A now retired Toronto police officer caught up in the sweeping police corruption case known as Project South has been sentenced after admitting his role. Derek McCormick pleaded guilty to two charges, theft under 5,000 dollars and a breach of trust, and was handed his sentence in a Greater Toronto Area courtroom, closing one chapter in a case that has ensnared officers and civilians alike.
For those two charges, McCormick will not go to prison. He was given a 10-month conditional sentence to be served in the community, made up of five months of house arrest followed by another five months under a curfew, an outcome that keeps him out of custody while still placing restrictions on his movements over the coming months.
According to the agreed statement of facts read in court, the case against him centred on a single act. McCormick stole a cell phone and obtained what was described as a burner phone for another officer, Constable Timothy Barnhart, a transaction that would later draw the attention of the investigators building the larger corruption case.
Barnhart himself has been described as the genesis of the Project South corruption and organized crime investigation. The court heard that Barnhart asked McCormick to get him the burner phone, and that McCormick did not know what the phone would ultimately be used for. The charges against Barnhart have not yet been tested in court.
McCormick's lawyer sought to distance his client from the wider scandal, telling the court that he had nothing to do with the larger Project South investigation. McCormick had originally faced six charges, including one linked to him dumping stolen property, among it credit cards and Colombian passports, into a sewer.
The court heard that while McCormick did carry out that act, it was ultimately deemed unrelated to Project South. That obstruction of justice charge, along with three others, was withdrawn, leaving him to plead guilty to the two remaining counts of theft and breach of trust that formed the basis of his sentence.
In handing down the sentence, the judge did not spare his words, telling McCormick that his actions had tarnished his own reputation and the reputation of all honest, hard-working Toronto police officers. The remaining officers charged in the Project South investigation are expected to appear in court on Wednesday as their own cases move forward.