One of the Toronto police officers charged in the sweeping police corruption and organized crime investigation dubbed Project South pleaded guilty to two charges Tuesday morning.
Derek McCormick, 57, entered a guilty plea and was convicted of breach of trust and one count of theft under $5,000 in Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto.
Justice Jonathan Bliss gave the now-retired constable a 10-month conditional sentence, which includes five months of house arrest and five months of a 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew. There will be exceptions for circumstances such as medical emergencies and counselling sessions.
McCormick was also ordered not to consume alcohol or any other prescribed substances without a prescription.
“Your actions tarnished your reputation and the reputation of all honest, hard-working Toronto police officers,” Bliss told McCormick while delivering his sentence.
“You sit before me with your policing career appropriately at an end … I doubt very much you expected your career would end in such disgrace and dishonour.”
Justice Jonathan Bliss presides over McCormick’s guilty plea and sentencing in Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto on Tuesday. (Alexandra Newbould)
Bliss noted several mitigating factors in McCormick’s case, which he said made a conditional sentence appropriate and not contrary to the public interest. Those included McCormick taking responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty and seeking treatment for an addiction to painkillers.
“Mr. McCormick is filled with remorse and shame for letting himself and others around him down,” said the judge.
If McCormick were to breach the conditions of his sentence, he could be forced to serve out the rest of it in jail.
McCormick, right, pleaded guilty to two charges in the Project South investigation in Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto on Tuesday in front of Bliss. Crown prosecutor Vlatko Karadzic is also pictured. (Alexandra Newbould)
Four other charges McCormick was facing — three more counts of theft under $5,000 and one count of obstruction of justice — were withdrawn.
The Crown and defence proposed a joint submission for sentencing, which Bliss accepted.
According to an agreed statement of facts, McCormick’s theft and breach of trust guilty pleas concern the former constable stealing a cellphone that was turned in to him by a member of the public at the front desk of 52 division in October 2025.
McCormick stole the phone for Toronto police Const. Timothy Barnhardt, who had asked McCormick to get him burner phones, the statement said. McCormick had previously told Barnhardt that Uber drivers often turned in cellphones that belonged to intoxicated passengers who left them behind.
Officer had painkiller addiction, Crown says
Crown prosecutor Vlatko Karadzic said McCormick had a painkiller addiction, was suffering from PTSD at the time of his crimes and had been buying Percocet pills from Barnhardt. Between August and December 2025, Barnhardt sold those painkillers to McCormick at least 10 times, providing him with hundreds of pills, according to the agreed statement of facts.
Barnhardt is also charged in Project South and has been described as the “genesis” of the investigation. The allegations against him have not been tested in court.
Toronto police Const. Timothy Barnhardt is facing 10 charges in Ontario Superior Court after prosecutors recently decided to proceed with his case by direct indictment. (@10rcop/X)
Karadzic told the court there is no evidence McCormick knew how the phone he provided was used.
“He’s best described as a peripheral player in this project,” Karadzic said of the former officer in his sentencing submissions.
The agreed statement of facts also includes details of other conduct McCormick was not convicted of. That includes providing Barnhardt with a second cellphone and McCormick disposing of about 120 items, largely credit cards, in a sewer.
Project South investigators recovered the items, which also included debit cards, gift cards, six driver’s licences and three Colombian passports. The passports were reported stolen in 2024. One of the debit/credit cards was linked to a theft of a wallet from a vehicle in 2025.
The agreed statement of facts says it’s unclear how these items ended up in McCormick’s possession and none of the other items recovered were linked to police reports or items turned in to police. None of the items were related in any way to Barnhardt or Project South, the court records said.
McCormick was suspended without pay from Toronto police in May.
He retired from Toronto police at the beginning of July after 28 years with the service, according to his lawyer, Gary Clewley.
McCormick’s lawyer, Gary Clewley, says his client had nothing to do with Project South. (Hannah Schidlowsky/CBC)
“I think he’s anxious to get on with the rest of his life, which is why he dealt with it as expeditiously as he did,” said Clewley about McCormick outside the courthouse.
He went on to say that his client had nothing to do with Project South.
“He wasn’t just a peripheral player, he was a non-player … he’s south of Project South.”
Scope of probe grew
Project South began in June 2025 when York Regional Police thwarted an alleged plot to kill a senior corrections officer at Toronto South Detention Centre.
While investigating that alleged conspiracy, York police discovered that Barnhardt had allegedly shared confidential information about a senior correctional officer with a civilian. Police have then accused the civilian of providing that information to others charged in the alleged murder plot.
From there, the scope of the probe grew to include other alleged police corruption tied to organized crime.
York Regional Police Deputy Chief Ryan Hogan provides details on Project South, an investigation into organized crime and police corruption, at a news conference in early February. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
The other six current police officers and a retired constable charged in Project South are expected to make their first appearance in Superior Court of Justice on Wednesday, where prosecutors are proceeding with their cases by direct indictment.
That means the cases will skip a preliminary inquiry, typically used in criminal cases to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to proceed with a trial, and head directly to trial.
The Crown has narrowed the scope of charges they’ll prosecute against some of those officers and a few of the civilians headed to Superior Court in their indictments.