Andrew Duffy

Officer stunned by arrest, probe told

"He took off his coat and said he was going to be sick and then he said he was going to kill himself," retired Detective Sergeant Richard Lundy told the inquiry into the practices of Metro's internal affairs unit.

"I didn't pay any attention to his condition. He was riveted on the spot and was glaring right at me. … He was almost glaring right through me."

Lundy and his internal affairs partner, Detective Sergeant Donald Caisse, staked out the prostitute's apartment on Nov. 22, 1989, in anticipation of Whitehead's arrival.

The prostitute, identified only as Jane Doe, complained to internal affairs that Whitehead had sexually assaulted her after threatening her with arrest. Whitehead subsequently telephoned the woman and tried to see her again.

When Whitehead walked through the door of the woman's apartment on Nov. 22 and headed into the living room, Lundy stepped out from behind a doorway. Whitehead turned, shocked to see Lundy standing with a police badge in his hand. "I asked him (what his name was) several times and he didn't reply," Lundy said. "I asked him if he was armed and he didn't reply."

Lundy moved to take a bag out of Whitehead's hands — "I thought I was going to get whacked" — and found it to contain a partly consumed bottle of liquor.

Caisse, concerned that Whitehead might do something violent, told the officer he was being arrested for extortion and sexual assault, Lundy said. The detectives did not intend to follow through with the charges and they were never formally filed.

After taking Whitehead out of the apartment, Lundy returned to find the prostitute lying in the fetal position in a corner of her bedroom: "She was repeating over and over again, "He said I ruined his life, he said I ruined his life." The officer called a friend who came to stay with the woman.

Lundy said criminal charges were never laid against Whitehead because the complainant, at first, had indicated she did not want charges laid, had initiated the contact with Whitehead by asking him if he wanted to by sex and also appeared emotionally unstable.

A crown attorney told the officers it would be better to prosecute Whitehead under provisions of the Police Act. At his Police Act hearing last year, Whitehead pleaded guilty to charges of corruption and deceit. He was demoted to constable.

Jane Doe was not given a chance to testify at the hearing and has complained that the sentence was part of a "deal" to keep Whitehead on the force.

Police have said Whitehead's sentence was part of a regular plea bargain to elicit a guilty plea and avoid a trial.