A Toronto Police Service constable charged in a massive corruption probe has lost a bid for freedom after his detention was ordered to be upheld.
Constable Timothy Barnhardt was among the seven active and one retired Toronto police officers charged in February in the Project South probe. He was the only one of the accused officers to be denied bail, and he challenged his detention.
On Wednesday, Ontario Superior Court Justice Peter Bawden upheld the earlier decision to detain Constable Barnhardt while he awaits trial. The details of the judge’s bail review decision are covered by a publication ban.
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Constable Barnhardt is a central figure in Project South, which also resulted in charges against about 20 civilians. The officers face charges that they leaked sensitive information to organized crime figures, who allegedly used the data to set up intimidation campaigns and shootings of residences in the Greater Toronto Area.
The allegations against Constable Barnhardt and the others charged in the Project South case have not been tested in court.
The Project South case last week led to the appointment of a retired Ontario Court of Appeal judge, William Hourigan, to examine the systemic potential for corruption and data snooping within more than 40 police services in the province.
Ontario’s Inspectorate-General of Policing hired Mr. Hourigan to use that office’s powers to pull documents and conduct interviews from police forces as needed.
One specific task Mr. Hourigan has been given is to look at how to prevent misuse of law-enforcement databases, including by detecting “early warning signs of corruption.” He is also being asked to develop “effective approaches for applying the principle of least privilege to ensure police service members only have access to information necessary for their current duties.”
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Next week, the Ontario Superior Court is to release another bail-review decision in the case of another central suspect in Project South.
Brian Da Costa, 43, was granted release during a hearing in March on $1.5-million bail and a list of conditions that keep him confined to a Toronto home while wearing a GPS tracker. Prosecutors are now appealing that ruling.
When Project South allegations were first announced, authorities alleged that Mr. Da Costa worked closely with Constable Barnhardt in a plot that revealed confidential information about a corrections officer to hitmen who conspired to murder him. The two accused are also jointly charged with trafficking in stolen police uniforms, obstruction of justice and public mischief.