A doctor’s note has led to a month-long delay for the hearing for a city police officer accused of misconduct.
Attorneys negotiated briefly at the public hearing for Thunder Bay Police Service officer Sgt. Jim Mauro on Wednesday. Neither Mauro nor his lawyer Harry Black was present at the hearing held at Lakehead University’s conference centre. Local lawyer David Bruzzese represented them at the hearing.
Mauro, who has been suspended with pay since March 26, 2010, is accused of forwarding a letter to the Police Services Board that claimed to have been written by then-Police Association president Mayor Keith Hobbs.
The letter allegedly was an appeal by Hobbs to allow Mauro to apply for promotions while serving a previous suspension.
Bruzzese said Black wanted to adjourn the hearing for a few months because Mauro wasn’t in a healthy enough condition to participate.
Bruzzese submitted a doctor’s letter to the judicator stating that Mauro had started a new treatment and would be better in two or three months. The letter went on to say that Mauro’s participation in the hearing could stress his health even further.
Mauro has a right to attend but the hearing must be postponed until he is better, he said.
Since the letter blanked out the doctor’s name and didn’t specify the nature of Mauro’s health condition, the judicator said he didn’t have enough information to adjourn the hearing for the length of time suggested.
Instead, he pushed the hearing to Nov. 9 to discuss the matter further with Johnstone and Black in person.
Bruzzese added that the hearing should also be pushed back in order for Black and Prosecutor Ian Johnstone to reach an agreement on the statement of facts.
Johnstone said he was surprised that Black hadn’t come in person to the hearing.
Black and Johnstone had discussed agreeing on a statement of facts in order to speed up the hearing process. Johnstone sent Black a draft but couldn’t reach an agreement.
“If you didn’t like it make revisions and send it back,” Johnstone said. “We couldn’t agree with the agreed statement of facts as a result I had to summon witness to testify. I was under the belief that Mr. Black was going to be here.”
Johnstone said if they had an agreed statement of facts then he wouldn’t call witnesses to the hearing, which would shorten the proceedings by a day.
“There was a request for an adjournment and the defence council has the right to an adjournment and they got it,” he said. “I think lawyers are always going to take issue with what was said. I think the facts with what I said on the record speak for itself.”
