Const. Stephen Fossen was fired by the Edmonton Police Service in April 2022 after a disciplinary listening to discovered him responsible of discreditable conduct, an offence below the Police Act
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Alberta’s Court docket of Attraction has declined to listen to the case of an Edmonton police officer fired for groping a colleague, successfully ending his bid to overturn his dismissal.
Const. Stephen Fossen was fired by the Edmonton Police Service in April 2022 after a disciplinary listening to discovered him responsible of discreditable conduct, an offence below the Police Act.
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The listening to discovered Fossen touched a junior feminine officer’s genitals whereas sharing a mattress together with her on a 2019 ski journey.
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The Alberta Critical Incident Response Group (ASIRT) charged Fossen with sexual assault, however the cost was in the end withdrawn earlier than trial on the request of the sufferer.
The inner disciplinary listening to later discovered Fossen had nonetheless dedicated misconduct and ordered he be fired.
Fossen appealed to the Legislation Enforcement Evaluate Board, which upheld the firing.
In a ruling issued Wednesday, Court docket of Attraction Justice Jane Fagnan discovered no authorized errors within the overview board determination and denied Fossen depart to attraction.
The incident in query occurred on an off-duty ski journey in Canmore in January 2019. A number of officers attended the outing, which spouses weren’t permitted to hitch. The officers introduced a big amount of alcohol, an alcohol screening gadget and an merchandise described within the disciplinary determination as a “booze bag.”
One evening, Fossen left his bed room to flee a loud night breathing roommate. He tried to sleep on a chair close to the sufferer’s room and was finally invited to share her mattress. Each had been clothed, and Fossen fell asleep on high of the mattress covers.
The sufferer awoke and located Fossen’s arm “over high of her and his hand touching her genitals,” wrote Fred Kamins, the retired RCMP officer who presided over Fossen’s listening to.
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“The sufferer eliminated the arm, lay there processing what was occurring and left the room with out talking. Constable Fossen left with out talking as nicely.”
Fossen later despatched the girl a textual content studying “sorry for drunk Fozzie.” The sufferer advised a superior what had occurred later that month.
Kamins in the end discovered the touching rose to a degree of sexual assault and directed Fossen be fired. He stated it was a case of “a male officer ready of energy sexually assaulting a feminine subordinate.”
“That’s the very crux of ‘Me Too’ and the ability imbalance in lots of workplaces,” he wrote.
Fossen appealed to the Legislation Enforcement Evaluate Board, which upheld Kamins’ determination. He tried once more with the Alberta Court docket of Attraction. His attraction argued, amongst different issues, that Kamins didn’t have jurisdiction to listen to the case as a result of Chief Dale McFee, not the sufferer, introduced the grievance.
Fossen claimed having the chief “stand in” in a case with an “unwilling or reluctant sufferer” is “hazardous” and “not an affordable interpretation” of the Police Act.
He additionally claimed the overview board did not correctly weigh whether or not there have been unreasonable delays within the case, a doable constitution violation, or whether or not firing was the suitable punishment.
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Fagnan in the end discovered no authorized errors within the overview board’s determination. She dominated the board was right find that firing “fell inside a variety of cheap outcomes” and was not “unduly harsh, unwarranted, merciless and unprecedented.”
Bob Hladun, Fossen’s lawyer throughout the disciplinary listening to, had argued that firing his consumer was “ridiculous,” saying it was unreasonable to fireplace somebody with an in any other case stable report over “one spur of the second, drunken act.”
Fossen’s present lawyer didn’t reply to a request for remark. Nor did the Edmonton Police Affiliation, the officers’ union.
Fossen has been suspended with out pay since June 2019.
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