CALGARY — A judge has ruled that a man who killed an Alberta peace officer who was investigating a dog complaint is not criminally responsible for the death.
Trevor Kloschinsky was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Rod Lazenby.
But Judge Beth Hughes ruled that Kloschinsky, 49, did not realize that what he was doing was wrong.
"Wrong means morally wrong judged by the everyday standard of the ordinary person. It does not mean legally wrong," she read Thursday from her decision.
"I find the evidence establishes that it was more likely than not that Mr. Kloschinsky's mental disorder made him incapable at the time he caused the death of Mr. Lazenby of knowing the act was wrong."
Doctors testified at Kloschinsky's trial that they found him "actively psychotic."
Lazenby, 62, died in August 2012 after going to Kloschinsky's rural property south of Calgary to investigate an animal complaint.
Lazenby was a retired RCMP officer who was responsible for enforcing bylaws in the Municipal District of Foothills near Calgary.
An autopsy found Lazenby was strangled and had 56 abrasions, contusions and lacerations to the face, head, neck, body and back. He also suffered numerous internal injuries.
Kloschinsky admitted he caused Lazenby's death. He acknowledged dropping the officer off, handcuffed and unconscious, at a southeast Calgary police station, where he told officers he had apprehended a "dog thief."
Kloschinsky eked out a living selling blue heeler dogs he raised on his property. Court heard how he thought Lazenby was corrupt and trying to steal his animals.
Lazenby was an RCMP officer for 35 years and often worked undercover in Vancouver. He once bunked with child killer Clifford Olson and went after dangerous drug dealers on Vancouver's skid row. Lazenby joined the drug squad after he served as a military policeman.
He had retired in 2006 and moved to High River, Alta., to be closer to his daughter and her children. His daughter said Wednesday that the years following his death have been difficult and that he "did not deserve to be taken from us so cruelly."
