Baddeck RCMP officer found not guilty of assaulting girlfriend

MONCTON, N.B. — A Baddeck RCMP officer was found not guilty of assaulting his girlfriend on Monday, after a Moncton court heard testimony that he may have acted in self-defence.

Const. Aaron Brown of the RCMP’s Baddeck detachment, appeared in Moncton’s Court of Queen’s Bench for trial, accused of committing an indictable assault against his girlfriend, Geraldine Murphy. The trial was scheduled to last the entire week, but after Crown prosecutors Eric Lalonde and Maurice Blanchard called three witnesses, they asked for a short recess.

When Justice Zoel Dionne returned to the courtroom, Blanchard said they would call no further evidence, based on some testimony that the Crown was not expecting to hear.

“We present no further evidence and invite the court to find him not guilty,” said Blanchard.

Dionne ruled Brown not guilty and the trial ended just before lunch. Brown referred the Times & Transcript to his lawyer, David Bright, for comment, but the police officer did say while he was relieved the case was over, he wasn’t surprised at how it ended.

“This has been going on for a year and a half and those have been the facts since the start,” he said.

The three witnesses were all present when the incident occurred early in the morning of July 31, 2011 at a campground near the Magnetic Hill concert site after a U2 show. While their stories of a woman calling out for help and suffering injury were consistent, one of the witnesses indicated the woman may have started the altercation.

“She may have been slapping him, from the sound of it,” said Jonathan Anderson of P.E.I.

After court, the defence lawyer said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the abrupt end to the trial.

“Absolutely this was selfdefence. We said that right from Day 1,” said the lawyer.

Bright said people involved in the investigation should have been aware of the fact there was evidence pointing to self-defence. He also said if police laid any charge in this case, it should have been summary assault, not the more serious indictable version.

He said while his client was glad to be acquitted, it’s been a difficult experience.

“Sure he’s happy it turned out this way, but this has gone on a long time and he’s been under strict conditions and it’s affected him at his job,” said Bright.

The defence lawyer indicated Brown was not suspended with pay pending the outcome of the case, which the RCMP often does when members are charged, but he was assigned to administrative duties instead of regular police work.

The lawyer said Brown and the woman he was accused of assaulting are still in a relationship and she was present in court after the not guilty verdict, offering the acquitted man a relieved hug.

The three witnesses who testified during the trial were three brothers from P.E.I., Matthew, Jonathan and Jonah Anderson. They were in the campsite across from the site where the incident occurred.

They all testified that some time after the concert ended, possibly around 2 a.m., they were at their campsite when a woman walked up the path and approached the tent across the way. She was angry and yelling at someone that she was taken to the “drunk tank.”

The three men thought it was just an argument until they heard her inside the tent yelling for help and making gasping sounds, as if she was being choked. Two of them went to the tent and said people from other campsites did as well.

Two of the brothers testified they looked in the tent and saw the woman in trouble, bleeding from the nose.

“A man had his arm around the woman’s neck and was choking her,” said Matthew. “As soon as we opened the tent, he let her go.”

Jonathan said it appeared both of them were intoxicated.

“He said he didn’t know what he was doing,” the witness testified.