Judge rules officer was victim of angry ex-fiancee
Calgary police Const. Mark McCullough did nothing wrong when he handed a woman who later admitted being impaired a 24-hour licence suspension, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Provincial court Judge Ted Fisher found McCullough was the victim of an angry former fiancee who alleged he let the woman off because they were friends. But Fisher said that while McCullough and the woman, Caren Lileikis, not only became friends but had a sexual relationship, they weren’t pals at the time of the Nov. 11, 2015, incident.
McCullough was charged after Jessica Nelson filed a complaint he had admitted letting Lileikis off because of their friendship.
“At the time of making the complaint, she was very angry at Mark McCullough,” Fisher said, in acquitting the officer of charges of breach of trust and obstruction of justice. “The court is very concerned with the credibility of Jessica Nelson and gives very little weight to her evidence.”
Nelson was the dispatcher who sent McCullough and his partner to a check-on-welfare call at a supermarket parking lot in the city’s southeast. The incident notes say the call was changed to an impaired investigation before being downgraded to a 24-hour suspension.
Fisher found that neither McCullough nor his partner made the changes, or called off a breath technician.
McCullough had met Lileikis two months earlier while investigating a grab and dash at a southeast Home Depot where she worked and was a witness to the offence.
But Fisher said there was no evidence suggesting McCullough and Lileikis developed any kind of relationship before he was called to investigate the Nov. 11, 2015, incident.
McCullough said he didn’t recognize Lileikis because he last saw her with long blond hair, which was short and silver by the time of the incident. He only recognized her name after deciding to give her a 24hour licence suspension and have her car impounded for 72 hours.
And the officer, who has been suspended with pay for the past 15 months, said he had no grounds to charge Lileikis with impaired driving, or being in care and control of her motor vehicle.
Fisher accepted McCullough’s testimony that he saw no keys in the ignition or elsewhere in her car.
Lileikis later admitted she was impaired at the time.
Defence counsel Cory Wilson said he was happy with the ruling. “Mark McCullough was wrongly accused of crimes he did not commit, today he was fully exonerated.”
Wilson said the latest acquittal will mean McCullough will automatically be reinstated, but he could be suspended again if a disciplinary investigation determines that is warranted.