Police officer sues over ‘revenge porn’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/04/2018 (2930 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Rivers police officer is suing a woman who allegedly leaked naked photos of her to the Brandon Police Service while she was going through the police force’s hiring process.

The woman also filed complaints with the Law Enforcement Review Agency (LERA) after a freedom of information request revealed senior members of the BPS destroyed and deleted the images rather than preserving them as evidence in a potential crime, her lawyer said.

In a statement of claim filed in Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, Brittany Roque stated she took and sent intimate photos to a BPS officer during a three-month affair with him in 2015, under the pretence he would not share the photos and would destroy them if the relationship ended.

Unbeknownst to Roque, the officer saved the images onto his computer and failed to delete them when the affair ended, according to the statement of claim. The officer’s common-law partner at the time, Terri Lynn Peters, found the photos and distributed them approximately a year later.

Roque is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages, as well as a court injunction ordering anyone, including Peters, who may have copies of the intimate images to destroy them.

The following allegations as described in Roque’s lawsuit have not been proven in court and Peters denies the claims.

“The allegations are false and we are confident that litigation will prove that,” said Peters’ defence lawyer, Rhea Majewski.

Roque claims that — without her knowledge or consent — Peters, a former civilian employee with the BPS, copied and distributed the intimate images to BPS members and senior officers, including the newly appointed Chief Wayne Balcaen.

Roque was in the middle of a hiring competition to become a police officer in Brandon at the time, according to Roque’s lawyer, Kevin Toyne.

Peters also allegedly “edited the intimate images of other women by replacing their faces with a picture of (Roque’s) face, and then distributed those edited intimate images and claimed that they depicted (her) naked body,” according to the statement of claim.

“The plaintiff pleads that the defendant’s non-consensual distribution of the intimate images is an act of revenge and retaliation against the plaintiff for her brief intimate relationship with the officer,” the statement reads.

Roque further alleged that she received “numerous text messages” from Peters confirming she had distributed the intimate images and threatened to do it again.

The statement of claim characterizes the sequence of events as “revenge porn,” which is described as a “growing scourge that can have devastating and lifelong consequences on its victims.”

“Anyone who’s been the victim of revenge porn, whether or not they’re a police officer or someone who’s got some other type of job … it can be pretty devastating,” Toyne said. “You’re in a position of vulnerability — you take some intimate pictures of yourself and you share them with an intimate partner … and then all of a sudden, without your permission and sometimes without even your knowledge, those pictures are being given to other people. That can be absolutely devastating regardless of how strong a person you are.”

It’s also a criminal offence to knowingly distribute an intimate image of a person without their consent, under a 2015 amendment to Canada’s Criminal Code.

“People need to realize that it’s now against the law and there can be serious consequences,” Toyne said.

Roque has filed a criminal complaint against Peters, Toyne said, which is currently being investigated by the RCMP.

After filing a request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Roque also learned that BPS members — including Balcaen and Deputy Chief Randy Lewis — deleted the photos from a police computer and a USB drive containing the photos was smashed with a hammer, Toyne said.

Included in those documents was a copy of Balcaen’s handwritten notes, in which he described observing Lewis smash the drive and throw out the pieces in three separate trash cans.

“Photos were supplied to D/C Lewis for hiring competition purposes,” Balcaen wrote. “D/C Lewis wanted me to observe the destruction as he did not wish to retain the info after the police competition/ background was completed.”

Toyne questioned why BPS didn’t start a criminal investigation after they were given the photos.

“Call me old fashioned, but when police are given evidence on a potential crime, I think they should preserve it, not smash it with a hammer,” Toyne said.

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba confirmed an investigation against BPS was launched in July 2017, looking into allegations of conduct and criminal offences in relation to Roque’s case. One of those allegations was obstruction of justice.

The investigation is now complete, the IIU said, however the results will not be publicly released until other the agencies involved, LERA and the RCMP, have completed their own investigations.

Via an emailed response, Balcaen declined to comment on the investigation against BPS. He also said that Roque’s lawsuit does not name the BPS or the City of Brandon as parties to the litigation.

“Brandon Police Service will let those processes run their course without further comment on them,” Balcaen wrote.

Balcaen told CBC News he has not seen the intimate images and did not distribute them, but did not respond to further questions from The Brandon Sun by press time.

» edebooy@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @erindebooy