Twenty-five year RCMP veteran to appear in court

By Melanie Jackson
msjacksonpei@gmail.com

A 25-year veteran of the RCMP has been suspended with pay after being charged with theft, breach of trust by a public officer and possession of a controlled substance.

Corporal Blair Ross of the Kings District RCMP was charged June 4 following an investigation by the RCMP’s Professional Standards and Major Crime Unit.

It is the second time in the last three years Cpl Ross was charged under the Criminal Code of Canada.

In 2011, Cpl Ross received a suspended sentence after being charged with common assault on a man following a disagreement between the two. Cpl Ross was off-duty and was drinking when the assault occurred.

Following that charge, Cpl Ross spent two months in counselling at a treatment facility in Ontario for a problem with alcohol. He also received two years’ probation and was ordered to do 100 hours of community service.

During that investigation, Cpl Ross was put on administrative duty, but since returned to a fully operational RCMP officer.
Until the most recent charges, Cpl Ross was the officer responsible for the care and handling of evidence inside the Montague Detachment’s exhibit locker.

“He was frontline supervisor at his detachment,” Sergeant Andrew Blackadar, media relations officer for the RCMP, said.

“One of his operational duties in that role was to be the stores keeper (of the exhibit locker),” Sgt Blackadar said. “That was his main function.”

The investigation into Cpl Ross’s conduct was launched when a fellow officer went into the detachment’s exhibit locker to retrieve evidence for a case.

“(The officer) realized evidence had been tampered with,” Sgt Blackadar said, adding the investigation lasted from May 31 to June 4.

“The result of that audit revealed some prescription pills had been taken,” he said.

Sgt Blackadar said it is believed the pills were for Cpl Ross’s personal use.

“There’s no evidence that leads us to believe he was trafficking the drugs,” Sgt Blackadar said.

Cpl Ross, who lives in Stratford, has been with the Kings District RCMP for the past three to four years, Sgt Blackadar said, and stationed in the Montague Detachment for the past two to three years.

Sgt Blackadar said the RCMP is currently undertaking two separate investigations of Cpl Ross - one under the Criminal Code for his drug related charges and one under the RCMP Code of Conduct for a breach of trust.

“We, as RCMP officers, are guided by the RCMP Act which tells us how we are to conduct ourselves,” Sgt Blackadar said.

In any instance where an officer is found to have breached the code of conduct, Sgt Blackadar said there a number of options for reprimand - ranging from counselling to termination of employment.

Sgt Blackadar said five or six criminal cases involving the stolen pills are now under review and may be withdrawn due to lack of evidence.

“Each case will have to be reviewed by the Crown to determine if they will go forward,” he said, adding that there have been situations where cases go trial even if evidence is missing.

“For example, we can charge someone with murder even if we don’t have a body,” Sgt Blackadar said.

He said the fate of each case will depend on the judge’s decision and the available evidence.

“If we have other evidence, the case might go forward,” he said.

“But if (the pills) were the only evidence, we might be in trouble.”

Sgt Blackadar said there have been other cases in Canada where RCMP officers were charged with tampering with evidence, however, he said, “There haven’t been any on the Island. Not to my knowledge.”

Cpl Ross was also charged in 1998 for assaulting a woman. He was given a conditional discharge in that incident.

Sgt Blackadar said he couldn’t comment on those incidents as he was not in the role of media relations officer at the time they occurred.

Cpl Ross will appear in Georgetown Provincial Court on July 25 to enter his plea.

First appeared in The Eastern Graphic June 12, 2013