KAMLOOPS, B.C. - A senior RCMP officer facing a breach of trust charge after allegedly watching two female inmates have sex in a jail cell admitted he should have intervened, a court in Kamloops, B.C., has heard.
Cpl. Rick Brown was the watch commander on the night of Aug. 10, 2010, and allegedly watched with two other Mounties on a video monitor for more than 30 minutes.
Cpl. Kelly Buttler told B.C. Supreme Court that she became aware of the incident that night after one of the officers bragged about watching the sex act, prompting her to email a superior asking for the matter to be investigated.
Butler said that a few days later, she spoke on the phone with Brown and he admitted that he should have done things differently.
“In hindsight, yeah, I should have stopped it,” Brown said during the conversation, which lasted about five minutes and was recorded on the detachment's phone system and played in court.
“In retrospect, you’re right. It shouldn’t have happened."
During the call, Brown said Butler’s email was opening “a can of worms," referring to the fact that the cellblock is under video surveillance.
“If you look on the video, I bet I didn’t look great. Plus, I’m the supervisor,” Brown said.
“Good Lord,” Butler replied.
Brown also expressed concern about a potential lawsuit given the fact one of the women claimed to be HIV-positive.
He appeared at times to be upset with Butler, at one point asking her, “Are you joking me or are you serious?”
“You just implicated six of us in an internal complaint,” said Brown, who has been on paid leave since the incident came to light more than four years ago.
Four people were initially charged — Brown, constables Elgee and Stephen Zaharia and jail guard David Tompkins.
The charges against Elgee and Zaharia were later stayed. Tompkins pleaded guilty last year and was placed on a year-long probation term.
Butler said Elgee bragged to her about having watched the two drunk inmates having sex later the same night in the detachment office.
“He came up and he said, ‘Hey, did you hear what happened? There was a couple of girls getting it on in cells and there was some full-on fisting,’” Butler testified.
“I told him that’s not really funny and he said, ‘Yeah, one of them was HIV-positive.’"
“When he first came to me he was smiling and it was pretty jovial. Once I shut him down, he wasn’t smiling and at that point he just walked away.” (Kamloops This Week)
