An Ontario court judge has delivered a stinging rebuke of the Hamilton Police Service in his acquittal of an officer charged in the botched drug raid and takedown of a 59-year-old Burmese refugee.

Justice Paul Currie said the Crown did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Detective Constable Ryan Tocher used excessive force in subduing Po La Hay in a mistaken raid of Hay’s apartment on May 4, 2010.

Tocher, 36, walked out of court smiling Thursday, but the Hamilton Police Service wasn’t as lucky. Currie suggested the conduct of four police witnesses in the case “raises the spectre of a cover-up.”

Currie was particularly concerned that neither Sergeant Paul Henderson, the raid supervisor, nor Detective Constables Chris Camalleri, Christopher Button or Angela Weston — all of whom where in the kitchen with Hay and the accused — could positively identify Tocher as the officer who stomped on Hay. Weston has since transferred to the Niagara Regional Service.

“I find the collective evidence of the witness officers to be troubling. Their inconsistencies in their version of the evidence and their apparent inability or unwillingness to identify the person attached to the leg, as most were easily serving in close proximity to the person who was attached to it, strains credulity and raises the spectre of a cover-up,” Currie said in his ruling.

The judge hinted that the conduct of the witness officers could form the basis of a civil award, where the burden of proof is not as high as in a criminal proceeding.

Hay is expected to launch a civil lawsuit against the Hamilton Police Service in connection with the botched raid, which left him with three fractured ribs and a fractured vertebra.

Police Chief Glenn De Caire did not return calls seeking a response to Currie’s remarks. But Sergeant Terri-Lynn Collings said the chief would not elaborate on the ruling beyond the media release issued shortly after the verdict.

In that statement, De Caire said Hamilton police “are cognizant of both the ruling and commentary. The Hamilton Police Service accepts and respects the decision of the court.”

Tocher declined to comment to The Spectator following the verdict.

Tocher admitted stomping the 5-foot-7, 130-pound Hay as he struggled with Camalleri, Button and Weston on the floor of his apartment just after 11 officers burst through his door.

Police had a warrant to conduct a bust on suspected cocaine trafficker Gary Demetries but had the wrong apartment. Demetries lived next door.

Hay’s lawyer, Bob Munroe, said a lawsuit against the Hamilton Police Services Board will be filed Monday. He declined to disclose the amount of damages Hay will be seeking.