I told inspector about meetings: officer
Sergeant says he met escorts to provide advice, warn of dangers
An Ottawa police officer under fire for not ending unauthorized meetings with escorts not only told the deputy chief about them but also offered homicide investigators information he uncovered about a murdered sex trade worker, he told his internal police disciplinary hearing.
Sgt. Rohan Beebakhee took the stand in his own defence Monday, taking the Bible in his hands and standing up ready to swear an oath before even being prompted to do so by the hearing officer.
Beebakhee is charged with three counts of insubordination, two counts of corrupt practice and one count of deceit under the Police Services Act.
Over a meal at an East Side Mario’s restaurant on Hunt Club Road in the fall of 2009, Beebakhee said, he told theninspector, now Deputy Chief Jill Skinner about the outreach program he was conducting with Ottawa escorts.
Skinner had been his supervisor when he worked as a detective in the sexual assault and child abuse section.
It was a casual meeting with a senior officer with whom who he had a cordial, working relationship, Beebakhee said.
“I have respect for her and I believe she has respect for me.”
Once Beebakhee told Skinner that he was recording audio of each conversation he had with a sex worker, Beebakhee said, Skinner felt comfortable with the project.
Beebakhee, an Ottawa native who went to Ridgemont High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Carleton University before joining what was the Nepean Police Service in 1993, was comfortable querying names on the police records system after years as a patrol officer. He had also worked undercover as a member of the drug unit.
After learning of the way alleged Craigslist Killer Philip Markoff reportedly trolled online ads for potential victims, Beebakhee said he decided to set up meetings with “service providers” who advertised online out of concern that something similar could happen in Ottawa.
Once there, and in uniform, Beebakhee would say: “I’m just here to let you know, should you have a bad date, or you find yourself in a bad situation, I don’t want you to be hesitant about calling police.”
Beebakhee testified that he urged the women to be their own best witness if any nonconsensual behaviour were to happen. He told them to make mental notes on johns’ heights, nationalities, any potential accents and, since they would likely be seeing them naked, any tattoos or markings. If something happened that the women didn’t agree to and they were assaulted, Beebakhee said, he told them to scratch the John and pull his hair to try to get some DNA.
The one-time sexual assault detective, who was also charged with sexual assault before the charge was withdrawn by the Crown, said he never had his notebook out and never demanded the women give him their names. He said he didn’t want them to think he was trying to keep track of them or had ulterior motives.
At the end of the meeting, Beebakhee would offer the women his business card, but he said he knew that some might not be keen to take it, especially if a john might somehow lay eyes on it. In that case, Beebakhee said, he would give them his personal cellphone number to save in their phones — the same cellphone number listed in multiple posts on an online escort forum mentioning him by name and that twice appeared on the call logs of an escort service targeted in a human trafficking investigation. But, according to Beebakhee, his personal cellphone number was the number listed on his Ottawa-police issued business cards.
There were maybe five cellphones available for general on-shift use among several sergeants. If he’d sign one out for use and give a sex trade worker that number, there was no guarantee he’d be on the other end to answer if she did decide to call.
Beebakhee said he brought junior officers along on some of the meetings because he wanted to teach a mostly young platoon how to talk to people and treat them with respect. Power can sometimes go to the heads of young cops and he wanted to prevent that, he said.
“I have the belief that you want to treat other people the way you want to be treated,” he said.
Familiar with an Ottawa website that was outing sex trade workers and posting personal details about them on the Internet, Beebakhee said he came across posts related to a slain woman who worked in the sex trade whom he could identify only as Leeanne L. during the hearing. According to criminal proceedings currently underway, that woman is Leeanne Lawson, one of two sex trade workers that Marc Leduc is charged with killing. Beebakhee said he found posts on the blog that mentioned Lawson and then turned them over to the lead homicide investigator on the case.
Defence lawyer Bill Carroll submitted into evidence various warnings issued by Ottawa police, including an unprecedented warning issued by former police Chief Vern White in 2011 to sex trade workers engaging in street prostitution and a recent warning from Chief Charles Bordeleau that police are concerned that someone is targeting sex trade workers after Amy Paul’s body was found in an Osgoode hay field on Sept. 17. The hearing continues Wednesday with Beebakhee’s cross examination.