Toronto police sergeant testifies, defending pair of sex assault charges
He’s a veritable knight in shining armour - offering lifts to damsels in distress. And for his chivalry, Toronto Police Sgt. Christopher Heard finds himself charged with two counts of sexual assault.
Or so his story goes.
In a clear, confident tone, Heard testified in his own defence late Thursday, insisting he was just helping two women home who’d obviously had too much to drink in the Entertainment District when he offered them rides in his white police SUV six weeks apart in the fall of 2015.
The father of three vehemently denied allegations that he had something more nefarious in mind and that their police chauffeur placed his hand on their inner thigh during those lifts.
The 27-year police veteran has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault before Justice Russ Otter. He’s currently suspended with pay and also faces police act charges.
“Did you touch her inappropriately?” defence lawyer Gary Clewley asked Heard about claims by the first complainant.
“Absolutely not,” the sergeant said.
And what of the second woman - “Did you touch her inappropriately?”
“Not once,” he insisted.
In the first case, S., 27, was at Wayne Gretzky’s and then Mascot Brewery with a girlfriend on Sept. 23, 2015. They left after midnight and S. planned to walk her bike home because she’d been drinking. Heard stopped and offered her a lift, she said, which she declined at first and then accepted.
After all, he was a police officer.
Almost immediately, she testified, Heard called her “beautiful” and put his hand on her inner thigh. Later, while doing a computer check, she says he tried again.
Not surprisingly, Heard tells a different tale.
He noticed S. at the corner of Wellington and Blue Jays Way having trouble with her bike. When he drove over to talk to her, “I could tell she’d been drinking quite a bit,” Heard testified. “I told her you really shouldn’t be riding your bike, you’ve had too much to drink.”
If he could fit her bike in his SUV, he said, he’d drive her home. And so he did.
On the way, he said, she told him she was under a peace bond because of a domestic dispute with her boyfriend and asked if he could check when it expired. He stopped to run her name on the computer and told her she had four more weeks.
According to Heard, she began ranting that she should never have been charged and said: “Like my dad says, You guys are all lying, cheating bastards.”
He couldn’t drive her home fast enough, he said.
“She certainly wasn’t happy with police,” Heard recalled. “I got out of the car, removed her bike, I said ‘One last thing: let your dad know that tonight the police looked after you.’”
That same day, S. went to 52 Division and made a complaint. Following an investigation, the province’s Special Investigations Unit charged Heard in March 2016 with one count of sexual assault.
M. was reading the story on Facebook when she recognized Heard’s photo and came forward with a similar allegation. She told the court he was the officer who offered her a lift home about 12:30 a.m. Nov. 1, 2015 outside the Underground Garage bar on King St.
From across the street, Heard said he could tell she’d been drinking and stopped to ask if she needed a taxi. “I had some concerns,” he said. When told she didn’t have cash for a cab, he offered her a ride.
The 25-year-old testified she was “buzzed,” but clearly recalled Heard touching her thigh when they arrived at her building. Asked why she texted him the following morning to thank him for the ride - Heard said he gave her his number so she’d let him know she got inside safely - she replied, “To make sure that we left on good terms.”
She didn’t want him to think they would end up here - in court.
Clewley suggested there was no assault.
“I’m suggesting you’re incorrect,” she retorted.
Heard may be a gallant knight unfairly accused - but he has yet to explain why his in-car camera system wasn’t activated as required during either ride.
His testimony continues Friday
