Colleagues of an Edmonton Police Service officer accused of selling illegal steroids testified against him on Tuesday.
Detective Greg Lewis (formerly Sergeant), a 10-year member of the EPS, was charged in 2015 with three counts of trafficking a controlled substance between 2007 and 2013.
Sgt. Adam Toma testified that he purchased steroids from Lewis twice, in 2012 and 2013. The husband and father of four said he wanted to look better physically, so he approached Lewis about purchasing HGH after the two worked a steroids case in 2010 where Toma realized how much he knew about them.
Toma claimed Lewis recommended a steroid called Winstrol.
The first transaction took place at the parking lot of the MacDonald’s in Oliver Square, where Lewis gave him a bottle with approximately 50 20-milligram Winstrol pills.
“I’m not proud to say that I took them,” Toma said in court.
Toma said he approached Lewis to obtain more of the same product in January 2013. Weeks later, court heard Toma's account of Lewis telling him to "check his bag" at EPS Downtown Division, where the officer found the same type of bottle containing the same yellow 20-milligram pills he had purchased months before.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) investigation began in 2013, and a year later, in April, Lewis told Toma he had to see human resources. Toma testified Lewis said he “felt sick to his stomach," and that he threw out his original bottle of pills in a dumpster in Westlock.
“It was unnerving that this was becoming an issue,” he testified. “[Lewis] had implied that I had nothing to worry about. I was quite panicked at that point."
Toma admitted he lied to ASIRT initially about purchasing steroids.
“I felt like I was truly trapped,” Toma said. “I was tempted at that time to just quit. Just to walk away.”
He later confessed to ASIRT and received a two-year demotion for his actions.
“I’m not proud of my involvement in this,” Toma said.
Four witnesses are scheduled to testify against Lewis on Wednesday.
