‘Handcuffed’ constable wants LERB to hear internal investigators’ evidence
An Edmonton police officer claiming she was handcuffed by tactical members while on medical leave at her home wants the men who conducted internal reviews of the 2013 case to provide evidence to the province’s Law Enforcement Review Board.
Some details of the case concerning Const. Rhonda Sargent, who filed a 2014 lawsuit against the force, were heard by the LERB recently, but she wants the board to hear from two men who conducted an internal Edmonton Police Service (EPS) investigation.
Her lawyer, Harold Hinz, told the board evidence from the pair will provide a better reflection of what occurred and shed light on any gaps in police records.
Getting information from EPS about the 2013 case “is frustrating — very frustrating — for the complainant,” Hinz told the board, adding information provided has been in “dribs and drabs.
In 2014, Sargent sued the police service for $1.1 million and that case is still ongoing, said Hinz.
Sargent alleges in the April 14, 2014, statement of claim that the then-Edmonton Police Association president became verbally abusive while she was in hospital April 1, 2013, under the care of doctors.
After Sargent had gone home and was resting on doctor’s orders, it is alleged she suddenly awoke to three members of the EPS tactical unit who were in full gear and pointing their assault rifles directly at her. Sargent says she was then placed in handcuffs.
Sargent also claimed that later that evening she saw an EPS detective delivering an envelope to her home mailbox containing a retirement package and a release absolving EPS and any of its members from any wrongdoing.
Sargent has been a member of the police service since 1988, and was once praised by the service for her work in the missing persons unit.
At the time in 2013, she was in a return-to-work program as a result of work-related injury.
She alleges she suffered from debilitating depression and anxiety as a result of the incidents.
The question before the review board now is whether police Chief Rod Knecht at the time had complete information when he decided the officers involved did not commit misconduct.
The two investigators — Blair Edl and Gord Batey — were part of the police service’s professional standards branch probe, Hinz said.
Batey conducted an investigation into whether or not certain officers involved in the case contravened the Police Act, while Edl investigated alleged inconsistencies in the reports filed by the members.
Lawyers for Knecht and the involved officers said allowing the two men to give evidence could amount to a “fishing expedition” that would exceed the board’s mandate.
Lorena Harris, lawyer for the officers, said it is not the board’s place to “patch up holes” in an investigation. If there are holes, the board’s job is to direct the matter back to the police professional standards branch, she said.
Nadine Swist, a former officer who told the Edmonton Police Commission in January that the service failed to support her after she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, sat in the gallery during the brief hearing.
The LERB is an independent body established under the Police Act to hear appeals from citizens and police officers about law enforcement misconduct.
The board will decide whether it will hear evidence from the two members “in due course,” member Ellen-Anne O’Donnell said.
No date has been set for the hearing itself.