The province’s police watchdog has decided the actions of a Mountie who allegedly forged another RCMP officer’s signature on a legal document might amount to “incompetence” but were not criminal.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba was notified about the matter last fall. An officer based out of the Wasagaming RCMP detachment who sometimes worked out of Shoal Lake said she arrested someone on a warrant on Sept. 12 and served an appearance notice but forgot to sign a document called a certificate of service. She went to the Shoal Lake detachment to sign it and said the male officer who was with her when they made the arrest had signed her name.
The male officer, who had been a Mountie for two years at that time, was based out of Shoal Lake.
The Independent Investigative Unit of Manitoba offices on Carlton Street. (MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES) The Independent Investigative Unit of Manitoba offices on Carlton Street. (MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES)
The female officer said the male officer eventually apologized to her in October, saying he did not know why he signed the document and would accept whatever happened as a result. Another female officer told the IIU the male officer told her he had “f——d up.”
The male officer refused to speak with the IIU or give investigators any notes. A lawyer representing him emailed the IIU in January to say, “I can advise you that at no time did my client have any intention to mislead anyone regarding this matter.”
The IIU reviewed a copy of the certificate of service, but the original, which was to be sent to a court office, was never found.
“The court advised that they did not receive the original,” the IIU’s final report, released Wednesday, states.
A review of the copy of the certificate of service showed the male officer “would have forged” the other officer’s signature on one section and signed his own name and badge number on another.
The IIU said the evidence suggests the male officer might have been “mistaken as to whom should have signed on the signature line as the serving member” and that he might haves signed the document “in order to expedite completion of the matter.”
The officers action’s “are concerning and may amount to incompetence, however, it is not in the IIU’s mandate to consider matters regarding police conduct.”
The IIU report’s conclusion said it is satisfied the officer’s actions “do not amount to criminal liability” and that no charges are recommended.
