A Toronto police sergeant compromised an investigation when he removed fentanyl that he planned to consume from a storage locker, according to documents released to Ricochet.
Sergeant Mark Kennedy’s alleged decision to remove the drugs without authorization, and steps the Toronto Police Service says he took to conceal his actions, are outlined in documents listing nine counts of professional misconduct under the Police Services Act. He is suspended with pay.
The charges are the latest in a recent series of allegations of illegal drug use, drug possession, and evidence theft against several local cops. Officer misconduct has impacted several criminal cases and raised questions about the integrity of prosecutions and the police service’s handling of dangerous drugs.
Kennedy was working overnight and acting as a staff sergeant and officer in charge at 14 Division on August 26, 2023 when a civilian asked about a Toronto Blue Jays sweater held in a police evidence locker, according to tribunal documents.
Kennedy retrieved the sweater, then allegedly opened a second locker containing “fentanyl drug exhibits” from an unrelated investigation, in which he was not involved, and removed the drugs. He then returned them. He opened the locker the following day, removed the drugs, and took them to an office. He opened the locker a third time on August 28, according to tribunal records. The documents do not allege that Kennedy ever consumed the drug.
“We will say that not every case involving improper access to drugs is rooted in criminal behaviour. In many cases, including some you’ve mentioned, the officers have struggled with mental health, specifically addiction.”
The allegations against Kennedy have not been tested at the Toronto police disciplinary tribunal.
Alexa Banister-Thompson, a lawyer for Kennedy, declined to comment.
The Toronto Police Association also declined to comment on the charges against Kennedy.
“We will say that not every case involving improper access to drugs is rooted in criminal behaviour,” the association said in an email statement. “In many cases, including some you’ve mentioned, the officers have struggled with mental health, specifically addiction.”
Allegations of drug tampering pile up
The allegations against Kennedy follow several cases of Toronto police officers either admitting to stealing and consuming drug exhibits or being arrested for serious drug offences.
Detective Paul Worden told TPS Professional Standards investigators in 2021 that he suffered from various health problems and injuries, and began stealing pills from evidence lockers when he ran through his prescription opioids too quickly.
Public Prosecution Service of Canada spokesperson Nathalie Houle said at the time charges were stayed in six cases following the Worden revelations.
In September 2020, Lorenzino Censoni, a detective constable, stole a small amount of a powder police believed to be cocaine, which he had helped log as evidence. Officers later found Censoni unresponsive in his vehicle, alongside the stolen drugs, according to police tribunal and court documents.
Testing revealed the powder Censoni stole was fentanyl, not cocaine. Bloodwork showed fentanyl in Censoni’s system and evidence of past cocaine use. He resigned from the TPS and pled guilty to theft and unlawful possession of fentanyl in 2021, prosecutor Peter Scrutton said in an email.
More recently, Brian Sukhram was charged in July with possession of cocaine and methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking and several other crimes. Police told reporters Sukhram is a detective constable with the force’s drug squad.
Gary Clewley, Sukhram’s lawyer, declined to comment for this story.
Worden told investigators that he used his work laptop from home to review an inventory of drugs held at various police divisions.
“I can click on the division,” Worden said, according to an interview transcript. “If there’s something I thought that would help me, I would go and check it out.”
Worden said he tried to find drugs that were slated to be destroyed and would not be missed if he stole them.
The TPS said in 2021 that it had asked the Ontario Provincial Police to review Worden’s thefts and cases linked to the detective. The service has since refused repeated requests for the OPP’s report.
Then-chief James Ramer said at a 2022 police services board meeting that he had received two reports from the OPP, but shared few details.
“The OPP report will not be publicly released as it is subject to the legal provisions of the Police Services Act, and is a matter involving the personal disciplinary situation of an identifiable individual,” spokesperson Stephanie Sayer said in an email.
FOI requests denied
Ontario’s Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act can grant members of the public access to records held by police. After a Ricochet reporter requested the report, the TPS cited an MFIPPA provision stating the act does not apply to materials linked to ongoing prosecutions.
Access and privacy coordinator Paul McGee suggested in a letter that the reporter re-submit a request when the prosecutions concluded. McGee refused to identify the prosecutions.
The reporter appealed the TPS’ decision before the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario.
In written arguments to the IPC, McGee said three individuals had launched appeals that should preclude the release of the report.
The tribunal documents allege Kennedy took steps to conceal his actions… He later admitted he took the drugs intentionally and planned to consume them.
McGee asked that the cases be redacted, but referenced a Toronto Star story describing a small portion of the Worden report released during proceedings against three defendants ultimately convicted of drug offences. All three defendants have since appealed their convictions.
The Star, which has covered the Worden and Censoni revelations extensively, described the version of the report released in court as “90 per cent redacted.” (A spokesperson said Friday the material could now only be obtained by bringing a motion before the Court of Appeal.)
A Ricochet reporter argued before the IPC that the remainder of the report was therefore not tied to the prosecutions.
IPC adjudicator Meganne Cameron disagreed, writing that “the report cannot be severed, or separated into parts, for the purposes of determining whether the exclusion applies. The exclusion applies to all of the record, or none of the record.”
The Ministry of the Solicitor General also denied a freedom of information request for the report. Cameron upheld the ministry’s decision in a related appeal filed by the reporter.
‘They will lose’
The tribunal documents allege Kennedy took steps to conceal his actions, including falsely claiming in his memo book and an email to the officer who seized the drugs that he had opened the storage locker by mistake. He later admitted he took the drugs intentionally and planned to consume them, according to tribunal documents.
Kennedy enlisted a constable to submit the drugs in an attempt to cover his tracks, describing it as a “training opportunity” before another sergeant intervened.
The documents allege Kennedy’s actions “compromised the investigation in which [the drugs] had been seized.”
According to the records, the fentanyl had not been submitted to Health Canada for testing. Kennedy enlisted a constable to submit the drugs in an attempt to cover his tracks, describing it as a “training opportunity” before another sergeant intervened.
Defence lawyer John Struthers told Ricochet this could sink any related criminal prosecutions by casting doubt on the reliability of evidence seized by police.
“Somebody on the street or otherwise… has a bag full of a quantity of something. That doesn’t mean that it’s a drug. It doesn’t mean it’s anything. It could be a cat vitamin pill. And so they send it off for testing by a laboratory that will tell you what it is.”
If the material has been tampered with before testing, Struthers said, “you don’t know that what’s being submitted for testing is the thing that was found in the first place.”
“They will lose the prosecution in its entirety almost certainly.”
Prosecutors quiet on potential impact of allegations
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada, which focuses on drug crimes, would not say how many cases have been impacted by the allegations against Kennedy.
The Ministry of the Attorney General also declined to comment on the number of cases impacted by the allegations against Kennedy.
TPS spokesperson Sayer would not name the defendant linked to the drugs Kennedy allegedly handled or say how the case was affected.
“While these are allegations at this stage, the impact is not yet determined,” Sayer said in an email.
Kennedy’s tribunal proceedings are adjourned until November 12.