An officer of the Ontario Provincial Police who made headlines in 2020 after being charged with breach of trust has been sentenced to a conditional discharge. Constable Scott Joseph was initially charged in July of 2020 with breach of trust. Some time after his arrest, two additional charges were added – one additional count of breach of trust, and one count of obstruction of justice.
The illegal acts were all committed in Winchester, at the local detachment of the OPP. Specifically, Const. Joseph converted an OPP Occurrence Report “to a use not authorized, with intent to defraud”, leading to the charge of breach of trust. The charge of obstruction of justice came from “providing confidential information to subjects of a criminal investigation.” No other information on the nature of the offence is readily available.
As per the rules of the Police Services Act, Const. Joseph was suspended with pay from his duties as a police officer from the time of his arrest, until he was convicted. He had worked as a police officer for three years until the time of his arrest. Upon conviction, his position as a police officer was terminated.
Const. Joseph’s initial charges came after a four-month investigation as part of Project Tadley, an OPP initiative which began in response to allegations of misconduct against the OPP.
A conditional discharge is a sentence in which an offence, for which an accused has been found guilty, will be forgiven or expunged after a set period of time if certain conditions are met. This typically includes not committing any further crimes, and may also include conditions such as not owning a weapon or not communicating with certain individuals. It is not immediately known what the specific conditions are for the sentence of former Const. Joseph.