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A Calgary police officer who was fired for using one of the service’s databases to help a colleague harass another man’s ex-girlfriend argued Tuesday that the decision should be thrown out.
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On appeal, Bradford McNish told the Law Enforcement Review Board that the disciplinary hearing that led to his dismissal from the Calgary Police Service did not adequately consider how a brain injury he sustained during a police training session 2011 contributed to his crime.
He said he was unable to effectively argue that link in defending himself against four charges initially filed that were later dropped, leaving him facing disgraceful conduct charges in which his injury was deemed irrelevant.
“I wanted the opportunity to explain my actions in my own words,” he said.
“That link (between brain injury and crime) could not be established due to the nature of the charges. I don’t think that was fair and reasonable.”
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He also told the LERB that he should have been given the opportunity to resign from CPS rather than be fired.
“I spent 25 years with CPS in an exemplary career; I felt I should have been given some consideration in that regard,” said McNish, a former sergeant who represented himself at the hearing.
“It is very hard”.
He and former CPS officer Bryan Morton were convicted along with others, including retired officer Steve Walton and his wife, of participating in an elaborate campaign of harassment against the ex-girlfriend of a wealthy Calgary businessman.
Ken Carter had hired Walton, an unlicensed private investigator, to keep tabs on Akele Taylor, the mother of his youngest child.
In January 2021, the Alberta Court of Appeals upheld the sentences: six months for McNish and 30 months for Morton.
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In both decisions, the appellate judges noted that officers “used police time and resources in a campaign of harassment and intimidation against a Calgary woman and accepted payment for doing so.”
Both McNish and Morton had previously unsuccessfully appealed their convictions.
McNish was found guilty of unauthorized use of a police computer database and breach of trust.
On Tuesday, McNish also argued that CPS unfairly used his brain injury as a reason to declare him unfit for work, instead of considering it a mitigating factor in its criminal actions.
But a CPS attorney argued that disciplinary hearing chairman Paul Manuel made no mistake in considering the evidence that convicted McNish, some of which found that his brain injury was not a mitigating factor in his crime.
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“The evidence did not support a link between brain injury and behavior. After that, the presiding officer determined that dismissal was the appropriate decision,” said Michael Mysak.
“There’s really no defense to the fact that (McNish) was convicted.”
McNish, he said, received a fair hearing by being able to make 22 pages of presentations that dealt significantly with his brain injury.
The four charges that were dropped were tried at trial, so there was no need to re-litigate them, Mysak added.
And allowing the former official to resign, and theoretically avoid sanctions, would have publicly discredited CPS, the attorney said.
“We have a high-ranking police officer criminally convicted and sentenced to prison, which rarely happens, which shows how serious these charges were,” Mysak said.
“There is no obligation to give an officer that option.”
McNish insisted that he could have quit much sooner, but he wanted to be held accountable.
A decision from the LERB, whose rulings are binding, is expected within 60 days.
Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn
