Pubdate: Fri, 25 Jan 2013
Source: Record, The (Kitchener, CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:   http://news.therecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225
Author: Brian Caldwell

WATERLOO REGIONAL POLICE OFFICER GETS HOUSE ARREST FOR STEALING 
MARIJUANA IN STING

KITCHENER -- A judge rejected calls Friday to give a local police
officer a break for stealing two ounces of marijuana while on the job.

Defence lawyers argued Andrew Robson should get a conditional
discharge, which would have meant he didn't have a criminal record
after serving a period of probation.

Robson also made a long statement in Kitchener court, apologizing for
his crimes and describing how he committed them after a spiralling out
of control because of stress.

"Officers will continue to suffer in silence unless extreme action is
taken and the stigma in policing begins to change," he said.

Justice Jeanine LeRoy was somewhat sympathetic, accepting that the
nine-year constable is sorry and commending him for getting extensive
treatment for substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder since
his arrest in November 2010.

But she said a conditional discharge would "show a disregard for the
disrepute Const. Robson brought to Waterloo Regional Police and his
community."

Stressing that the breach of trust when an officer betrays his oath to
uphold the law "cannot be over-stated," LeRoy gave him a 60-day
conditional sentence, a year on probation and 120 hours of community
service.

The conditional sentence -- an alternative to actual jail time --
includes 30 days of house arrest and another 30 days with a nightly
curfew.

As a result, Robson has a record for possession and theft of
marijuana, an outcome that likely undermines his fight to keep his job
after being suspended with pay for more than two years.

He still faces professional discipline under the Police Services Act,
a process that has been on hold pending the conclusion of the criminal
case.

Insp. Kevin Thaler said that since Robson is now technically serving a
custodial sentence, police have the authority to stop paying him.

Following discussions by senior officers, he said, Robson's status
could be changed to suspended without pay next week.

Robson came under suspicion after a fellow officer asked to be taken
off his platoon because he and other constables were "smoking dope
like fiends."

Investigators set up a sting, arranging for an undercover officer
posing as a distraught mother to hand over marijuana for destruction
while Robson was on patrol in Cambridge.

Instead of turning the marijuana in as required, Robson kept half of
it for his own use. It was in his backpack, still in a police evidence
bag, when he was arrested on his way home from work.

"When somebody joins a police force, they know they will be held to
high ethical and moral standards," said prosecutor Iona Jaffe, who
argued against a discharge.

"We have to have zero tolerance of criminal conduct of this
sort."

Robson pleaded guilty, but tried to get the charges thrown out by
arguing he was unfairly and improperly entrapped by police.

That bid failed when LeRoy ruled investigators did nothing wrong by
targeting Robson in the sting.

Robson testified he was traumatized by several events at work,
including a 2007 helicopter crash in which he comforted a man who
thought he was dying.

He hunched forward and appeared to start crying in court while defence
lawyer Jamie Yoon recounted that incident, including how Robson was
asked to tell the man's family he loved them.

Anxious and jittery throughout the case, Robson said the stress of
such events led him to abuse alcohol and marijuana to cope.

At one point in 2009, he testified, he parked his cruiser and was
about to kill himself with his handgun when a call came in and he
answered it instead.

Robson described a macho police culture that discourages officers from
admitting emotional problems and asking for help.

"I didn't allow myself to think there was something wrong because if
my service ever found out, I would have been taken off the road and
had my gun taken away," he said in his statement Friday. "It would
have been career suicide."

If he gets his job back, Robson told the judge, he will try to start a
suicide prevention program and work to raise awareness of the effects
of work-related stress on officers.

He also said about two dozen officers declined to write character
letters for him because they were afraid of the repercussions of
publicly supporting a disgraced colleague.

"Andrew, come on," he quoted them as saying. "You know how this
service works. My career would be finished."

Early in the prosecution, Robson rejected a deal for a conditional
discharge in exchange for guilty pleas and his resignation.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt