OPP officer told to resign or be fired

Northumberland constable showed fellow officers a sex video of his ex-girlfriend

CAMPBELLFORD — OPP Const. James Orser, who admitted to recording a sex video of his girlfriend without her consent and then showing the clip to fellow officers after they broke up, must resign or be dismissed from the force.

The Ontario Civilian Police Commission, in a ruling released March 16, confirmed the penalty decision made by OPP Supt. Greg Walton following a hearing in April 2016 in which Orser pleaded guilty to a charge of discreditable conduct.

The officer, who worked out of the Northumberland detachment's Campbellford office and has been suspended with pay for nearly six years, appealed Walton's order, saying it was “unreasonable.”

Orser's lawyer, Harry Black, argued his client suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder but Walton “ultimately determined (the officer's) PTSD was not linked to his misconduct,” the commission's three-member panel said in its summary of the hearing it held Sept. 8. 2017.

Black could not be reached for comment on whether his client intends to challenge the commission's ruling upholding the penalty he received with its seven-day deadline for compliance.

Silvia Cheng, a communications coordinator with Safety, Licensing Appeals and Standards Tribunals Ontario, said “there is no statutory right of appeal” as "this matter was an appeal” arising from the decision of a hearing officer.

“However, pursuant to the Judicial Review Procedure Act, any party to an appeal heard by the OCPC does have the right to bring an application for judicial review to the Divisional Court.”

Cheng said the OCPC “would receive a copy of any application brought” but as of early afternoon, March 23, had not received one.

Orser didn't dispute the events that led to his guilty plea under the Police Services Act: While dating a woman for a year-and-ahalf, he once used his cellphone to film the two of them having sexual intercourse. When she realized what he was doing, she asked him to stop recording and to delete the video.

Orser told the woman he had “but instead continued recording and retained the video of their sexual encounter,” which was about 15 seconds in length, the three-member panel said.

After the couple broke up, Orser, while on duty, showed the clip to a colleague while travelling on a bus to Huntsville to help with policing at the G8 Summit. Later he showed it to a group of officers while they were off-duty and socializing during the Summit.

When his ex-girlfriend learned what he had done, she “was traumatized and embarrassed” and was left “feeling shame, distrust and fear,” the commission said.

Walton said in his decision, released Sept. 29, 2016, that the seriousness of Orser's misconduct was “so significant and egregious” that it was grounds for dismissal.

The police superintendent said Orser isn't “a viable candidate for rehabilitation” and “no longer has any further usefulness to the OPP or the community in general; the damage to the reputation of the OPP would be too significant if PC Orser were to remain employed by the OPP.”