Court orders Brandon police to pay woman in intimate photos case

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This article was published 03/03/2022 (1368 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A woman who was dropped from a hiring competition with the Brandon Police Service after executives were provided with intimate images of her has been awarded $60,000 in damages.

Brittany Roque sued Terry Lynn Peters for sharing intimate images of her without her consent. The City of Brandon was named as a third party in the lawsuit.

“Ultimately, the situations where an individual’s intimate image can be distributed without that person’s consent should be few,” Queen’s Bench Justice Sandra Zinchuk wrote in a 54-page ruling released Wednesday.

“Roque was not being investigated for a criminal offence,” Zinchuk said. “She had voluntarily applied for a position as a police officer with BPS. There is no rational explanation for why any of the images needed to be provided to (police) in order to fully consider and assess her application.”

Zinchuk found Peters and the City of Brandon jointly liable for $45,000 in general damages and Peters liable for an additional $15,000 in aggravated damages.

Roque argued at trial Peters had provided the images to police brass as an act of revenge against Roque for a past relationship with Peters’ common-law husband, Brandon Const. Ryan Friesen.

“The plaintiff submits you can safely conclude there was a single, solitary motive for Peters’ distribution… and that motive is revenge: revenge for being in a relationship with Friesen, revenge for having sex with Friesen,” Roque’s lawyer Kevin Toyne told court in a closing argument last year.

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court at trial, Roque took and sent intimate photos of herself to Friesen during a three-month affair in 2015. Friesen forwarded the images from his cellphone to his email account.

In May 2016, Roque applied to become a police officer with the BPS; in August, she was shortlisted for an upcoming position.

In January 2017, Friesen attempted to delete the images from his email account. He told Peters his email password so she could search the account for evidence of infidelity.

On Feb. 19, 2017, Peters found nude images of Roque in the trash folder, along with photos of other women. She sent copies of the images to her own email and confronted her partner.

A few days later, Peters distributed the intimate images of Roque to a senior executive with Brandon police.

In March 2017, Roque underwent a polygraph test as part of the hiring process, where she disclosed her past relationship with Friesen. She was told she could either withdraw from the hiring process or else she would be removed.

Roque declined, and subsequently filed complaints with the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba and RCMP.

Zinchuk rejected Peters’ claim that sharing the images was in the public interest. Police witnesses testified the existence and availability of intimate images could expose a potential recruit to blackmail.

“I am unable to accept that Peters had no intention to harm Roque,” Zinchuk said, noting Peters distributed the intimate images of three other women she found in Friesen’s email account.

“I find that Peters was keen to ‘out’ the women… including Roque, and cause embarrassment and humiliation,” Zinchuk said.

— with files from the Brandon Sun

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca