New lawsuit alleges more bullying in police force
An allegation that a high-ranking Calgary Police Service member tried to bully a provincial police agency into removing a fellow officer a from a prestigious teaching position is at the centre of a defamation lawsuit filed last week in city court.
And while it was completely within Insp. Cal Wiltshire’s power to order the removal of CPS Det. Leigh Elizabeth Happner as lead search warrant instructor with the Alberta Specialized Law Enforcement Training (ASLET) program, the suit claims he chose not to — instead casting aspersions on her integrity with “baseless and false information” to her superiors.
ASLET is an educational arm of ALERT, the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team.
Happner’s allegations, which have yet to be proven in court, are the latest blow to the force following an explosive report last year highlighting epidemic levels of bullying, harassment and intimidation among its sworn officers, leaving many — especially female members — too fearful to come forward.
That was followed earlier this year with the public resignation of 14-year veteran officer Jen Magnus Ward, who tearfully turned in her badge at a Jan. 31 Calgary police commission meeting, citing years of bullying.
This led to CPS introducing measures to halt workplace harassment and introduce service-wide HR reforms.
Happner, whose LinkedIn profile lists previous assignments with CPS robbery, homicide and electronic surveillance units, alleges Wiltshire orchestrated a campaign to taint her reputation in retaliation for her involvement in disciplinary proceedings involving former police detective Terry Freiter.
Freiter, the lawsuit alleges, was also the subject of a separate misconduct case that involved other senior CPS officers — an investigation triggered by a complaint from Happner’s husband, Glenn, also a Calgary police officer.
As of Friday, a statement of defence from Wiltshire had yet to be filed.
Happner’s suit accuses Wiltshire of twice approaching ASLET manager Leticia Aplin in December 2015 suggesting she remove Happner from her instructor’s position, calling her “unethical” and lacking “current and credible” knowledge to hold the position, which involved teaching proper search and seizure techniques and writing search warrant applications.
Wiltshire allegedly said it would be in Aplin’s “best interest” to dismiss Happner, or CPS “would be forced to send their members outside the province for search warrant training,” implying Aplin’s refusal could “bleed into other courses put on by ASLET.”
He’s also alleged to have approached other managers with similar comments about Happner — including then-ALERT head Supt. Charmaine Bulger and CPS Supt. Cliff O’Brien, requesting an email detailing concerns over Happner’s performance in an unspecified investigation dating back to 2011.
Happner is seeking $100,000 from Wiltshire in the suit, in addition to legal costs and $50,000 in punitive damages.
This comes three months after Happner, represented by Calgary Police Association (CPA) counsel James Shymka, filed a judicial review application seeking to quash police Chief Roger Chaffin’s dismissal of an April 2016 internal complaint made against Wiltshire for the same issue.
That claim says Wiltshire’s alleged actions violated officer misconduct sections of Alberta’s Police Service Regulation, specifically concerning “deceit,” “discreditable conduct,” and “tyrannical conduct toward a subordinate.”
When the issue came before the chief in March, claims the review application, Chaffin summarily dismissed it by invoking a section of the Police Act allowing him to reject complaints deemed “not of a serious nature,” adding Happner’s petition contained “nothing in the circumstances or evidence to indicate that the nature of this matter would make it in the public interest to conduct a hearing.”
The judicial review accused Chaffin of “ignoring the requisites of his constituent statute by approaching Det. Happner’s complaint in his own way.”
By doing so, it alleges, “the chief acted beyond the scope of his authority and failed to discharge the public duty.”
The chief is also accused of attempting to “bully and intimidate” Happner by alluding to her decision to excuse herself from what’s described in the filing as a “highprofile murder investigation.”
In that case, it’s alleged her fellow investigators “withheld information from her” as applicant of an interception of private communications affidavit, saying they “disparaged her, including calling her (an obscenity) for insisting on full, fair and frank disclosure.”
Contacted by Postmedia for comment, a statement from CPA president Les Kaminski expressed disappointment Happner was forced to resort to “drastic actions” to have her concerns taken seriously.
“She took the courageous step to come forward to the chief with serious concerns about the actions of a CPS senior officer, only to be told by the chief that the ‘alleged contravention is not of a serious nature,’ ” it read.
“We face enough dangers and obstacles in the normal course of our duties. The CPA will keep working for our members to ensure that when they are inside our personal workspace, they can feel confident that they will not have to deal with what has been described as a ‘toxic environment.’ ”
Declining to directly comment on what he considers an internal HR matter, the chief said using an ongoing situation to judge the service’s reform efforts is both premature and irresponsible.
“When I am required to make decisions on these matters, the official terminology I am required to use is restricted by the Police Act to ‘serious’ and ‘not serious,’ ” Chaffin said.
“This does not truly reflect how important all of these matters are to me. It is, however, the language I am bound to use by the Act.”