OTTAWA - A longtime Ontario Provincial Police officer has been charged with criminal harassment after a woman told detectives he just wouldn’t leave her alone, particularly on Valentine’s Day.
Const. Adrian Garner, a collision investigator, has been suspended from duty and will also face charges under the Police Services Act following an internal investigation that had detectives retracing allegations dating back to 2011.
OPP detectives say the officer’s alleged harassment began in 2011 when he met a 28-year-old woman who worked at a telephone service store in Cornwall.
After he secured a new telephone service, Garner “engaged in repeated, unwanted contact with (the woman),” according to the internal allegations approved by OPP Deputy Commissioner Scott Tod.
But internal investigators say it didn’t stop there.
Months later, on Feb. 14, 2012, Const. Garner is alleged to have returned to her place of work and again approached her. And when he was asked to leave, the 54-year-old officer reportedly waited for her outside the store.
“This action resulted in (the woman) feeling distraught and compelled to arrange a ride home to avoid you,” the allegations state.
Ten days later, on Feb. 24, Cornwall police arrested Const. Garner, whose case goes to criminal court later this year.
The maximum penalty on conviction is up to five years in prison.
Wearing civilian clothes, Garner reported to OPP East Region Headquarters in Smiths Falls on Sept. 12 for a first appearance on a Police Services Act charge.
“You knew or reasonably ought to have known that your behaviour was discreditable,” the internal charge reads.
The maximum penalty for discreditable conduct is dismissal.
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OPP officer charged with criminal harassment and stalking
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Veteran OPP officer charged with criminal harassment
Michael Jack, Administrator
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Michael Jack
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OPP officer charged with criminal harassment and stalking
A quest for tech help turned into criminal harassment charges, as the rumour mill ensnared one local OPP officer, argued defense attorney Bill Carroll on Tuesday.
Adrian Garner faces stalking charges for waiting outside a Cornwall Square phone store for one of its employees last Valentine’s Day. Tuesday was the second day of the two-day trial for the cop who has 19 years of service with the Long Sault detachment.
He was charged Feb. 24 with watching and besetting.
Garner testified he was there to clear the air on word that he was stalking the store employee — a concern that had reportedly led to a complaint to his commanding officer.
Garner was told Feb. 14 that the Telus employee had called his superior officer to complain, although that wasn’t true.
However, Garner didn’t know that, and concerned about his professional reputation, he said, he went to see her.
This came after several months of frequent visits to the store, a judge heard in the two-day trial this week.
Having bought an Android smart phone in 2011 from the particular female employee, Garner returned several times in the first month to figure out emailing, calling and texting.
He then returned four or five times a month the next few months with questions about the phone and accessories — typically dealing with the same female employee each time.
She said his visits went from “too flirtatious” to a “nuisance” — making her uncomfortable to the point she avoided him by staying in the back room.
Yet her attempts to avoid him were deliberately “unobvious,” she testified.
And on Feb. 14 she once again hid in the stock room as Garner approached, leaving a co-worker to tell Garner she was “uncomfortable” and didn’t want to speak to him.
The female employee said she was upset seeing Garner that day, particularly because a friend of his had confronted her earlier in her shift, demanding if she was “dating a black cop.”
She told Richard Dore — a friend of Garner’s — he’d been stalking her, so she’d complained to his superior officer.
And it was on Dore’s information, that Garner showed up Feb. 14.
“In my profession, a rumour like that, that I was stalking her . . . it would affect my job and caused me some concern,” Garner said on the stand.
“I went to speak to (her) about the rumour and clarify what was going on.”
However, the Crown argues that Garner should have listened when a store employee told him three times her upset co-worker didn’t want to talk to him.
Instead, he waited on a bench inside the mall, in case she changed her mind, he said.
She didn’t, instead calling a male friend to walk her to her car, while Garner remained on the bench.
Garner has been suspended with pay.
Justice Allan Letourneaux said he will deliver his decision in February.
By Kathryn Burnham, Cornwall Standard Freeholder
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 8:51:47 EST PM
http://www.standard-freeholder.com/2012 ... city-woman
Adrian Garner faces stalking charges for waiting outside a Cornwall Square phone store for one of its employees last Valentine’s Day. Tuesday was the second day of the two-day trial for the cop who has 19 years of service with the Long Sault detachment.
He was charged Feb. 24 with watching and besetting.
Garner testified he was there to clear the air on word that he was stalking the store employee — a concern that had reportedly led to a complaint to his commanding officer.
Garner was told Feb. 14 that the Telus employee had called his superior officer to complain, although that wasn’t true.
However, Garner didn’t know that, and concerned about his professional reputation, he said, he went to see her.
This came after several months of frequent visits to the store, a judge heard in the two-day trial this week.
Having bought an Android smart phone in 2011 from the particular female employee, Garner returned several times in the first month to figure out emailing, calling and texting.
He then returned four or five times a month the next few months with questions about the phone and accessories — typically dealing with the same female employee each time.
She said his visits went from “too flirtatious” to a “nuisance” — making her uncomfortable to the point she avoided him by staying in the back room.
Yet her attempts to avoid him were deliberately “unobvious,” she testified.
And on Feb. 14 she once again hid in the stock room as Garner approached, leaving a co-worker to tell Garner she was “uncomfortable” and didn’t want to speak to him.
The female employee said she was upset seeing Garner that day, particularly because a friend of his had confronted her earlier in her shift, demanding if she was “dating a black cop.”
She told Richard Dore — a friend of Garner’s — he’d been stalking her, so she’d complained to his superior officer.
And it was on Dore’s information, that Garner showed up Feb. 14.
“In my profession, a rumour like that, that I was stalking her . . . it would affect my job and caused me some concern,” Garner said on the stand.
“I went to speak to (her) about the rumour and clarify what was going on.”
However, the Crown argues that Garner should have listened when a store employee told him three times her upset co-worker didn’t want to talk to him.
Instead, he waited on a bench inside the mall, in case she changed her mind, he said.
She didn’t, instead calling a male friend to walk her to her car, while Garner remained on the bench.
Garner has been suspended with pay.
Justice Allan Letourneaux said he will deliver his decision in February.
By Kathryn Burnham, Cornwall Standard Freeholder
Tuesday, December 11, 2012 8:51:47 EST PM
http://www.standard-freeholder.com/2012 ... city-woman
Michael Jack, Administrator