Judge Throws Out Dangerous Driving Case After Crown Scolds Toronto Officer Over Testimony

A Toronto judge has dismissed a dangerous driving case after finding the Crown attorney verbally attacked a police officer about his testimony, saying she lost her objectivity.

Ontario Court Justice Mara Greene found that prosecutor Marnie Goldenberg confronted Const. Edin Hasanbasic in a Toronto courthouse hallway after he testified for the defence in a case against Khalid Idris, who was accused of deliberately driving his motorcycle into a Toronto police officer.

Goldenberg testified that she did not become angry or describe Hasanbasic’s testimony as “disgusting” or “pathetic” when it failed to support her case against Idris. However, Greene said she found the prosecutor’s statement unconvincing because it conflicted with witness testimony and surveillance video showing Goldenberg gesturing and shaking her head during the interaction.

In the confrontation with Hasanbasic, Goldenberg allegedly told him “we protect our own,” according to a CTV report.

“I am hesitant to say Ms. Goldenberg lied, but I was unable to accept her evidence,” Greene said while reading her May 4 judgment, which noted that Goldenberg is married to a police officer.

“This is not about a state actor having a bad day and losing their temper,” the judge added. “This goes further than that. In my view, an officer being berated by a Crown attorney in the presence of the officer in charge for testifying for the ‘wrong side’ and saying ‘we protect our own’ sends a message to the entire police community: you stay on side or there will be consequences. It is that conduct that impacts the integrity of the justice system.”

Driving Incident

Goldenberg was leading the prosecution against Idris, a 36-year-old accused of deliberately driving into Toronto Police Sgt. Brian Young on Aug. 7, 2024, while Young was on traffic duty.

Body-worn camera footage showed a motorcycle knocking into Young at the intersection and fleeing the scene. The video showed Young with a bloody cut just below his knee. Another video showed him being treated in an ambulance.

Idris was charged with leaving the scene and hiding the damaged parts of his motorcycle.

Greene remarked in her ruling that the court was told Young had labelled his injury a “nick” and finished his shift.

Hasanbasic was called to testify by the lawyer representing Idris. The officer said on the stand that the crash did not look like a head-on collision and that Young was not seriously hurt.

Hasanbasic wrote in his notes that Goldenberg told him his testimony was the most embarrassing and pathetic she had heard in a long time, according to the ruling.

“What am I supposed to do, lie?” Hasanbasic said in his notes, adding that Goldenberg responded with: “We protect our own.”

The judge also referred to an email sent by Det.-Const. Eloi Silva to the officers involved in the case. She said the email was meant to serve as a reminder of the court date, but also included the message: “Remember one of our own was hurt in this collision.”

Silva told the court he had composed the message to remind the officers of the case details, but Greene found that he had previously sent a comparable email containing the specifics of the case. Greene noted in her ruling that the email served as “a direct message to the officers that this case matters because it was an officer – ‘one of their own’ that was hurt.”

“It is my view this was an inappropriate email to send,” the judge said, adding that Silva was not honest in court about why he wrote the phrase.

“While the e-mail is irresponsible, I cannot find that it is so egregious as to be an abuse of process on its own,” she said. “In my view, on this particular piece of evidence, the cover up is worse than the original offending conduct.”