WINDSOR -- Windsor police officers are accused of being “dirty cops” at a gun smuggling trial in Superior Court.
Mark Dobrowski has testified at the trial of Curtis Elliott, who is facing 30 charges including possession of a prohibited firearm, weapons trafficking and conspiracy to commit an offence to name just a few.
Crown attorney Jennifer Holmes is alleging Elliott made multiple transactions for cash, selling illegal guns including a Luger Tec9, a Phoenix Arms Raven and a Dan Wesson .357 and a gun called “The Judge”.
All of this is part of evidence allegedly collected during Project Kirby, a cross border, multi-law enforcement agency sting from 2015.
At the time, 10 people were charged with a total of 111 offences after police raids in Lakeshore, Windsor and London.
One of them, was Curtis Elliott.
At the trial, which started in November, and was only supposed to last a month, Dobrowski testified for the Crown.
He told the Court he was a “paid agent” or informant for the Ontario Provincial Police, tying Elliott to the gun transactions.
Court heard Tuesday, Dobrowski was paid $80,000 for testifying against Elliott.
Dobrowski testified Elliott was known as “the baddest guy in Windsor” and was involved in selling illegal guns in the city.
But defence lawyer Laura Joy, in cross examination, says Dobrowski “is a stranger to the truth”, accusing him of lying on the witness stand in Superior Court today.
Joy says she is questioning Dobrowski’s “reliability and credibility” in his entire evidence against Elliott.
Specifically, Joy believes Dobrowski is lying about working with two Windsor police officers, who he says, were paid “to look the other way” when Dobrowski was selling marijuana out of a Wyandotte street business back in 2007-2008.
Dobrowski told the court he does not know their names and can only provide a vague description for them.
But he says a group of five officers would walk to the business, “every Saturday night”.
But it was only one officer, who entered the business and was given $1,000 every week to not bust his pot operation.
Dobrowski alleges the same officer let him go without charges, after being caught breaching his probation for an unrelated offence.
Dobrowski was captured on surveillance video, away from his home, which was against his bail conditions for an unrelated offence at the time.
The allegations against Windsor police have not been proven nor have any investigations been launched as a result of Dobrowski’s testimony.
