Officer loses appeal of three misconduct charges

Police commission confirms docked pay for Helena Pereira

A Hamilton police officer has lost her appeal of three Police Services Act misconduct convictions and the resulting loss of 74 hours of docked pay.

In July 2015, Sgt. Helena Pereira was found guilty of one count of discreditable conduct, one count of unlawful or unnecessary exercise of authority, and one count of insubordination.

The charges related to two incidents in Hamilton police cells in 2013. In March of that year, Pereira took charge and pushed a drunk female prisoner in a cell before being on active duty. A month earlier, she didn’t immediately disclose a conflict of interest after her arrested cousin was brought in while she was a supervisor.

Pereira had earlier accused the original hearing officer, Morris Elbers, of bias for having lunches during the hearing with the prosecutor of the case and an investigator.

Elbers refused her request to recuse himself, and Pereira then appealed for a judicial review, which a judge ultimately dismissed as “premature.”

Pereira then appealed the convictions and the sentence to the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.

On July 31, the three OCPC adjudicators ruled that there may have been a reasonable apprehension of bias related to Elbers, but that was outweighed by the fact Pereira had waived her rights by not raising the issue in a timely manner.

The commission’s panel noted the bias issue wasn’t raised until after Pereira had already been found guilty of the three charges and just before sentencing was about to take place — a move that Elbers had previously described as a “tactic.”

The sentence means at least $3,700 in lost wages that Pereira must pay by working during vacation time.