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Missing notes and inconsistencies mark sentencing hearing for Guelph officer

Const. Corey McArthur appeared in person for the hearing on Tuesday, more than a month and a half after pleading Guilty to discreditable conduct
20200901 Corey McArthur Hearing KA
Const. Corey McArthur turns his head away from the camera as he leaves the site of a professional conduct hearing against him in September. McArthur has pleaded guilty to one charge of discreditable conduct and will be sentenced at a later date. Kenneth Armstrong/GuelphToday file photo

A psychiatrist testifying on behalf of the Guelph police officer who assaulted a teenager handcuffed to a hospital bed in 2016 spent all day Tuesday testifying during cross examination by the prosecutor in the officer’s professional conduct hearing.

Const. Corey McArthur appeared in person for the hearing at the Holiday Inn on Scottsdale Drive, more than a month and a half after pleading guilty to the discreditable conduct charge against him in September.

Although the officer has pleaded guilty, the hearing is currently in the process of considering submissions for sentencing.

Dr. Jonathan Rootenberg is a forensic psychiatrist with a specialty in trauma who has worked with McArthur since 2018, initially as part of the officer’s most recent criminal trial.

Rootenberg has been assessing the officer as part of a forensic risk assessment at the request of McArthur’s attorney, Joseph Markson.

On the last full day of the hearing on Sept. 1, Rootenberg told the hearing he believed McArthur was ready to go back to active duty as a police officer. McArthur is currently on leave.

David Migicovsky, acting as prosecutor for the hearing, spent the entire working day grilling Rootenberg about MacArthur’s post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis, his history of alcohol abuse and inconsistencies in the details the officer told the different professionals who were assessing him.

McArthur has received three independent diagnoses for PTSD, one from Rootenberg, another from the Canadian Mental Health Association and one from the officer’s therapist, Dr. Kathryn Douglas.

Only Rootenberg has testified so far during the submissions for sentencing, but the three reports he has written so far about McArthur for the defence in the past two years also lean on the analysis of the other two diagnoses.

Migicovsky asked Rootenberg about McArthur’s prescription for Pristiq, which is a medication used to treat major depressive disorder.

According to one of Rootenberg’s reports, McArthur told him he was prescribed the drug by his former doctor at least five years prior to that session but stopped taking it after a year because he did not find it beneficial to his mood and anger issues.

In a Feb. 21, 2018, report by CAMH, McArthur said he took the drug for one month in 2014 but stopped because of its sedation effect. 

“We know he told three different professionals three different stories,” said Migicovsky to Rootenberg. “He can not be telling the correct version to all three of you.”

“I can’t say he was purposely trying to mislead me or those two,” said Rootenberg in response.

“I am not asking you to determine his purpose,” said Migicovsky, who noted all three stories could be wrong but all three of them can’t be right.

Migicovsky pointed out that McArthur also told three slightly different accounts of his drinking habits. 

McArthur told Rootenberg he rarely drinks during the week and has approximately four drinks per month on average, while telling Douglas that he consumes two to three drinks socially once a month. To CAMH McArthur said he drinks on average one alcoholic beverage per week.

Migicovsky then presented a 2009 finding from a 2009 family court decision made after the breakup of his first marriage, years before the onset of McArthur’s acute PTSD symptoms.

That court decision said McArthur and his first wife separated after he came home from celebrating St. Patrick’s Day ‘completely intoxicated’ and lost control, striking two doors and a nearby wall. 

Justice Dale Parayeski noted in the family court decision that the evidence makes it clear McArthur was ‘not a good husband,’ that he was unfaithful and drank too much. 

“That info was not provided when you wrote any of your three reports,” said Migicovsky to Rootenberg. “You assumed he was being honest when he talked to you about his drinking and anger issues.”

In the afternoon, Migicovsky tasked Rootenberg with methodically comparing his notes from his assessments with McArthur to the reports he made as a result of those notes.

In most cases, what Rootenberg wrote in his notes was reflected in his reports on McArthur.

In one instance, Rootenberg’s notes said McArthur told him he had smoked marijuana a few times in high school but can’t stand the smell. 

That was in contrast to what was written in the report, which stated McArthur denied smoking marijuana. Rootenberg noted that was an error on his part.

Later, Migicovsky pointed out that Rootenberg’s report, which stated that McArthur very much regrets his actions and stated that he did not try to injure the youth in the 2016 incident, was not supported by the forensic psychiatrist’s notes from the assessment, in which McArthur said he thought he used appropriate force, that police training says to use even more force than he did and that the officer mused about at which point does it become criminal.

“Is there a missing page?” asked Migicovsky.

“It’s not in the copy of my notes,” replied Rootenberg.

Not only is that finding not in the notes, said Migicovsky, but what is written in the notes contradicts the finding in the report.

Rootenberg took a minute to go through his files, in which he found a copy of his notes as well as the originals, but could not find a page with notes which support McArthur showing regret about the incident. 

“Your theory is maybe there is a missing page?” asked Migicovsky.

“I can’t think why that page isn’t there” said Rootenberg.

The hearing continues on Wednesday, in which Rootenberg will be re-examined by Markson and two additional defence witnesses are expected to testify.

Markson asked hearing officer and former York Regional Police deputy chief Terence Kelly for an indulgence in allowing Rootenberg an opportunity to look for the missing page of notes and present it during Thursday’s proceedings.