RCMP Watch

Darren Bernhardt, Regina Leader Post

A veteran RCMP officer sat silent and showed no emotion Tuesday as a Court of Queen’s Bench judge found him guilty of sexual assaulting a drunken female prisoner in the garage of a northern police detachment.

There is no minimum sentence for a sex assault conviction but Const. Thierry Jacques, 32, could face up to a maximum of 14 years behind bars, said Crown prosecutor Inez Cardinal.

“This is a serious sexual assault of a person at the mercy of the officer. I will be seeking a significant period of incarceration,” she told reporters outside the Prince Albert courthouse.

Jacques will have to wait until Nov. 2 to learn his sentence after defence lawyer Randy Kirkham requested some time for his client to “get his life in order” before he is locked up. Cardinal argued against allowing Jacques to walk free for another week, saying “the Crown is very concerned about his return.”

If Jacques is staying with his parents, there is nothing he needs to do, in terms of giving up a residence and moving, Cardinal suggested. And he could simply phone his current employer and say, “I won’t be in to work for awhile,” she added.

But with the lawyers and judge having difficulty aligning their schedules, the sentencing had to be delayed so Justice Duane Koch allowed Jacques some time. Koch ordered Jacques to report to police upon his arrival in Sherbrooke, Que., where he is presently living with his parents.

Koch also ordered Jacques to surrender his passport and provide RCMP in Saskatoon with a flight itinerary.

As counsel and Koch attempted top find a common date for sentencing, Jacques stared out the window of the courthouse.

He refused to comment to media when he left the building, as did Kirkham.

“I’m pleased that justice is done but it’s also a sad day for justice,” Cardinal said. “Here is a peace officer sworn to uphold the law, he took an oath to protect people, and he has broken that trust. He has managed to taint all officers with his actions.”

But the public should not hold this one officer’s actions against all police, she urged.

Cardinal was embraced by the family of the victim, who is 26 but cannot be named under a publication ban on her identity.

The victim attended Tuesday’s decision but was shackled in leg irons and escorted by RCMP. She is presently in custody for an unrelated offence.

Jacques spent his entire four years of service with the RCMP in La Ronge. On Sept. 4, 2004, the victim was in the cells of that detachment when Jacques summoned her out and took her into the garage, where prisoners are picked up and dropped off. He recognized her as the same woman he’d met a week earlier at a bar. During that earlier encounter, they went to Jacques apartment and masturbated each other.

In the garage on Sept. 4, Jacques offered her a cigarette then took out his penis and began masturbating, Koch said. Jacques then told her to lift her shirt so he could touch her breasts, which she did before he ejaculated on her.

A white shirt belonging to the victim was entered into court as evidence last week during the trial. It was stained with semen which matched the DNA of Jacques.

During the trial, Kirkham argued the semen got on the shirt during the rendezvous at Jacques apartment but the victim denied anything happened that night. Cardinal called it preposterous the victim would wear a semen-stained shirt a week later without washing it. She also called it a strange coincidence the woman would be wearing that same shirt the very next time Jacques encountered her.

In making his decision, Koch had harsh words for both the victim and accused, claiming their testimonies were very questionable. He noted the victim at various times described Jacques as having short, long and curly hair, which has also been recalled as being blonde and reddish. In fact, Jacques has short, straight, brown hair.

She also described the time of day of the incident as early morning and dark outside. It was actually mid-afternoon and the garage brightly lit.

“If the Crown depended on the credibility of (the victim), it would surely fail,” Koch said Tuesday. “There are errors in her testimony — a deliberate or fabrication of details to fill gaps in her memory. But the shirt provides compelling evidence.”

Similarly, Jacques story was “impossible” to believe in many circumstances, Koch said.

Jacques claimed he didn’t know the victim when he met her at the bar yet he had arrested, fingerprinted, booked, searched and photographed her on a charge just three weeks earlier. He also escorted her to the airport to catch a flight to the correctional facility in Prince Albert.

“I simply do not believe the accused’s testimony,” Koch said bluntly.

The judge also dismissed Jacques claim that he may have touched the woman’s breasts “accidentally” when he took her to the garage for a cigarette.

“You are an experienced officer. I don’t understand how that would happen,” Koch said, also noting Jacques was “less than candid” about certain events during interviews with an investigator looking into the woman’s claims.

Citing the Criminal Code for an offence of sexual assault, Koch said it is not restricted to acts of forceful penetration. Someone can also be found guilty of degrading or demeaning a person for sexual purposes by inducement through the abuse of a position of trust, power or authority.

“There was inducement here, by (the victim) being invited out of the cell for a cigarette,” he said.