A Coquitlam RCMP officer who was suspended with pay four years ago after his sexually explicit photos turned up on a fetish website has quit the force.
Cpl. James Brown was expected to attend a disciplinary hearing scheduled for May 2 but the Mounties say he resigned before the meeting could take place.
“As the date for a hearing approached, the individual submitted his discharge papers, which I immediately signed,” said Craig Callens, the deputy commissioner and commanding officer of the RCMP in B.C., in an email. “His career with the RCMP is over.”
Several hearings were scheduled and postponed since the photos came to light in 2012 and Brown has been collecting a paycheque for the duration of the suspension. Callens said legislative changes in 2014 made it easier for the RCMP to deal with disciplinary matters in a more timely fashion but the Brown case was a “legacy file.”
“To be clear, I have been seeking the dismissal of Cpl. Jim Brown since the conclusion of the investigation,” he said. “The hearing dates have been adjourned for reasons beyond my control but are a reflection of some of the challenges we faced under the old RCMP Act.”
In 2012, several photos of Brown posted to the members-only online fetish site Fetlife were sent to the media along with transcripts of online conversations. The photos included several of Brown engaged in various S&M poses while wearing his RCMP-issued boots.
Brown has launched civil suits against the people he alleges accessed and sent the photos four years ago and, more recently, against the Pacific Newspaper Group, which publishes the Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers. He has also filed suit against Google Inc. to obtain subscriber information regarding an RCMP-related blog and an email address he alleges contained defamatory statements.
Last week, Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart told The Tri-City News that Brown’s paycheques did not come directly from the city but from a broader E-Division account. But he said Brown was on a “four-year paid holiday” and urged the RCMP to either “complete the investigation or abandon it and reinstate him.”
@gmckennaTC
