Two Toronto police officers who claimed they were assaulted by four men, instead acted unlawfully, used excessive force and appear to have fabricated their notes, an Ontario Court of Justice judge found Tuesday.

Assault charges against Aleem Khan and his sons Deen, Dalair and Yazdaan were dismissed by Justice Carol Brewer in a 19-page ruling that slams the conduct of Sgt. Stuart Blower and Det. Const. Tamari Hewko.

It all began with a dispute over a parking space at a North York apartment building four years ago, according to the decision.

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The plain clothes officers, both detective constables at the time, had parked in Deen Khan’s spot in an unmarked car when they arrived at the building on an investigation.

They say they told Deen, who arrived moments afterwards, that they were police officers and to park in another spot.

Deen instead blocked their vehicle with his car.

When Blower and Hewko went to the unit where the Khan family lived to ask for the car to be moved, the conversation almost immediately became aggressive.

Blower told Deen he had five minutes to move the car or it would be towed.

Yazdaan testified that Blower said he would “smack” each of the men and poked Aleem in the chest.

As Aleem followed the officers into the hallway so he could move the car, Hewko told him to “get back” and pushed him.

Aleem pushed back at her shoulder.

Blower then punched Aleem in the face, and claims Aleem punched him back. The judge instead found that after being punched Aleem fell to the ground until he could be helped back to the apartment. Deen and Yazdaan joined the fist fight to protect their father, she wrote.

Blower told Aleem, Deen and Yazdaan they were under arrest for assault, and both officers followed the Khans into their apartment after radio-ing for backup.

Blower began to handcuff Deen in the kitchen and repeatedly hit Deen in the back of the head, said Yazdaan.

Yazdaan testified he later hit Blower in the head once with a dumbbell. Blower was choking Dalair in a headlock, and Yazdaan was afraid for his brother’s life, he testified.

Blower denied both punching Deen in the back of the head and fighting with Dalair.

“(Blower and Hewko’s) entire interaction with the Khans involved a course of unlawful behaviour, which culminated in the use of excessive force against Deen and Dalair,” wrote Brewer. The Khans, she found, used reasonable force in self-defence.

She also questioned the credibility of the two officers.

While they were asked to prepare their notes before going off duty that night, they waited until returning to work a week later, she wrote.

“The timing and circumstances of the preparation of Blower’s notes, together with the similarity of the contents of the notes, raise serious concerns with respect to collaboration and fabrication in their contents.”

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The notes also include “derogatory and gratuitous” descriptions of Aleem including that he was “dirty and unshaven” with bulging eyes and “yellow crooked teeth,” she wrote.

She adds that the evidence of the two officers was at times illogical and inconsistent, and did not jive with the recordings of two emotional 911 calls made by Yazdaan during the incident.

The calls do not capture the obscenities Hewko says the Khans yelled.

They also contradict the officers’ claim that they acted in a calm professional way throughout, wrote Brewer.

The decision of the judge is being reviewed by the police including by the Professional Standards unit, said police spokesperson Const. Wendy Drummond. No further comment can be made because the decision may be appealed, she said.

The verdict is a huge weight lifted off the Khan family, Deen Khan told the Star.

“Honestly, it’s very, very stress relieving. Obviously we wanted this to be done a long time ago but it took four years and five months,” he said.

For one thing, he can finally travel out of the country with his wife and three children.

Deen says the behaviour of the officers was both “scary” and “very disappointing.”

“It was straight bullying,” he says. “It really changes what you think about (the police force.)”

Criminal charges were not laid against the officers. The Khan family, mentally and financially exhausted by their battle in the criminal court, has not yet discussed whether they will file a lawsuit against the police, says Deen.

Both Hewko and Blower are still on the force.

This is not the first time Blower’s use of force has been questioned.

Almost exactly a year after the Khan incident, Blower was one of the officers who chased and held down Junior Manon as he resisted arrest. The SIU cleared Blower of any wrongdoing in Manon’s death during the arrest, and a coroner’s jury ruled it accidental.

The Khan case is yet another where a recording has been pivotal in refuting police evidence, says lawyer Faisal Mirza, who represented Deen Khan.

In recent months, cellphone videos were instrumental in laying charges in the shooting of Sammy Yatim and a security video led to Const. Jason Nevill’s conviction for assault.

There is an automatic assumption that the police are beyond reproach, adds lawyer Lambert Kwok, who represented Yazdaan Khan.

When Yazdaan called 911 to get the help of “real police officers,” he got no assistance from the dispatchers, said Kwok.

“Who protects us from the state when the state engages in this type of conduct?”