Originally scheduled to begin in October, the disciplinary hearing for a Toronto sergeant facing charges in connection to the 2016 arrest — then release — of serial killer Bruce McArthur has been delayed. Sgt. Paul Gauthier is facing two counts of professional misconduct under Ontario’s Police Services Act, both stemming from a June 2016 incident involving McArthur, who killed eight men with ties to Toronto’s Gay Village between 2010 and 2017.Gauthier is alleged to have failed to videotape the interview with a man who called 911 to report that McArthur tried to strangle him — a written statement was taken instead — and failed to have photographs taken within 72 hours of the alleged assault. Both steps are required in the Toronto police domestic violence procedure. Gauthier denies he did anything wrong.At a brief hearing at Toronto police headquarters Wednesday, Gauthier’s lawyer, Lawrence Gridin, said delays in communication with the police prosecutor on the case had resulted in unresolved issues — just over six weeks before the hearing was scheduled to begin. He requested a pre-hearing conference before hearing officer Supt. Riyaz Hussein with prosecutor Alexandra Ciobotaru, which was held Wednesday morning. Hussein agreed that the move to set hearing dates for the fall was “premature.” Among the issues still yet to be resolved, he said, was whether Gauthier would be in attendance; the officer has not yet appeared at the tribunal due to undisclosed medical issues. Following the closed-door pre-hearing conference, the trial dates that had been set aside for the hearing in October were vacated, though the case will return to the tribunal on October 21 for an update on progress. “There’s quite a bit of work for us to do, and we intend to do that in the interim,” Gridin said. On the evening of June 20, 2016, a man called 911 to report that McArthur had attempted to strangle him during an ...
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