

The changes, contained in legislation introduced last November, would include the first update to the Police Services Act in more than 25 years.

The new legislation proposes to allow police servicesto suspend officers without pay in certain circumstances a power chiefs have been requesting for a decade.

• MORE HAMILTON NEWS |Welland dad learns to walk on prosthetic leg to walk his daughter down the aisle
• Hamilton 'hacker for hire' Karim Baratov sentenced to 5 years for Yahoo security breach