Officer cleared on brass-knuckle charge

Disciplinary decision gives constable ‘benefit of the doubt’ over weapon in car

An Edmonton police officer facing a disciplinary hearing for possessing a restricted weapon at the time of his arrest was acquitted Thursday.

On Sept. 9, Const. Robert Chafe pleaded not guilty to one count of discreditable conduct for allegedly having brass knuckles in his possession and guilty to one count of discreditable conduct for operating a motor vehicle while impaired under the Police Service Regulation.

The charges stemmed from an encounter with military police Oct. 16, 2011 while Chafe was off duty.

On Thursday, an Edmonton police disciplinary hearing for Chafe focused on the restricted weapon charge and heard from a former military police officer who had responded to the incident.

Witness Const. Steven Matthews, who works for the Ontario Provincial Police but was with the military police at the time of the incident, said he was at the scene with Cpl. Leslie Walsh, also with the military police, at about 5:15 a.m.

The response came after a military police officer driving to CFB Edmonton to start his shift noticed Chafe’s small pickup driving erratically along 195th Avenue near Range Road 244.

Chafe was “unsteady” and had an odour of alcohol on him, Matthews said.

He recounted that Walsh noticed brass knuckles under the driver’s seat, and when they asked Chafe about it, he said he had “taken them off a suspect he arrested.”

On Monday, Walsh and three other witnesses spoke at the hearing.

When the military police returned to the vehicle to search for other weapons, they found several boxes of ammunition on the truck’s back seat, a machete, a meat cleaver, a bottle of vodka, and pepper spray in the glove compartment.

On Thursday, Chafe told the hearing he was going through marital and medical problems at the time on the incident. He said the meat cleaver and machete were items he used for hunting, and that he had spent much of the prior day at a shooting range and planned to return the next day, which is why he had ammunition in his truck.

The hearing heard Chafe has been with the Edmonton Police Service since 1997 and was working for the tactical unit as a sniper at the time of the incident.

Chafe said he didn’t recall much of his interaction with the military police and had no recollection of what he had said to police about the brass knuckles. He didn’t know his vehicle had been searched and items seized until the next day.

Chafe didn’t dispute brass knuckles were found in his truck, but said he didn’t know they were there or who they belonged to.

When questioned about how they could have ended up in his vehicle, Chafe said he did not always lock his vehicle.

Presiding officer Supt. Mark Logar said he did not dispute the evidence presented by military police, but there was doubt raised in his mind.

“I will give the constable the benefit of the doubt,” he said.

A sentence for Chafe’s guilty plea to discreditable conduct for operating a motor vehicle while impaired is scheduled to be given Oct. 28.