The two Toronto police officers captured on their cruiser’s dashboard camera mocking a woman with Down syndrome pleaded guilty to professional misconduct Tuesday, each apologizing for conduct they admitted negatively impacted public trust in police.
“I said something awful and I truly do regret it,” Const. Sasa Sljivo was quoted as saying in an agreed statement of facts read out at a tribunal Tuesday. “I became a bully that day and I insulted a community that has never done anything to me in my life.”
“If I could do anything or change anything . . . I really would. I am totally guilty and I don’t have anything to say for myself other than that I am sorry,” Sljivo continued.
Sljivo and his partner, Const. Matthew Saris, were charged under Ontario’s Police Services Act after they were caught giggling about Francie Munoz, a 29-year-old woman with Down syndrome. Sljivo called her a “half woman” and a “little disfigured” during a traffic stop in November 2016.