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Several Peel Regional Police constables will be disciplined, and some may face criminal charges, following an internal affairs probe into an outdoor drinking party over the summer that allegedly saw two men assaulted by off-duty officers.
The probe into the Mississauga incident on Aug. 28, has been completed, as the force's Professional Standards Bureau is waiting to hear back from the Peel Crown Attorney's Office on whether criminal charges should be laid, according to Insp. Steve Mendyk.

High-ranking sources within the force have indicated that, at the very least, several officers will be disciplined internally and as many as five officers could face criminal charges.

Officers not charged criminally will face Police Services Act charges ranging from suspension and docked pay to dismissal.

Peel Chief of Police Michael Metcalf, who has made the internal probe a high priority, indicated in an email that the results of the investigation will soon be made public.

More than a dozen Peel officers, male and female, were involved when Mississauga residents Richard Cimpoesu, 24, and Orlando Canizalez, 20, claim they were chased down and punched about the head and body in the early morning hours of Aug. 28. The incident occurred after several officers who were drinking beer and acting rowdy behind the Ethan Allen furniture store on Dundas St. W,, caught the two men videotaping them, they claim.

The men sustained severe bruising to their stomachs and heads from the alleged attack, and they also claim they were threatened to tell the officers where the camera was and to turn it over immediately. But, police didn't find the video camera, and the two men later recovered it in nearby bushes, they said.

"I'm upset. You don't expect this kind of thing to happen. We went out there. We didn't mean any harm. We didn't expect the people that are supposed to protect us would come after us," said Cimpoesu, a St. Joseph Secondary School graduate. "I'm scared. I can't walk down the street without having to look if police are after me."

Cimpoesu and Canizalez have been interviewed at least twice about their allegations.

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