Craig Ruthowsky, a Hamilton cop who was found guilty in a pay-for-protection scheme with a crew of Hamilton drug dealers, has been sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in a federal penitentiary.
Justice Robert Clark handed down his ruling in Superior Court in Toronto Tuesday. The sentence includes six months credit for time served.
Ruthowsky was also ordered to pay a $250,000 fine — the amount Clark said Ruthowsky took in bribes. If Ruthowsky doesn't pay that fine within a year, three more years are tacked on to his sentence.
Ruthowsky's family hugged each other and sobbed in court as the sentence came down. As he was being led away in handcuffs, the 44-year-old turned to his family and said, "I love you guys."
The judge called the disgraced officer the "author of his own misfortune" and "a man of profoundly flawed character."
"The conduct for which [Ruthowsky] must now answer was motivated by sheer, unbridled greed," Clark said.
Ruthowsky was found guilty late last month on charges of bribery, obstruction of justice, breach of trust and cocaine trafficking. A jury found that he was helping the criminals he was supposed to be investigating in exchange for cash.
Ruthowsky is appealing the sentence. An appeals court hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
The sentencing marks the final step in a lengthy and intricate trial that lasted much longer than anticipated. Sentencing was delayed twice — first by a failed defence motion for a stay of proceedings because Ruthowsky once dated an investigating officer's wife, and again last week because the judge didn't think sentencing submissions from either the Crown or the defence were harsh enough.
All the while sentencing was being pushed back, Ruthowsky continued getting paid. He was actually first suspended back in June of 2012, but he had been collecting cheques from the public purse ever since.
During three of those years, Ruthowsky even popped up on The Sunshine List, which tracks the province's highest paid public sector earners. He made over $104,000 last year, over $107,000 in 2015, and over $109,000 in 2012.
The trigger that allows police to stop paying him is a sentence with a jail term. Until that happened, under the current Police Services Act legislation, Hamilton police had to keep paying him.
More to come.