The lawyer representing a Toronto police officer charged in the Project South corruption investigation says his client has been asking to plead guilty since February.

Speaking in court on Tuesday, Peter Brauti said Const. Elias Mouawad had asked to plead guilty immediately after he was charged.

Mouawad was charged with one count of unauthorized use of a computer and one count of breach of public trust, although he had only planned to plead guilty to the first charge.

Mouawad was arrested in early February and suspended by Toronto police without pay.

Brauti told the court Mouawad’s attempts to plead guilty hadn’t been successful because the Crown wasn’t ready to take a plea.

“They explained that, due to the size of Project South, (they were) dealing with disclosure issues and couldn’t take a plea,” he said.

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Mouawad had expected his plea and sentencing to take place on Tuesday, Brauti said, before an unspecified last-minute issue around “conduct” delayed the plan.

The Crown told the court the conduct issue didn’t relate to their office or the initial delay in the plea, but that things were rapidly unfolding.

“I don’t know to what degree the sentencing process may have been harmed,” Brauti said, explaining Mouawad now wanted to wait to see how the process unfolded.

The court is set to adjourn for two weeks to decide how to proceed, a pause the Crown said would not impact any potential sentence Mouawad might receive.

The court will reconvene on Sept. 16 in the morning.

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Speaking outside the court on Tuesday, Brauti said his client felt he had been wrongly swept up in the Project South investigation.

“When information was released to the press, it made our client appear as if he was part of very, very serious conduct that has been alleged in Project South, when that is not the case,” he said.

“This is an officer who did a single check, unauthorized, which is unrelated to all of these allegations of drug dealing, corruption, attempted murder, all that. It is a completely separate issue.”

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He said Mouawad had been “under this cloud” after Project South and that the public had not been given a “true picture” about his “relatively minor” misconduct.

One officer has already pleaded guilty

The decision comes just over a month after one of the police officers arrested in Project South pleaded guilty to two of the charges against him, receiving a 10-month conditional sentence.

Former police const. Derek McCormick was arrested and charged in February as part of the wide-ranging corruption investigation spurred after the attempted murder of a Toronto jail guard.

He was charged with four counts of theft under $5,000, one count of breach of the trust by a public officer and another count of obstruction of justice.

At the time, York Regional Police alleged his involvement in Project South centred on his participation in the theft of personal property from a police facility. The personal property allegedly included driver’s licences, health cards and passports. A “substantial amount” of it was recovered.

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McCormick pleaded guilty to two charges: theft under $5,000 for stealing a cellphone and breach of trust by stealing “found property.” The remaining charges were withdrawn.

A spokesperson for Toronto police confirmed to Global News McCormick resigned as a police officer last month.

Project South alleged widespread corruption

Project South began after the alleged attempted murder of a high-ranking employee at the Toronto South Detention Centre in June 2025.

York Regional Police wrote in a recent, partially unsealed court document that their investigation “demonstrates a broader pattern of corruption, misuse of police authority, and facilitation of criminal activity.”

As part of the investigation, it is alleged that Const. Timothy Barnhardt and other Toronto police officers tapped into unauthorized information.

“In short, the investigation has uncovered a number of police officers who, at the request of their civilian associations, improperly accessed confidential police databases, retrieved sensitive information … and then disclosed that information,” York Regional Police alleged.

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“Collectively, these matters demonstrate a broader pattern of corruption, misuse of police authority, and facilitation of criminal activity linked to the primary investigation.”

The case also has alleged links to Ryan Wedding’s drug network, a gun-for-hire network and illegal dispensaries.

— with files from Global News’ Catherine McDonald