Winnipeg officer pleads not guilty to tampering with evidence at crime scene

A city police constable and one-time partner of imprisoned former police officer Elston Bostock is now on trial accused of compromising a crime scene the two men had been assigned to protect.

Jonathan Kiazyk, an 18-year veteran of the Winnipeg Police Service at the time of the October 2022 incident, pleaded not guilty Monday morning to charges of entering a dwelling with intent to commit theft, obstructing a police officer and breach of trust.

Kiazyk is accused of entering a Stradbrook Avenue Airbnb rental with Bostock before a search warrant had been secured and disturbing evidence, defying direction to remain outside the suite.

“Police are entrusted with an enormous amount of power and responsibility,” Crown attorney Adam Gingera said in an opening address Monday morning to King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond.

“The Crown alleges that Const. Jonathan Kiazyk brazenly misused that power to engage in conduct that inevitably undermined a serious drug trafficking operation and that he did so casually and with utter disregard for the public interest in the actual investigation of crime.”

Const. Sean Kirby-Peloquin testified he and his partner had been called to the building shortly after 11 p.m. following a report from a resident of an attempted break and enter. Kirby-Peloquin said a man renting a suite locked himself out and had jumped to the neighbouring balcony in an attempt to get back inside.

Kirby-Peloquin said the man reluctantly provided officers with the entry code to his suite, where they saw bags of what appeared to be fentanyl and a bag of marijuana on a kitchen counter and other drug paraphernalia.

The officer said they arrested the man for possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking and called their street supervisor, Patrol Sgt. Jonathan Ring, to request other officers watch the suite while they took the suspect back to the police station and prepared a search warrant.

“Police are entrusted with an enormous amount of power and responsibility.”

Kirby-Peloquin said before Kiazyk and Bostock arrived, he took a photo of the drugs in the kitchen and a photo of cash sitting on a bedroom nightstand.

“I thought they would be beneficial for articulating our grounds for seeking a search warrant,” he testified.

Kirby-Peloquin said he was waiting outside the suite when Kiazyk and Bostock arrived at about 11:40 p.m. He said Kiazyk asked him for the entry code to get inside, saying he needed to use the washroom.

“I told them it was in the call history, kind of deflected, and told them not to go into the suite,” Kirby-Peloquin said.

“I told (Kiazyk)… not to go in, and reminded them that I had taken photographs, told them not to touch anything.”

 

In such situations, police are required to remain outside of a suspected crime scene and prevent anyone else from entering until a search warrant can be secured and the property can be properly documented, Kirby-Peloquin said.

“They were both aware their role was to hold the scene while we prepared a search warrant,” he said. “I told (Kiazyk)… not to go in, and reminded them that I had taken photographs, told them not to touch anything.”

Kirby-Peloquin said he and his partner were back at the police station preparing the search warrant when Kiazyk messaged him saying he and Bostock wanted to go in the suite and “play a joke” on Ring.

“I again reminded him not to touch anything and that I had taken photographs,” Kirby-Peloquin said, adding he was hesitant to tell them outright not to go in the suite because they were each several years senior to him in service.

Court heard Kiazyk a short time later sent Ring a photo of a handgun he alleged they had found sitting on a bed.

“Booster (Bostock’s nickname) found a gun under a mattress and got some more drugs in the suitcase,” Kiazyk told Ring in a text message.

“Well, I know you’re not dumb enough to go into that suite, so I doubt it,” Ring replied. “I really hope that’s an internet photo and assuming it is.”

Kiazyk sent a second picture showing Bostock sitting on a chair outside the suite smiling and pointing a gun in the air.

Ring testified Monday he told Kiazyk and Bostock when he assigned them to watch the suite that they were not to enter it.

“I just took it they were trying to get a rise out of me,” Ring said of the pictures, admitting he was annoyed as he was preoccupied with another pressing break-and-enter investigation.

Court heard Kirby-Peloquin and his partner secured a search warrant shortly after 3 a.m. and returned to the suite with Ring and began to search it, with assistance from Kiazyk and Bostock.

Kirby-Peloquin said his partner took photographs of the scene and it became apparent after comparing them to the pictures he had taken earlier that someone had moved the bag of marijuana.

“I had a conversation with Sgt. Ring that I thought this presented a serious issue in terms of the prosecution,” Kirby Peloquin testified. “I said that in my belief, our evidence was now tainted and it effected our credibility.”

“I said that in my belief, our evidence was now tainted and it effected our credibility.”

Ring testified he told Kirby-Peloquin they would have to bring it up with Crown prosecutors “and see where the conversation goes.”

Charges against the alleged drug trafficker were later stayed.

Ring said the photo discrepancy would have put investigators “in a difficult position.”

“They would have been put in a spot providing an explanation how the photos had changed,” he said.

Court heard Kiazyk was injured playing spongee a few days later and was off work for a lengthy period of time before returning to desk duties.

Ring said he spoke to Kiazyk about the incident several months later and Kiazyk admitted he and Bostock entered the suite to use the washroom and that they picked up the bag of marijuana “to look at it.”

“I said ‘I told you not to go in there,’” Ring said, to which Kiazyk responded with surprise.

“His explanation seemed like there could have been miscommunication, but I can’t recall what the explanation was,” said Ring, who told court he did not take notes of the conversation.

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Court heard Kiazyk and Bostock were not regular partners at the time of the Stradbrook Avenue incident.

Kirby-Peloquin said he liked and respected Kiazyk, but not Bostock.

“I disliked the way (Bostock) conducted himself,” he said. Bostock “associated with people I would investigate.”

Kiazyk, a general patrol officer, was one of four WPS members charged following an internal investigation dubbed Project Fibre.

Bostock, 49, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in January, after pleading guilty to a raft of offences including selling drugs, voiding traffic tickets and providing confidential police information to underworld associates.

Matthew Kadyniuk was also charged as part Project Fibre. He pleaded guilty to breach of trust and theft under $5,000 in January.

In August 2025, the WPS announced charges against Const. Vernon Strutinsky, who was 44 at the time. He is is accused of break and enter to commit an indictable offence — namely extortion, and breach of trust.

— with files from Tyler Searle

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.