Crown continues to call witnesses on second day of J.P. Levesque trial

The second day of trial for Thunder Bay police chief J.P. Levesque began on Tuesday morning with the crown counsel continuing to call their list of witnesses.

Levesque was charged in May of 2017 with breach of trust and obstructing justice for allegedly disclosing confidential information about the city's Mayor, Keith Hobbs.

On Monday, Dec. 4. crown counsel Jason Nicol called on a total of five witnesses, with at least another ten scheduled for the rest of the week.

• Connections made at J.P. Levesque trail between Hobbs, Zaitzeff

According to Roy, he was told about the potential extortion allegations of Hobbs and Zaitzeff on Dec. 9 and spoke to his supervisors in London, Ont. about referring the matter to the Thunder Bay Police Services.

Roy testified that Levesque told him, during a phone call on December 22, 2016, that, "I should have told you the day when you came in, I brought Hobbs into my office, privately, and told him about the complaint," Roy said, referring to the luncheon for retiring Deputy Police Chief Andy Hay, held the day before.

Roy said Levesque did not mention the name of the complainant in the case, Craig Loverin. He also said that Levesque never told him why he would mention the investigation to Hobbs, or to the chair of the police services board.

Roy also testified that he encountered Keith Hobbs at the re-opening of the Veterans Affairs office on January 26, 2017. He alleges that Hobbs said to him, "I can't believe that you believe that story from that guy," and went on to add, "I can't believe you sent this file to Ottawa. You will be in my lawsuit."

Roy testified he said to Hobbs, "Keith, you're in the public space, I don't talk about investigations."

Roy's cross-examination

In cross-examination, Roy told counsel he created five 'will say' documents, which were used to amend his original notes. He said he created the documents after the OPP told him he needed to be more elaborate than the notes he had originally made.

Two of the will say documents have no date, three of them were dated April 28, 2017, over four months after the RCMP had contacted Levesque and the Thunder Bay Police.

Roy also testified that he brought additional information to the Crown on Sunday, that he thought would be pertinent.

Roy said on the stand that when Craig Loverin gave his KGB statement to the RCMP in early December, he was not treated as a confidential informant, nor was it suggested that his information would be treated confidentially at any time.

Retired Deputy Police Chief Andy Hay took the stand in the late morning.

The trial was adjourned for the day early, due to weather concerns. It will resume on Wednesday morning.