Sam Cooper (The Province) – RCMP Const. Susan Gastaldo broke down in tears as a police code-of-conduct hearing into her sexual relationship with a high-ranking Mountie from Burnaby was adjourned on Friday.
Gastaldo and Staff-Sgt. Travis Pearson are accused of having sex in a police car and exchanging intimate messages via an RCMP Blackberry in 2009. A week-long hearing into their actions ground to a halt Friday morning, as RCMP conduct prosecutor Gregory Rose and Gastaldo’s RCMP-appointed defence lawyer Larry McGonigal abruptly asked for an adjournment to discuss a settlement on Gastaldo’s case.
Gastaldo and Pearson are both inactive. An RCMP spokesperson said each could face sanctions ranging from reprimands to forfeiture of pay to dismissal, in the disciplinary hearing.
As The Province has reported, Gastaldo has filed a civil suit in B.C. Supreme Court alleging that Pearson used his power and her vulnerable mental condition to sexually assault her at his home and coerce her into ongoing sexual relations. The suit alleges that Vancouver police botched an investigation into complaints Gastaldo made against Pearson.
Gastaldo worked for Pearson in the “Special O” surveillance unit, which is officially run out of RCMP’s E-division, but operates in and around Burnaby.
In testimony Thursday, Gastaldo said after an alleged assault by Pearson she was driving by the Burnaby detachment and thought “my arms could turn in there and I could explain,” but she didn’t think anyone would take her seriously because Pearson had “dirt” on other officers.
Gastaldo alleged that Pearson was seen as “invincible” because he claimed to have damaging information on superiors and claimed to have gathered “protected” officers around himself who seemed to be part of a “snoop” network.
On Friday Pearson’s legal counsel Const. James Rowland told The Province it hasn’t been decided whether Pearson will take the stand, but he stressed Pearson is eager to “challenge certain assertions made.”
“[Pearson] has not had the chance to cross-examine the key witness,” Rowland told RCMP adjudicators on Friday, before the hearing was adjourned for two weeks.
In cross-examination of Gastaldo on Thursday, prosecutor Gregory Rose established that she has completed about seven years of actual service since joining the RCMP in 1998. The court heard during Gastaldo’s career she has suffered from general anxiety; was prone to panic attacks, underwent psychological care, had two maternity leaves and suffered a back injury. Gastaldo said RCMP health services seemed to have no record that she was off sick or knowledge that she was planning to return gradually in a program for officers with disabilities, and officials said “we’ve dropped the ball with your file.”
Under cross-examination Gastaldo spoke of a “haunting” incident while on “light duty” in 2001. She testified that Pearson managed her return to work in 2009 and pressured her to send personal photos to him, to help him relieve stress from “the heat” he claimed he was taking in getting her onto the “Special O” team.
Gastaldo claimed Pearson held coercive power over her through his perceived ability to shield her from general duty, which she felt she couldn’t endure.
“It took me a long time to get over what I experienced on general duty [in early career],” Gastaldo told Rose.
The court heard a series of what Gastaldo referred to as “desperate” text messages to her husband in August 2009, begging him to return home for the sake of their children after he left their home when he found “intimate communications” on her Blackberry.
“It was my fault but no sex happened, it was all text, I know that’s hard to believe,” Rose read from Gastaldo’s phone records.
[Source]
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