Police officer harassed woman for over a year, court told

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This article was published 23/11/2017 (2886 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Concerns about a potential conflict of interest delayed the criminal trial of a Winnipeg Police Service officer Thursday, after the chief judge learned the accused is the former brother-in-law of a provincial court judge.

Remi Van Den Driessche, 43, is on trial in front of provincial court Judge Sandra Chapman for sexual assault, eight counts of criminal harassment and two counts each of extortion and breach of trust from 2011 to 2013. He’s accused of victimizing vulnerable women while working in the north end of the city.

A judge from out of province would have been brought in to handle the trial when it began in October 2016, according to court policies, had the accused’s ties to the judge had been known, Chapman said.

Neither Crown or defence lawyers knew until after a Thursday meeting with provincial court Chief Judge Margaret Wiebe that Van Den Driessche’s ex-wife is the sister of a current provincial court judge – so Chapman had to decide whether she would remove herself from the case.

Chapman opted to continue with the trial after hearing from both Brandon Crown attorney Richard Lonstrup and defence lawyer Richard Wolson that they wanted her to stay on. Wolson said the accused told him his former brother-in-law became a judge after Van Den Driessche and his wife separated, and he has no relationship with him.

“It was thought to be a non-issue, and I think properly so,” Wolson said, though he emphasized public perception is important and “justice is seen to be done.”

Chapman decided not to delay the trial any further. “In my view, there is no actual conflict,” she said.

She heard Thursday afternoon from a now-30-year-old Winnipeg woman who alleges Van Den Driessche stopped her on the street in his cruiser and called her at home at least 100 times, asking her to come over to his place and “get high.”

“I was being harassed by an officer of the law,” the woman said in response to questions from Crown attorney Marnie Evans. She pointed out Van Den Driessche in the courtroom and said she was easily able to pick him out of a photo lineup when she talked to police about the alleged harassment in 2013.

Van Den Driessche has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is presumed innocent.

The woman said at the time, she was addicted to crack cocaine and was supporting her habit with prostitution. But when she was first stopped by Van Den Driessche in the city’s North End during the summer of 2011, she said, she was only walking home to her mother’s house. She testified she was alone when Van Den Driessche pulled up, with another officer, in a cruiser.

“They were asking why I was out so late and I told them I was going home,” she said, saying Van Den Driessche asked for her phone number, her address, which floor she lived on, which entrance she used. She gave the officer her information and testified she saw him enter it into his cellphone rather than the patrol car’s onboard computer.

“I kinda felt a little awkward, like, it was kind of irrelevant (the questions he was asking),” she said. “At the time, I did not think it was a big deal.”

She testified a man who identified himself as a police officer started calling her home soon after – between a couple of days to a couple of weeks later, she said.

“He asked me if I had any plans that evening… if I wanted to hang out with him, if I wanted to get high,” she said, saying she refused but the calls kept coming and he would stop her on the street more frequently.

The woman testified she felt as though the officer saw her as a “piece of meat” and said she became paranoid and reluctant to leave her home.

“I was worried that if this police officer was harassing me out on the street and in my home, what else could he do to me?” she said.

The alleged harassment continued for more than a year, she testified, until she eventually told the officer she would contact his supervisor and submit a complaint about him. There was always another officer with Van Den Driessche when he stopped her on the street, the woman said, but she said his partners varied.

Wolson questioned the witness about a previous comment she made to police when they asked her if she had personally experienced harassment from an officer.

She admitted hearing about officer misconduct with sex workers but told police she had never been pursued. During cross-examination Thursday, she said she was “probably” not telling police the truth when she made that comment, suggesting she didn’t want to be labelled a “rat.”

“It depends on whether I’m going to be alive or not at the end of the day,” she said.

Van Den Driessche’s trial has been set to last 10 days this month after it began last fall.

He was an eight-year member of the WPS before charges against him were announced in 2014. Winnipeg Police Association president Maurice Sabourin and vice-president George Van Mackelbergh were present in court Thursday.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay