Guelph taxpayers have spent $310,000 and counting in an effort to oust a police officer who assaulted a teenager handcuffed to a hospital bed in 2016.
That’s in addition to the salary he’s received while on paid leave waiting for the matter to be resolved.
The cost of a sentencing hearing for Const. Corey McArthur, which followed his 2018 guilty plea to professional misconduct under the Police Services Act (PSA), currently sits at $310,903, Guelph police spokesperson Scott Tracey told GuelphToday by email.
Most of that went to hire a private prosecutor for the case, at $258,185, along with $34,329 in fees paid to the hearing officer. Then there’s fees for prosecution experts ($9,266) as well as the cost of facilities and court reporting ($9,123).
The investigation was handled internally, Tracey said.
Late last month, hearing officer Terence Kelly ordered that McArthur resign or be dismissed from the service within seven days.
McArthur has filed an appeal of his sentence with the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.
The constable has been on paid leave since the assault took place in August of 2016.
During that time his pay has been significant enough to put him on the ‘sunshine list’ three times – in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Under the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, the salary of government employees such as police officers and municipal staff who are paid $100,000 or more are publicly released.
In 2019, McArthur received $106,436 in wages and $546 in taxable benefits. Those figures for 2020 are $114,756 and $609 respectively.
Last year he was paid $110,689, with $630 in taxable benefits.
Those three years alone add up to $331,881 in pay. McArthur’s pay wasn’t reported on the sunshine list for 2017 or 2018, meaning it came in at less than $100,000 for those years.
McArthur was on paid leave for much of 2016, which saw his earnings reported as $101,804.
