Ruthowsky says he flipped major Hamilton coke dealer into police informant

A Hamilton cop who is facing a host of corruption charges says he wasn't being paid off by a drug dealer at all — instead, he flipped that same dealer after an arrest to become part of his huge stable of confidential informants.

Suspended Hamilton police officer Craig Ruthowsky returned to the witness box in a Toronto courtroom Thursday, as the trial into his misconduct allegations continues.

The 44-year-old is accused of selling police secrets and protection for $20,000 monthly payments from a cadre of drug dealers. 

The Crown's key witness — the drug dealer who allegedly set up the deal to pay off Ruthowsky — previously testified that he cut a deal with Ruthowsky in the summer of 2011, after a raid on the dealer's Caroline Street condo in downtown Hamilton. The dealer can't be named because of a publication ban.

Ruthowsky, however, presented an entirely different scenario. He said he met the dealer after his arrest, and after police found nine ounces of cocaine inside his condo. During an interview with the dealer at the police station, Ruthowsky told him that was a substantial amount of coke, and he was facing jail time, he testified.

There was no money given to me for any reason at any point.- Craig Ruthowsky

"Faced with those facts, we gave him the option to work with us, because we know there's bigger fish out there," he said. "It was put to him that he could work off his charges.

"He was very open, very willing to the idea."

Ruthowsky, a 17-year-veteran of Hamilton police, has pleaded not guilty in Superior Court in Toronto to charges of bribery, attempting to obstruct justice, trafficking cocaine, criminal breach of trust, and conspiring to traffic marijuana.

Decision hinges on who the jury believes

Quickly, the trial has become a "he said, she said" situation. Three different former drug dealers with lengthy criminal pasts have alleged that Ruthowsky was a cop on the take, who let them roam free and sell drugs in Hamilton. Ruthowsky, by contrast, has testified that the dealers were feeding him information as informants, while he strung them along with minor assistance in the form of "perceived benefit."

As the day's testimony wore on, Ruthowsky attempted to debunk the dealer's accusations of shady dealings, one by one. 

The dealer previously testified that he told Ruthowsky about a marijuana grow-op he had sunk money into that he felt was ripping him off. The two made a deal, he alleged — the dealer would give up the grow op to Ruthowsky to "appear legit," and he would also get to keep half of any pot that police seized.

In the end, there was no harvestable weed in the location to steal, court has heard. The dealer said Ruthowsky offered for him to come down and tour the location to make sure he wasn't trying to pull one over on him.

Ruthowsky testified Thursday that none of that was true. He said the dealer offered up the grow op while "out for a drive" with him, and then came to see it of his own accord while police were in the middle of dismantling the operation on the night of the raid.

"His request was to come and look, specifically how it was set up electrically, he wanted to see where his money was going," Ruthowsky said. He told the jury that at the time, he couldn't think of any law or police policy he would be breaking by letting a known drug dealer and supposed confidential informant walk around behind the police tape — so he let him.

Several police officers previously testified they had never seen a confidential informant wandering around a crime scene. Ruthowsky said he saw at it as "source development" and "building trust."

Questions about cocaine press

The jury also heard last week from another dealer, Nigel Dheilly-Mattiuzzi, who said he bought a massive cocaine press from Ruthowsky at an undercover police location.

Ruthowsky, again, presented an opposing narrative to what the jury has already heard. He said the press was seized from the Crown's key witness, and he was attempting to give it back to him.

The press, which was being kept at a covert guns and gangs unit location at a shuttered police station, became part of a massive "office cleanup" in 2011, Ruthowsky said.

A "supervisor at the time" told him to get rid of the press, he testified.

"At the conclusion of a case, the non-drug exhibits can actually be returned to the individual," Ruthowsky said.

"I felt I had complete authority and it was within the policy of the Hamilton Police Service to give it back to its rightful owner."

The rightful owner, he understood, was the dealer who is the Crown's key witness. But the dealer made it "pretty clear he had no interest in the press" now, Ruthowsky said, because it was too big, and he had no means of getting it.

Ruthowsky pushed him to come get it anyway, he testified, and the dealer told him he was sending his "good friend Nigel" to pick it up.

Ruthowsky said that when Dheilly-Mattiuzzi came to pick up the press from the police location, he said it was a "beautiful piece of equipment" and that his father, who owned a machine shop, "would love it."

"For whatever reason, he seemed to fall instantly in love with this press," Ruthowsky said. He told the jury that he told Dheilly-Mattiuzzi to contact the dealer and see if they could work out some sort of deal between the two of them. 

Ruthowsky testified that he helped load the press onto a truck, and Dheilly-Mattiuzzi drove off with it. 

"From that point, I don't know what happened," Ruthowsky said.

That stands in stark contrast to Dheilly-Mattiuzzi's own testimony from last week, when he told the court that Ruthowsky called him up and offered him the press, some cutting agent and pressing plates as a $5,000 package deal.

Ruthowsky denied that ever happened.

"There was no money given to me for any reason at any point," he said.

adam.carter@cbc.ca