Off-duty Mountie who held gun to woman’s head deserves discharge: lawyer
RCMP Const. Michael Wheeler deserves a year in jail, the Crown submitted in a St. John’s courtroom Thursday, while Wheeler’s lawyer argued a discharge would be more appropriate.
Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Sandra Chaytor took the lawyers’ submissions on sentencing for Wheeler, 47, whom she previously found guilty of holding his loaded police gun to a woman’s head during a social gathering at a friend’s house in 2018 while he was still in uniform.
The woman read aloud from a victim impact statement as the sentencing hearing got underway, telling the court she continues to suffer because of the incident.
“The ‘what-ifs’ cause me the most concern,” she said. “I am always reminded of this and it is never out of my mind.
“I have a lot of concern for my safety. This was a person in a position of power, so that makes me fearful, and I am afraid of revenge after this.”
Chaytor found Wheeler, who remains on unpaid suspension from the RCMP, guilty in November of pointing a firearm and careless use of a firearm, saying she didn’t believe his claim that the incident never happened. The judge didn’t accept the evidence of Wheeler’s friend, Paul Durdle, who recently resigned from the RCMP and was charged last month with perjury and obstructing justice related to his testimony at Wheeler’s trial.
The complainant, Durdle’s ex-girlfriend, testified they had been celebrating her birthday at his Bell Island home when Wheeler dropped by after work, in uniform and driving an RCMP vehicle. She said she and Wheeler were play-fighting, with him putting her in various holds and she attempting to get out of them, when he suddenly held the gun to the side of her face, telling her, ‘You’re not so tough now, are you?’” She said Wheeler then moved in front of her, holding the gun with two hands in a “police stance,” before Durdle came out from the kitchen and pushed his arms down.
Defence lawyer John Duggan called Wheeler’s psychologist, Elaine Kufudi, to testify at Thursday’s hearing. She told the court Wheeler suffers from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) due to repeated exposure to death and traumatic events through his job, and has been in therapy for at least nine years, four of them with her.
Poor decision-making, overreaction, and feeling triggered by certain events or senses are characteristic behaviours of someone suffering from CPTSD, she said, and Wheeler has been working to overcome his mental illness.
“From all the work I’ve done with Michael, I feel he is very remorseful,” Kufudi testified. “He has great awareness around this, and he is very regretful of that decision. He has accepted responsibility for his part in this.”
On cross-examination, prosecutor Alison Manning asked if Wheeler had ever acknowledged pointing the gun at the woman’s face.
“According to Michael, that’s not the way it happened,” Kufudi replied.
“So, what he’s remorseful for is what he acknowledged: that he went social drinking in uniform?” asked Manning.
“Yes,” Kufudi responded. “That, and even participating in that situation.”
Manning argued for a jail sentence of eight to 12 months for Wheeler, saying police officers, on or off duty, are held to a higher standard in the community, and a message of denunciation must be sent to protect public faith in the justice system.
“When asked why she never called emergency services, the complainant said (Wheeler and Durdle) were emergency services and to her knowledge there was no other officer on Bell Island at that time,” Manning said.
She described the event as “incredibly dangerous” and submitted, “He can’t be remorseful for what he did if he doesn’t acknowledge what he did.”
Defence lawyer John Duggan argued for a conditional or absolute discharge, pointing to Wheeler’s lack of criminal record and previously unblemished record as a police officer. The incident had been spontaneous and short-lived, he said, suggesting the woman was partly responsible for it.
“(She) can’t consider that she was not an actor in that, and wasn’t part of escalating it to a point,” Duggan told the court. “I’m not blaming her for the pointing of the gun, that’s Mr. Wheeler’s responsibility. But it led to that.”
Duggan took issue with the suggestion that Wheeler had been in a position of trust, saying he was off duty and roughhousing with a friend. He also took exception to media coverage of Wheeler’s case that described him as a police officer.
“It gets reported that a police officer did this. Well, this was a social setting,” Duggan said.
He called the event a “oneoff” and a “90-second to twominute error in judgment,” and said Wheeler would surely lose his job if he is not discharged.
The sentencing hearing will continue Friday.