(CBC News) – A veteran RCMP officer has filed a lawsuit against top-ranking members of his own force over a sex crime investigation involving underage prostitutes that resulted in the 2004 conviction of a B.C. provincial court judge, CBC News has learned.
In a statement of claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court Sept. 9, Const. Justin Harris said he suffered a psychological condition that made him “unfit to return to his regular policing duties for an indeterminate time” as a consequence of an RCMP investigation into allegations he and other officers paid to have sex with teen prostitutes.
The prostitutes were at the heart of the case against former judge David Ramsay, who was found guilty of committing sexual offences against the underage sex workers and sentenced to seven years in prison in June 2004.
He was convicted of one count of sexual assault causing bodily harm, two counts of buying sex from a child and one count of breach of trust. The crimes occurred over an eight-year period beginning in 1992, and all of the victims were between the ages of 12 and 17 at the time.
During the Ramsay investigation, some of the underage prostitutes alleged Harris and a few other RCMP officers paid them to have sex. That prompted an internal investigation into Harris’s conduct in August 2002.
Following Ramsay’s sentencing, the RCMP formed a special task force and launched a criminal investigation into the allegations against the officers, including Harris.
Harris, who joined the RCMP in 1993, said in his statement of claim that six allegations were made against him, all of which he denied. He was suspended with pay in September 2004 because of the investigation.
The investigators sought to file criminal charges of sexual exploitation and breach of trust against Harris in November 2005, but special Crown prosecutors assigned to the case didn’t pursue the charges, his claim said.
The investigation stemmed from “unfounded, baseless and uncorroborated allegations from unreliable sources of no credibility,” the claim states.
In his claim, Harris blames negligence of the RCMP top management, which revealed his name to the media and triggered intense public contempt.
The RCMP lifted the suspension against Harris in April 2007 and reinstated him back to regular duties.
“The Plaintiff [Harris] enjoyed perfect emotional health prior to the suspension in 2004, and the present diagnosed medical condition … has manifested itself as a direct result of the wrongful process,” Harris’s statement of claim states.
Harris is seeking compensation for loss of income and loss of future earning capacity as well as general and punitive damages. His statement of claim doesn’t specify the total amount he’s seeking.
Const. Joseph Kohut, one of the other RCMP officers being investigated, filed a statement of claim against the RCMP in November of last year, seeking $1 million in damages.
So does this demonstrate the cops cannot investigate other cops, or does it discredit the cover up theories, or does it show that the cops willingly eat their own without cause?
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