(CBC News) – Two RCMP officers who were involved in an off-duty incident with a woman in Watson Lake, Yukon, in 2009 will face a panel of senior Mounties at an internal hearing set for June.
The RCMP hearing will determine if constables Graham Belak and Shawn McLaughlin violated the police force’s code of conduct when they had sex with a married woman they had met at a house party in Watson Lake, a southern Yukon town of about 850, on March 8, 2009.
McLaughlin and Belak were acquitted of sexual assault charges in March 2010, when the Yukon Supreme Court ruled that the woman’s testimony was inconsistent and unreliable.
The court ruled that the officers told the truth when they said they engaged in consensual sex with the woman that night.
Both officers were not on duty when the incident took place, but the RCMP code of conduct deals with behaviour unbecoming of an officer, both on-duty and off-duty.
Belak and McLaughlin are scheduled to attend the disciplinary hearing in mid-June in Watson Lake, according to RCMP officials.
“The allegations are stemming from an incident that occurred in Watson Lake, and therefore the community has an interest in proceedings that go on because, of course, it did affect the community,” Sgt. Don Rogers told CBC News.
Rogers said an adjudication panel, which will likely consist of three high-ranking RCMP officers, will hear evidence and testimony from witnesses.
The board will then “make a decision of whether the RCMP Act was breached and what sanctions, if any, would be imposed,” Rogers said.
Rogers said it is possible that the matter could be resolved before the June hearing. The specific allegations against McLaughlin and Belak will not be made public until the hearing begins, he added.
During last year’s trial, the Crown prosecutor asked Belak and McLaughlin about their behaviour that night, and whether they felt they had lived up to the leadership role they were expected to fill in small, rural communities like Watson Lake.
The men were suspended with pay when they were charged in March 2009, but Rogers said both officers returned to work in January of this year.
With the acquittal, there was no reason for Belak and McLaughlin to remain off work, and it is in everybody’s best interests for them to continue with their careers, Rogers said.
For privacy reasons, Rogers would not say where they are working, except that it’s not in Yukon.
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