CITY Police commission backtracks, orders hearing based on ex-officer's complaint
The Edmonton Police Commission has reversed course in the case of a former city constable who claims she was pressured into dropping a complaint against a fellow officer.
In 2018, Katherine Nelson filed a complaint against an Edmonton Police Service detective who was working with an outside investigation of Nelson's sexual assault complaint against a colleague.
Nelson claims she was persuaded to drop the complaint against the detective during an interview with the police service's Professional Standards Branch. She later tried to have the complaint reinstated but was rebuffed by police Chief Dale Mcfee and the police commission, who deemed her attempts “vexatious.”
The independent Law Enforcement Review Board reviewed the police commission's decision, and in February ordered commissioners to reconsider.
After a review of Nelson's interview with the standards branch, “including the audio/video recordings, the commission concludes that Ms. Nelson was not capable of providing valid informed consent to withdraw her complaint given her mental state at the time of the interview,” the commission wrote in a decision dated April 22. “She was too emotionally distraught to make the decision to withdraw her complaint, and her verbal withdrawal was therefore not valid.”
Nelson claims she was groped in her hotel room by a fellow officer during a 2016 training session in Green Bay, Wis.
In early 2018, she filed a complaint against city police Det. Marci Koshowski, who was assisting Green Bay police in the sexual assault investigation from Edmonton. Nelson claims Koshowski shared text messages from her work phone with investigators in Wisconsin, and that Koshowski suggested those messages were evidence Nelson and the colleague were romantically involved.
On May 23, 2018, Nelson sat for an interview with a standards-branch detective, in which she agreed to withdraw her complaint against Koshowski. During the interview, Det. Darren Smith became concerned about Nelson's mental health and asked the force's crisis team to assess her for committal under the Mental Health Act.
Nelson later said she felt “very pressured and upset and agreed, in some way, to drop the complaint as she felt it was futile.” In December 2018 Nelson wrote to the police service, asking that the complaint be revived because she had been in a fragile mental state and never signed an official complaint-withdrawal form.
Mcfee decided the complaint against Koshowski had been properly closed, and treated Nelson's December 2018 letter as a duplication of a previous complaint, and thus “vexatious.” He recommended the police commission sign off on the decision, which it did in July 2020.
Nelson appealed to the Law Enforcement Review Board, which found in her favour.
The board noted that the commission had not independently reviewed video of the May 2018 interview, which showed Nelson “sniffling, quietly crying, sobbing, sighing, and wiping her face with a tissue.”
“The commission … accepted without question the chief 's conclusion that the first complaint was properly withdrawn,” the board wrote.
After reviewing the record, police commissioners concluded the complaint wasn't vexatious and should proceed to a disciplinary hearing. Commissioners added that they found no evidence Smith pressured or coerced Nelson into dropping the complaint.
“She simply wasn't in the proper state of mind that day to be able to validly withdraw her complaint.”
Police commission vice-chair John Mcdougall dissented, saying there is no evidence Nelson was incapable of agreeing to withdraw her complaint.
“The fact that someone may be emotional, depressed or even contemplating self-harm does not necessarily impact their capacity to provide valid, informed consent,” he wrote, adding there is no requirement that a complaint withdrawal form be signed. He said was unfair to Koshowski to have to defend herself against a complaint she believed was withdrawn three years ago.
No dates have been set for Koshowski's hearing.