Craig Ruthowsky trial

Craig Ruthowsky’s lawyer spent the day arguing with the drug dealer in the witness box over whether or not he was an informant for the suspended Hamilton police officer.

Ruthowsky’s lawyer questioned the value of the $20 000 the drug dealer said he was paying the Hamilton officer every month, for protection. The dealer said he wasn’t giving information, he was taking it from the top gangs and weapons officer in the city. He said Ruthowsky promised to lie on the stand to protect him if he had to, both used text messages between Ruthowsky and the dealer to try to prove their point.

In April of 2012 the dealer writes:
“Hey buddy I was just getting on the highway & I’m pulled over by OPP for not having my seatbelt on.”

Ruthowsky writes back:
“Seatbelt, they can’t search” and tells the dealer not to admit to the marijuana he has in the car.

He told me to lie to the OPP. It’s right here, you can look it up, the dealer shot back.

The following month Ruthowsky was texting the dealer late at night; his lawyer suggested he was trying to get information to solve a murder.

“I’m going to suggest to you that he was drunk,” the dealer said the officer would call him late at night after drinking. He and the lawyer bickered over who was being played, the dealer or the police officer, until Justice Robert Clark angrily ordered them to stop talking over one another.

The dealer threw in a bunch of allegations about Ruthowsky that the court hasn’t heard, that he offered to bring drugs across the border and that he planned to help rob another dealer’s house, but Ruthowsky’s lawyer scoffed at those allegations. He noted that the drug dealer never served jail time for his crimes, other than eight months waiting for bail.
The dealer is currently serving a conditional sentence and informants typically get court leniency in exchange for the information they provide.

The cross examination continues tomorrow.