Pubdate: Wed, 23 Sep 2015
Source: Record, The (Kitchener, CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.therecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225
Author: Gordon Paul
Page: A1

OFFICER WHO STOLE POT IN POLICE STING COULD LOSE JOB: LAWYER

KITCHENER - Const. Andrew Robson - a Waterloo Regional Police officer 
who stole marijuana in a police sting five years ago - has lost his 
chance to appeal to Ontario's highest court and now could lose his 
job, his defence lawyer says.

"He will likely now be the subject of disciplinary proceedings where 
I imagine they will seek to have him terminated," Richard Niman said 
in an interview on Tuesday. "That will be an internal process at the 
Waterloo Regional Police Service."

A police spokesperson was unavailable for comment on Tuesday.

Robson, 33, a former front-line patrol officer in Cambridge, was 
caught in an on-the-job police sting in 2010 and convicted of theft 
and drug possession. He spent well more than two years suspended with 
pay following his arrest.

Robson was taken off the payroll in 2013 after he was technically 
sentenced to time in custody - 30 days of house arrest - but is still 
a suspended member of the service, Niman said.

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 - to Superior Court and then the 
Ontario Court of Appeal. He argued that police improperly entrapped him.

He lost the Superior Court appeal last year. The Ontario Court of 
Appeal has now refused to grant "leave to appeal" and released its 
reasons on Monday.

The three-judge panel gave a terse summary: "We do not accept that 
the unusual fact situation of this case requires this court to grant 
leave. The law of entrapment is well settled. Its application to 
these facts is not controversial."

The court added, "The merit of a further appeal is not apparent to this court."

Niman said the panel "did not think that the case was unique enough 
or was significant to the administration of justice, which is the test."

Police targeted Robson after getting information from a colleague 
that he and other patrol officers at the Cambridge detachment were 
smoking marijuana like "fiends," according to testimony at his trial 
in Kitchener.

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, hired by regional police in 2004, testified at his trial that 
the stress of several traumatic incidents as a police officer 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.

"We felt all along that Andrew was mistreated by his own employer, 
especially given his addiction and mental-health issues ... and 
there's no question that the operation that they employed was 
completely disproportionate to the concerns that they had ..." Niman said.

"I think it behooved them to inquire as to whether there were any 
underlying issues that would have explained his purported drug use."

At a previous court appearance, Niman argued police had no evidence 
of on-duty theft - just off-duty marijuana use - when they entrapped 
him to commit a much more serious crime.

"It's our submission the court shouldn't stand for this sort of law 
enforcement," he told a Kitchener hearing in 2013.

Lisa Mathews, the prosecutor in both appeals, earlier said there was 
nothing wrong with an "integrity test" to see if Robson would do his 
job by turning in the drugs.

"The police did no more than root out corruption in their ranks, 
which they had a duty and an obligation to do," she said.

Due to the Ontario Court of Appeal decision, Niman said an appeal to 
the Supreme Court of Canada is unlikely.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom