Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jan 2014
Source: Record, The (Kitchener, CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.therecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225
Author: Brian Caldwell

OFFICER LOSES APPEAL TO SAVE JOB

Lawyer Claimed Andrew Robson Was Entrapped by Fellow Police Officers 
in Pot-Related Offence

WATERLOO REGION - A disgraced police officer's bid to save his job 
suffered a setback Tuesday when a judge upheld both his convictions 
and sentence for stealing drugs.

A lawyer for Andrew Robson argued last month that Waterloo Regional 
Police improperly entrapped him in an on-the-job sting to see if he 
would pocket marijuana.

But in a ruling released Tuesday, Justice James Sloan found there was 
nothing wrong with either the investigation or subsequent 60-day 
conditional sentence Robson received for taking the bait.

"This is essentially a breach of trust crime committed by a serving 
police officer and, if anything, it is at the lenient end of the 
scale," the judge wrote in a four-page decision.

Defence lawyer Richard Niman said he will now likely take the case to 
the Ontario Court of Appeal, a move that would delay a disciplinary 
hearing on professional charges even longer.

Robson, 31, an eight-year member of the local police service, spent 
well over two years suspended with pay following his arrest in the 
fall of 2010.

He was taken off the payroll after he was technically sentenced to 
time in custody early last year, but is still a suspended member of 
the service.

Police targeted Robson after getting information from a colleague 
that he and other patrol officers at the Cambridge detachment were 
smoking dope like "fiends."

An undercover officer posed as a distraught mother who had caught her 
son with four ounces of marijuana.

When she gave it to Robson for disposal while he was working, he only 
turned in half of it and kept the rest for himself.

The stolen marijuana was still in an evidence bag in his knapsack 
when police arrested him on the way home after his shift.

Robson pleaded guilty in Ontario Court in Kitchener, but tried to get 
the charges thrown out due to an abuse of process. His arguments, 
similar to those at the recent appeal, were rejected by Justice Jeanine LeRoy.

In addition to a year on probation and 120 hours of community service 
work, LeRoy gave him 30 days of house arrest and 30 days with a nightly curfew.

The defence had argued for a conditional discharge, which would have 
meant Robson did not acquire a criminal record. A conditional 
sentence does result in a record and, under law, is considered jail time.

Officers given custody for crimes are almost automatically fired when 
disciplined under the Police Services Act.

As a result, Robson appealed both his convictions and sentence - 
which has already been served - before a judge at the higher Superior 
Court level.

Sloan upheld LeRoy's decisions on both aspects of the case, making 
the Ontario Court of Appeal the next stop in a process that has 
already dragged on for more than three years.

Police "had every right to be very concerned and suspicious that one 
of their own officers may be a chronic user of marijuana," Sloan 
wrote, stressing they had a duty to then investigate.

Robson testified at his trial that the stress of several traumatic 
incidents at work led to drug and alcohol addictions.

He said he once came close to killing himself with his police gun in 
2009 while sitting in his cruiser in a parking lot.
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