The oldest sergeant of the Vancouver Police Department faces degradation and a suspension of 20 days after admitting to send inopportune and sexualized messages to five women separated in a pattern that the authorities highlight the issue of sexual harassment in the VPD.
The lawyer of the Office of the Commissioner for Police Complaints asked VPD on Wednesday to adopt independent sexual harassment training as part of an agreement to resolve accusations of misconduct against the sergeant. Keiron McConnell involving two police colleagues and three university students.
“Sexual harassment is fundamentally contrary to the high ethical standards that are expected of all police officers, especially higher officers who have supervision responsibilities,” Brian Smith told the retired judge who supervises a public hearing in the accusations.
“Concerns about sexual harassment and toxic cultures in police workplaces are widespread in the public domain.”
The victims say they felt “degraded” and anxious
Wednesday’s procedures took place in a small court of the court on the 20th floor of a tower in the Metrotown buildings in Burnaby normally reserved for the investigations of the forensics.
The former main judge of the Provincial Court, Carol Baird Ellan, sat on his back to an expansive view of the north coast, since more than two dozen spectators, most of them police, got into the public gallery with many standing.
McConnell, who first joined VPD reserves in 1988, sat next to one of his two lawyers dressed in suit and tie. The 56 -year -old has been suspended without paying since last July; A measure that his lawyer affirmed has cost him $ 112,000 from last week.
Marilyn Sandford, a lawyer for the public hearing, opened the hearing reading a statement agreed with facts filed as part of an agreement that McConnell reached in which she admitted discreditable conduct related to five of the seven women who leveled the accusations against her.
Promoted to Sergeant in 2004, McConnell became part of the leadership of the VPD gang squad and worked on some of the murders and cases of higher profile drugs at the bottom of the continent in its years in force.
The 56 -year -old also has a doctorate and has taught in many universities of British Columbia. Complaints refer to incidents that took place between 2015 and 2019.
According to the declaration of agreed events, the two official women worked with McConnell when it was one of the leaders of the gang squad and sent unwanted sexual messages.
“The content included sexual comments about his underwear, his sexual preferences and his sexual fantasies,” reads one of the officers.
“[McConnell’s comments caused [her] Feeling degraded and she suffered anxiety as a result. He was worried about the problem with him due to his position in the VPD. “
Comments ‘Uninquented and inopportune’
They echoed similar concerns by adult students attacked by McConnell, two of whom had taken courses with him before the incidents that led to complaints.
McConnell invited one of the young women to a social meeting in a pub where they saw the results of the US elections. In 2016. The police officer sent him text messages asking his underwear what color he was wearing and then tried to kiss her after they climbed a taxi together.
“She diverted it and left the taxi,” says the agreed statement of facts.
McConnell called her the next day to apologize, but she didn’t respond.
Another student said he did not report messages containing sexual content and insinuations because he worried that he could affect his future career options if he requested the VPD.
The third student, who had asked McConnell to act as his honors supervisor, said he sent comments “not requested and unwanted” about his physical attractiveness.
“At the time of exchanges, [the student] He aspired to become a police officer, “says the declaration of facts.
“[Her] Experience with [McConnell] It was a factor in his decision not to follow a career in surveillance. “
Sandford said McConnell has accepted the responsibility of the five incidents, recognizing their responsibilities as a person with authority. He has also apologized to the five women.
‘He was ignorant of the dynamics in the game’
If Baird Ellan accepts the joint proposal, McConnell will be degraded from sergeant to first class agent over the next 12 months and suspended for payment without payment for 20 days. He will also be forbidden to work as a supervisor.
One of the women sitting in the first row of the audience shook his head when Sandford described the terms of the agreement.
In his presentations, Smith said that the VPD includes awareness of sexual harassment incorporated in training to maintain a respectful workplace: McConnell courses have taken several times as a member and supervisor.
Smith said that almost half of the cases asked the judge to consider as precedents for sanctions related to sexual harassment involved the department.
The proposed resolution includes a call for the VPD and the Police Board to include a separate course on sexual harassment as part of the training for both officers and civil employees of the department.
In his submission to the audience, McConnell’s lawyer, Cait Fleck, said the veteran officer suffers from post -traumatic stress disorder as a result of the many horrible things he has seen in the course of three decades in surveillance.
She said it is also important to consider the context.
“Sergeant McConnell accepts that he ignored the dynamics at stake,” said Fleck, who said that his client had apologized to one of the officers when she raised the problem with him at that time.
Fleck said none of the other women “directly or expressly said that the comments bothered them.”
“We can now understand why they did that,” he said. “But the corollary is that it can be confusing for the person who participates in those discussions.”
Baird Ellan has reserved his decision until after May 6.
