Friday, August 10, 2012

Delta cop sued over sexual assault



I saw this in the paper and thought it was bizarre. Another cop accused of a sexually related offense. Wonderful. When you say the word sexual assault the first thing that comes to my mind is what do you mean – grabbing an ass or actual rape because there’s a huge difference. Don’t get me wrong, grabbing someone’s ass is totally inappropriate. It’s just very different than rape.

This case involves the accusation that there were multiple sexual assaults. The Vancouver Province is reporting that an outside police investigation found that allegations of corrupt practice, discreditable conduct and neglect of duty against Robert Wesley Johnston had been proven. Johnston has been suspended without pay since March 23, 2011.

Now the officer is being sued by the victim in civil court. The writ claims there were several sexual assaults, one of which Johnston allegedly committed on Jones at a Delta police office on Annacis Island, after arranging to have another officer stand guard outside at the time. Here’s the confusing part. The other officer stood guard while he had consensual sex or committed rape because there is a huge difference. To think that he stood guard while the other officer committed rape is astounding. That would involve more than discipline, it would involve criminal charges.

It all started when the officer responded to a domestic abuse call when he told the victim if the man bothers her again she can call him. It’s hard to imagine any cop would go into a domestic abuse situation and commit rape. It is conceivable he could have become too emotionally involved in the case.

I am most certainly not claiming the victim wanted to be raped. That is the whole problem with our complaint process. I’m just trying to figure out what really happened because these are very serious allegations. A police officer committing rape is serious. A police officer was accused of raping another female officer during the security for the Vancouver Olympics.

The Delta officer was accused of showing another officer a naked picture of the victim on the phone that the victim sent him because he asked her to. He asked her to send him a picture of her naked and she did. OK so what’s up with that? Did he blackmail her into so doing or did she willingly send it to him?

Clearly, the number of inappropriate sexually related activities involving the police lately has revealed the force to be a very unprofessional outfit. That in itself does need to be dealt with. Yet raping someone is off the hook. If that is the case, then criminal charges need to be laid. One has to wonder if she had an affair with the officer and ended up deciding to go back to her abusive boyfriend.

Meanwhile back on the ranch, two Vancouver Police officers are being investigated will face an external investigation into allegations they neglected their duty by failing to warn a Surrey murder victim she was at risk of being killed.

On Nov. 22, 2005, 21-year-old Tasha Rosette was discovered by her sister stabbed to death, five days after a confidential informant told police her boyfriend claimed he intended to kill the young woman, who was four months pregnant with his child and had a three-year-old daughter.

Const. Craig Bentley, working with the gang unit at the time, received the tip and told his supervisor Staff Sgt. John Grywinski, but the two decided to continue investigating it before notifying Rosette. I’m not sure why they would delay in issuing the warning. Normally the gang task force is very prompt with that.

This week Frank Bucholtz from the Surrey Leader wrote about how the sentence handed down to former RCMP Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson is a disgrace. He’s the cop that was involved with the airport taser incident and then killed a 21 year old motorcyclist a year later in a motor vehicle accident where he had been drinking. He bragged about getting off of a DUI by leaving the scene and taking some shots. He did exactly that and Frank Bucholtsz is right. The sentence he received is a disgrace.

2 comments:

  1. Cops in BC using situations they respond to to line up a date is nothing new. True story, personal experience.....

    1998, a woman I had just moved in with told me she was getting visits at her place of employment by a VPD officer who had been one of those who responded to a home invasion at her previous residence wherein the perps tied up her 10 year old son (she was at work at the time) and slapped him around a bit, wanting to know "where all the money and jewelery was". He of course was privy to all her information, including her place of employment. He started showing up there, ostensibly to follow up on the investigation (he's a "uniform", not assigned any investigatorial responsibilities) and asking questions like "had she been lonely since her divorce". Yep, real scumbag, and a married scumbag at that. He did not listen to her telling him she was not interested. I instructed her to ask him for his card if he showed up again.

    And of course he did. And thinking that her asking for his card was a sign that he was making progress on his "investigation", he gave it to her. She gave it to me when she got home that night.

    Next day I go to a pay phone and call up VPD.

    Me:"Can you please tell me who the supervisor of Constable Scumbag would be please?"
    Her: "That would be Staff Sergeant So and So."
    Me: "Great, how would I go about having a chat with him?"
    Her:"Actually I think he's in the building, let me see if I can get him for you".
    Me: "That would be great, thanks."
    Pause, on hold.....
    Him: "This is Staff Sergeant So and So, May I help you?"

    I detail the situation for him. His response,

    Him:"So, you're telling me that she does not want us to follow up on the crime?"
    Me: "Are you fucking kidding me? Since when do beat cops follow up on home invasion robberies months later? Since when would "Is she lonely since her divorce" a relevant question?? She's not lonely, she lives with me, and this guy keeps coming back to her place of employment even though she asks him not to."
    Him:"How do you know it's Constable Scumbag?"
    Me: "Because I've got his fucking business card in my hand".
    Him: "Oh....Well, if you want to file a complaint...."
    Me: "I'm not gonna waste my time with that bullshit. There are two ways this is gonna go, your choice. Either you are gonna have a word with your "member" and he's never going to show his face around there again, or I'm going to use my skill set to find out where he lives. You should be waking up to the fact by now that I'm not a fucking civilian."
    Him: "Oh really. What then?"
    Me: "What then is I knock on his door while he's on shift and when his wife answers I fill her in on her husbands on-duty activities to line up extra-marital trim, and I tell her how you tried to cover for him."

    Silence on the other end of the line.....note that he does not ask how I know Constable Scumbag is married....

    Him: "Well, I guess I could have a word with him...."
    Me: "That would be great, thanks. Have a good one...."

    And nothing more was ever heard.

    In retrospect, I should have knocked on his door anyway......

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is really messed up and shows the continuation of a longstanding problem that needs to be addressed.

    ReplyDelete

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