Kiss and don’t tell: Ex-officer admits coaching woman

SURREY — A former Vancouver police detective apologized for kissing a teenage girl and coached her on what to tell an officer investigating his inappropriate behaviour, a sentencing hearing has heard.

James Fisher also admitted to kissing a 21-yearold woman who described him as a father figure and misled investigators probing her involvement in a stabbing, provincial court heard Friday.

“This was not a single isolated incident. This was not a momentary lapse of judgment. This was a pattern of conduct that went on for months,” said Crown lawyer Amanda Starno. “His moral culpability is extremely high.” Fisher has pleaded guilty to three charges, including breach of trust and sexual exploitation for kissing the teenager, and breach of trust for kissing the young woman.

Before his arrest and subsequent retirement, Fisher was a 29-year veteran of the force and a member of its counter-exploitation team, which investigates prostitution and criminal exploitation.

The Crown recommended Fisher serve 18 to 20 months of jail time, followed by probation.

The defence has not had an opportunity to make submissions.

In the summer of 2016, Fisher learned a false rumour was circulating in the department that he had had sex with the teenage girl, Starno told court, reading from an agreed statement of facts.

Fisher did not know that the girl had complained to Vancouver police months earlier about him kissing her on three occasions when she was 17. The kissing lasted up to 10 minutes, court heard. The department had initiated an investigation into the kissing and the teenage girl had agreed to allow officers to record her phone calls.

While investigators thought it questionable that Fisher had asked a friend to interview the girl about the false rumour, they approved the plan in order to record the conversation, the court heard.

Fisher called the girl, then 18, just before his friend was scheduled to interview her. His voice shook and he breathed heavily during the phone call, which was played for the court.

He urged her to tell the officer she either didn’t remember saying they had had sex, or that she’d said it while she was high, and that the intercourse never happened either way. She agreed not to say anything that would get him in trouble. But she told him when he kissed her, “it didn’t seem right that a police officer was making out with me.”

In a recorded video victim impact statement played in court, the girl said the officer’s actions caused her to relapse with a drug addiction and drop out of school.