Winnipeg police officer denies tampering with crime scene evidence, blames disgraced former partner now behind bars

A Winnipeg Police Service constable on trial accused of stealing marijuana from a crime scene he had been assigned to guard pointed the finger Wednesday at his partner that evening — now-imprisoned former constable Elston Bostock.

Jonathan Kiazyk testified he and Bostock had returned to the West District station at the end of their shift the morning of Oct. 23, 2022, and were preparing to leave for home when Bostock said: “Come meet me at my car, I have something for you.”

“(Bostock) walked over and he lifted up a sandwich bag at me with approximately one to two grams of cannabis,” Kiazyk said, telling court the bag appeared similar to sandwich bags he had noted seeing earlier near a large bag of marijuana in the kitchen of the Stradbrook Avenue Airbnb condo rental they had been guarding.

Court has heard other police officers responded to a report of a possible break and enter at the building and found the male renter on a balcony, locked out of his suite. Officers gained entry to the suite, found a large amount of marijuana, fentanyl and cocaine and arrested the man.

Const. Sean Kirby-Peloquin testified earlier in the week that he took pictures of the drugs in the kitchen and other items in the suite before returning to the police station with his partner and the accused and preparing a search warrant.

Kirby-Peloquin testified he told Kiazyk and Bostock he had taken pictures of the suite and that they were not to go inside until he returned with a search warrant.

Kiazyk said he responded with shock when Bostock showed him the marijuana.

“I looked at him and I said: ‘Dude, what the f—k are you doing, man?’ “I’m like, ‘Kirby took pictures of the suite for the warrant, what are you doing?’

“Right away he said: ‘No, no, it’s good, it’s good,’” Kiazyk said.

Kiazyk said Bostock had given him marijuana up to 30 times in the past, telling him it came from a legal supplier.

“When he said: ‘No, no, it’s good,’ I thought maybe he did get it from his buddy in the cannabis industry, so I said. ‘OK’ and I took it,” Kiazyk said.

Defence lawyer Mike Cook asked Kiazyk if he had any misgivings about accepting the marijuana.

“I did, very much so,” he said. “I don’t know — the way he said it, and night-shift brain, I don’t know what I was thinking. I just… I took it.”

“The way he said it, and night-shift brain, I don’t know what I was thinking. I just… I took it.”

Kiazyk, 48, has pleaded not guilty to charges of entering a dwelling with intent to commit theft, obstructing a police officer and breach of trust.

Court has heard evidence that Kiazyk and Bostock were told by both Kirby-Peloquin and their street supervisor, then Patrol Sgt. Jonathan Ring, that they were not to go inside the suite until a search warrant had been secured.

In testimony Wednesday, Kiazyk said both he and Bostock entered the suite multiple times separately to use the washroom over the course of the nearly four hours they were guarding the suite.

Kiazyk testified that at the time, he had recently stopped drinking alcohol and was drinking large amounts of water, causing him to use the washroom more frequently.

Court has heard that a short time after the search warrant was executed, Kirby-Peloquin alerted Ring to “discrepancies” between a photo his partner took of the marijuana bag and a photo Kirby-Peloquin had taken of the same bag hours earlier, proving that someone had moved the bag at a time no one was supposed to be in the suite. That discrepancy led to prosecutors staying charges against the accused drug trafficker in March 2024.

Kiazyk said he didn’t touch or steal anything from the suite.

“The only purpose was to go in there to pee,” he said.

Kiazyk, an 18-year police service veteran at the time of the incident, testified he thought it was only members of the public that were required to stay out of the suite until the search warrant had been secured, not police officers.

“Being a police officer doesn’t just give you overarching power to go into anybody’s home,” prosecutor Amy Wood told Kiazyk. “In a situation where it has been determined that a search warrant is required, that means you can’t go into that residence without a warrant.”

“I know that now,” Kiazyk replied.

“You didn’t turn your mind to the fact you could literally have been flushing away evidence?”

Wood said disturbing or touching anything at a crime scene could compromise a police investigation.

Kiazyk said the only things he touched inside the suite were the toilet lid and flush handle.

Wood asked Kiazyk if he looked inside the toilet bowl to see if any drugs were hidden there. He said no.

“You didn’t turn your mind to the fact you could literally have been flushing away evidence?” Wood said.

Court heard Kiazyk injured his shoulder playing spongee hockey days later and, after some time off, was placed on administrative duties. Kiazyk said Ring approached him sometime in December 2022 and asked him about the Stradbrook incident and whether he went into the suite before the search warrant was obtained.

“I told him: ‘You said nobody in or out.’ I thought police were allowed,” he said. “I thought it was like capture the flag; we got our area, we own this spot.”

“I thought it was like capture the flag; we got our area, we own this spot.”

Kiazyk said Ring asked if Bostock went in the suite and he replied yes, two or three times.

Ring asked Kiazyk if he touched anything and showed him the pictures of the marijuana bag.

“I was shocked, because I know I didn’t do this,” Kiazyk said. “I told him I walked in, and the most I did was smell the air because I like that smell (of marijuana). I said I did not touch this bag. That was 100 per cent truthful.”

Kiazyk said Ring told him he believed him and asked him not to call Bostock.

“I don’t think (Ring) was outside the room before I phoned Elston,” he said. “I was beyond pissed off because he put me in this position. I know I did not touch this bag, I didn’t touch anything in that suite. So, I know at this point (Bostock) touched the bag. I was pissed off he put me in this position where they were challenging my integrity.”

Kiazyk said Bostock apologized, admitted touching the bag and that he “just wanted to look at it.”

“I said: ‘You need to sort out this s—t on your own, this is your mess, deal with it,’” Kiazyk said.

Wood alleged Kiazyk called Bostock so they could get their stories straight.

“I’m going to suggest the reason you called him immediately after is because you needed to cover up what you had done together,” Wood said.

“No, that is false,” Kiazyk said.

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.

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.

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