Officer who obstructed justice gets house arrest
Female OPP member discouraged woman from filing report over alleged sex assault
An OPP officer who pleaded guilty to obstructing justice by discouraging a mother from reporting an alleged sexual assault on a child will spend the next 10 months on house arrest.
Luanne MacDonald also sent pictures of a partially-clothed, intoxicated female prisoner to her police officer boyfriend Const. John Bernard. Separate criminal charges against Bernard were withdrawn following MacDonald’s sentencing.
The house arrest was part of a 15-month conditional sentence handed down to MacDonald in an Ottawa courtroom Friday.
Court heard MacDonald had resigned from the OPP before being sentenced.
Following the 10 months of house arrest, the 46-year-old MacDonald will spent five months under a nightly curfew.
The OPP had been secretly monitoring MacDonald’s phone calls and text messages in March 2014 when they intercepted a call from a mother who reported her drunken boyfriend had sexually assaulted her 14-year-old daughter. MacDonald knew she had a duty to investigate, but encouraged the mother to keep the alleged sexual assault a secret and not file a police report.
When confronted later by another OPP officer tasked with investigating the sexual assault, MacDonald lied about what she knew of the complaint.
Police investigated the sexual assault, but the 14-year-old provided a different story about the incident than what was told to MacDonald and no charges were laid.
It wasn’t clear why the OPP were monitoring MacDonald’s communications, although MacDonald admitted she also breached an order from her supervisor, an inspector, by exchanging more than 600 phone calls and text messages between 2011 and 2014 with an unidentified individual believed to be “deceitful and treacherous in dealing with the police.”
MacDonald had been working in the Alexandria office of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry OPP detachment.
Ontario Court Justice Jonathan Brunet said he was “quite distressed” by the facts in the case.
He accepted the joint position for a conditional jail sentence negotiated by the Crown and defence lawyer Michael Edelson.
“A conditional jail sentence is a form of custody, (but) you have the benefit of spending that period of custody in the community,” said Brunet.
Following her sentencing, separate criminal charges of breach of trust against Bernard were withdrawn. Bernard, 43, remains suspended with pay but faces Police Services Act disciplinary charges.
MacDonald told Bernard about the sexual assault complaint, and the two discussed how they would make efforts to protect her from her failure to report it, court heard.
MacDonald had also sent pictures of a partially-clothed female prisoner to Bernard. MacDonald had taken a photo of a surveillance video screen of the woman, who wasn’t wearing any pants.
She also sent “inappropriate remarks” about the inmate to her sister in a separate text message.
Prosecutor Dallas Mack said the Crown believed there was still a reasonable prospect of conviction against Bernard, but the charges against him were being withdrawn because of his “secondary” involvement in the case.
“His connection to the (alleged) offences arose directly because of (her) actions,” said Mack.
The withdrawing of the charges also took into account MacDonald’s guilty plea and the fact Bernard still faces outstanding Police Services Act allegations, Mack said.
MacDonald initially faced seven additional charges including breach of trust, theft of telecommunication, fraud, voyeurism and distribution of voyeurism material, but those charges were withdrawn following the sentencing.
Conditions of MacDonald’s sentence include she not have contact with 53 people, including former police colleagues, witnesses and other civilians involved in the case.