A Montreal police officer has been suspended for two days without pay for not stopping his former partner's professional misconduct in 2012.
On Sept. 29, Quebec’s police ethics committee ruled Const. Constantinos Samaras did not intervene when his then partner, Const. Stéfanie Trudeau — aka Officer 728 — tackled and handcuffed a cyclist in May of 2012.
At around 2:30 a.m. one morning, Samaras and Trudeau stopped and ticketed a cyclist at the corner of Mont-Royal Ave. E. and De La Roche St. At one point, a group of passersby who witnessed the ticket being issued were told to move along by Trudeau, and after being warned twice, Trudeau tackled and handcuffed one of them, Julian Menezes.
Menezes was then tossed into the back of the officers' patrol car, with Samaras' help.
The committee noted Samaras, a 10-year veteran of the force, had no previous ethics citations and he testified he learned from the experience.
Trudeau is no longer on the force, following an assault conviction last year, stemming from another arrest which took place later in 2012.
She tried to appeal her conviction and sentence, but an appeals court upheld both this past August.