Sam Cooper (Vancouver Province) – A B.C. Mountie sobbed before a board of RCMP adjudicators on Tuesday as he begged forgiveness from the force and his family for disgraceful sexual misconduct with a female subordinate.
“I’m sorry for my disgraceful con-duct and I will always be sorry,” Staff-Sgt. Travis Pearson said in a 30-minute statement in which he often hung his head to cry, and looked back at his wife and parents in the audience.
In a police conduct hearing, Pear-son and Const. Susan Gastaldo are accused of having sex in a police car and exchanging intimate messages in 2009, while Gastaldo worked for Pearson in the “Special O” surveillance unit in and around Burnaby.
Pearson has pleaded guilty to the charges, while Gastaldo has admit-ted to them, but has not formally made a plea. Both officers face a reprimand and forfeiture of 10 days’ pay if found guilty.
While Pearson and his counsel portray his actions as a harmful lapse of judgment in a consensual affair, Gastaldo claimed both at the hearing and in a separate civil suit that Pearson used his power and her vulnerable mental condition to sexually assault her and coerce her into a sexual relation.
During the hearing, serious allegations were lodged against Pearson by Gastaldo and later echoed in similar testimony by another RCMP employee.
Looking back at his wife on Tues-day, Pearson said, “my wife believes I should face the allegations before the board . . . but she will stand by me for the other slander.”
He also suggested that he has considered suicide.
“My support from my wife saved my life,” he sobbed. “The stress of the original allegations was too much to bear. Without her, I wouldn’t be here.”
Pearson sobbed while apologizing to his parents, including his father, who, he said, was a former RCMP officer who suffered a seizure due to press coverage of his case.
Pearson suggested that media coverage stemming from his actions has weakened the whole force, which has been embattled by a stream of sexual-harassment complaints from RCMP officers since Gastal-do’s claims were publicized.
Pearson seemed to stress that he alone is to blame.
“My actions are not something that should paint the force,” Pear-son said.
In her civil suit, Gastaldo has cited the RCMP’s male-dominated culture as a factor in the alleged dam-ages.
[Source]
I guess you have not kept up with the news JohnnyG. The Vancouver Police Department has had members in the gay pride parade in Vancouver for years. The RCMP chimed in around 2008:
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20080802/BC_RCMP_gay_pride_parade_080802/ Would you suggest that this is improper?
Are you suggesting that gay men and women in the RCMP have no place or cannot do the job? If so,on what empirical data, or anecdotal evidence, do you rely?
As far as S/Sgt Pearson is concerned, I will be interested to see what punishment is meted out to a person who has had sex in a police vehicle. Something I assume never happened in your tenure JohnnyG? It is indeed dismaying to see such a pathetic display, however, I am sure his life as he knew it is over. is this a facet of feminization? The claims by the civilian witness during her testimony, some of which was recanted, will surely lead to a criminal investigation, and as such he may well be dismissed depending on the outcome. The veracity of her claims will be subject of scrutiny in a criminal court, with less leniency in acceptance however.
Your constant assertion that the police in this country have become “feminized” is meant to characterize what exactly? Are you suggesting that case law, training standards, etc., have little or no effect on police interaction with the public? Is it because the RCMP have hired women that irks you so?
I agree with sickntired that Pearson is probably sorry he got caught. The mark of a manipulator for sure. I doubt it makes a difference to the adjudicators. The media coverage and analysis of this episode is the usual front page on accusation and back page for outcomes. That is truly pathetic and one dimensional.
Well-liked comment. Do you Like or Dislike:
29 
11
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated comment. Do you Like or Dislike:
15 
25
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated comment. Do you Like or Dislike:
7 
26
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated comment. Do you Like or Dislike:
11 
27
This guy sounds like a real loser. I would retire before I would go in there and make a fool out of myself like that.
Hot debate. What do you think?
16 
16
Agree JG. I think I’d retire before putting my family and parents through that. Having made a fool of himself Pearson also shows himself to be small-minded and petty – even while weeping and admitting to repeated “lapses in judgement” he manages to get in a shot at Gastaldo’s “slander”. This is a man who is sorry he was caught.
As for Gastaldo based on what has been made public I’m having some trouble believing that he coerced her into a relationship, although I’m curious about the “similar testimony” from another employee.
Hot debate. What do you think?
19 
19