Four Toronto police officers accused by a judge of providing false testimony in court — including “fabricating” a story and allegedly “planting” drugs in a car — are now accused of refusing to co-operate with an ongoing internal investigation into the matter.

Michael Taylor, Fraser Douglas, Jeffrey Tout and Benjamin Elliot each pleaded not guilty to professional misconduct at their first appearance before the disciplinary tribunal at police headquarters Tuesday.

The four constables were each charged with one count of insubordination for allegedly refusing to provide information during a compelled interview with an investigator from the Toronto police professional standards unit, which conducts internal investigations. The new allegations are in addition to previous professional misconduct charges laid against each officer in connection to the incident.

“You refused to answer any questions in relation to the investigation,” read documents outlining the allegations against the officers. “You were cautioned for insubordination and maintained that you were not answering any questions from the compelled interview.”

The allegations have not been proven at the tribunal.

Read more:

These Toronto cops have been suspended with pay for three-and-a-half years and counting

Pepper-sprayed while handcuffed: Judge describes Toronto arrest as ‘obvious police brutality’

Crown prosecutor withdraws criminal charges against Toronto cops accused of planting heroin

Laid under Ontario Police Services Act, the new charges are the latest twist in a years-long case that began with stinging comments from a Toronto judge. In 2015, Justice Edward Morgan concluded the officers found heroin powder during an unlawful search of a man’s car one year before, “planted” some of it on the car console to justify a search, then “fabricated” a story to cover their tracks.

Morgan called their actions and misleading testimony “egregiously wrongful conduct.”

The ruling prompted an internal investigation, which culminated in a total of nearly two dozen criminal charges of perjury and obstruction of justice against the four officers in 2016.

But in a surprise move last fall, the Crown withdrew all charges against the officers, citing disclosure problems that prosecutor Jason Nicol said caused too significant a delay to go to trial. The move outraged some within the legal community, who accused the Crown of “folding the tent” prematurely when there may have been other options that could have salvaged the case.

Nicol said professional misconduct charges filed against the officers in 2016 in connection to the alleged wrongdoing “could serve, in some measure, the public interest.” However, those charges are on hold. Due to a time limit on Police Act misconduct charges — six months after an incident or after a complaint has been made — Toronto police have had to appeal to the Toronto Police Services Board for permission to proceed. That decision is pending.

With the officers now facing additional charges for allegedly refusing to participate in the ongoing probe, the case appears to have hit another roadblock.

“I think that what it says is that they have absolutely no regard for the rule of law and the process,” said Kim Schofield, the lawyer representing Nguyen Tran, the man who was the alleged victim in the case and whose case led to the allegations against police.

“When you become a police officer and you take your oath, you are agreeing to be bound by your compellability,” Schofield said.

Morgan’s ruling came after Tout, Douglas, Elliot and Taylor each provided different accounts of a traffic stop in January 2014, when Tran was pulled over for allegedly running a red light near Gerrard St. E. and Broadview Ave.

The officers said Tran had a pile of loose heroin powder on the dashboard of his vehicle, which led to a search of the car and the discovery of 11 grams of heroin. None of the officers could explain why Tran had loose heroin in the car, including why he didn’t wipe it away when he was pulled over.

Morgan ruled that the heroin found on the console was put there by police, not left there by Tran — and the police search that uncovered 11 grams of heroin located behind Tran’s steering column was, in turn, not authorized. Morgan stayed the drug charges against Tran.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“Here, the false creation of a pretext to search the (Tran’s) vehicle, combined with the collusive fabrication of a story by the two lead officers as to why they came to assist in the traffic stop … certainly amounts to egregiously wrongful conduct,” Morgan said in his ruling.

Toronto police Const. Brian Davy previously pleaded guilty at the Toronto police tribunal in connection to the case, admitting he failed to report the court “fabrications” of his partner, Elliot. Davy was never criminally charged in connection to the Tran incident.

The four officers are due back at the tribunal in November.