A Cambridge woman who claims she was sexually harassed and assaulted by a Waterloo regional police constable in 2017 is suing the constable and the force for more than $1.3 million.
The lawsuit, filed last month, seeks punitive damages against Waterloo Regional Police Service and an officer who she claims had a prior history of abuse and "egregious misconduct" while employed by WRPS.
The suit seeks $250,000 from the officer for punitive, and general damages for sexual assault and battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of mental distress and other claims related to his role.
The claim seeks $250,000 from WRPS for punitive and general and aggravated damages related to negligence and breach of duty.
On a joint and several basis, the plaintiff is seeking $750,000 for past and future economic losses, special damages to be specified before trial, as well as healthcare costs and legal fees.
None of the allegations have been tested in court and WRPS has yet to file a statement of defence in the case.
The plaintiff, now 41, claims in the lawsuit she first met the constable alleged to have assaulted her in March 2017 when she and a friend were parked at a gas station.
She had been crying and was visibly upset when the officer pulled up next to the vehicle and asked what they were doing there. She told him she was upset because her ex-boyfriend had been harassing her online. The constable recommended she report the harassment and drove away.
When the plaintiff decided to take the officer's advice and report sexual and domestic assaults suffered at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, she claims she was told by an officer at south division headquarters she couldn't because too much time had passed.
That interaction was reported to her therapist who followed up with WRPS to explain there was no statute of limitations on reporting sexual assault. WRPS agreed she could make the report, but for some reason put it in the hands of the same officer who told her she couldn't report it.
She says her complaint about him made the officer angry and he didn't properly investigate her accusations about her ex-boyfriend. That officer eventually told the plaintiff police wouldn't be charging him.
"This incident led [the plaintiff] to believe that making complaints about WRPS officers would result in retaliation," reads the statement of claim.
But in the same month she reported a domestic assault by her then-boyfriend and fled to await police protection at a nearby community centre.
Two officers arrived in separate cruisers and one of them was the constable who had spoken to her before. They told her to stay there while they went to speak to her boyfriend.
The officer who returned was the one she recognized. He rolled down his window and told the plaintiff he remembered her from their encounter at the gas station. He then said "she needed to start dating better people."
The plaintiff thought the statement was inappropriate.
The constable told her to follow him in her car to the back of a building. She complied, but said she felt "increasingly afraid" since the area was isolated, dark and adjacent to a forested ravine.
When she rolled down her car window to speak, the plaintiff said the constable began telling her about being in an open marriage and having sex with other women. He asked her if she wanted to have sex with him, reads the claim.
When she said no, he continued to make advances, the claim states.
The plaintiff "dodged his physical advances" while trying to de-escalate the situation, not wanting to make the constable mad.
She said she felt trapped as he kept ther there talking for about an hour. She was "terrified that he was going to sexually assault her."
He asked for her email address before leaving and she gave him an old one that she no longer used.
Distraught, crying and upset, she met a friend and told her about the interaction with the police officer.
When she checked her phone, she claims he had already emailed the address she had given him. It made her fear the unwanted advances would continue.
He emailed her several times over the next two weeks, according to the plaintiff.
She finally responded "saying that he had abused his power as a police officer and that it was inappropriate."
He stopped emailing after that.
Based on her previous experience making a complaint to police, she believed they wouldn't take her seriously.
Two years later, "in or around May of 2019" she decided to report the constable's actions and was directed to the Professional Standards Unit.
She followed the process and repeatedly asked for updates on her case. A discipline hearing was originally scheduled for October 2020, but the hearing did not proceed.
In the fall of 2021, the complaint was referred to the London Police Service and in March of 2022, the complaint was referred to a discipline hearing.
It was scheduled to go ahead in April of last year, but when the plaintiff followed up, she was told it wouldn't be going ahead because the officer in question was no longer employed by WRPS.
The plaintiff said the officer's actions were an abuse of power, exploited her vulnerability, "were deliberate, unwelcome, uninvited, and constituted a gross violation of [the plaintiff's] dignity, bodily integrity and personal autonomy."
She holds WRPS liable for his actions and its breach of duty which includes failing to take appropriate actions for "prior allegations of misconduct" against the officer.
As a result, she says she suffered loss of income, emotional, physical and psychological harm, depression, anxiety and "general loss of enjoyment of life."
