A Coquitlam RCMP officer who was suspended with pay after his online fetish photos were made public is still off the job — and being paid — four years later.
Cpl. James Brown's disciplinary hearing has been repeatedly delayed since 2012 and has reportedly been adjourned indefinitely, but the Mountie is still collecting a paycheque, a debacle Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart calls "infuriating."
"The RCMP needs to complete the investigation or abandon it and reinstate him," Stewart said.
In 2012, several photos Brown had posted to the members-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.
Stewart said Brown's paycheques don't come directly from city coffers but from a broader E-Division account, funded on a per capita basis across E Division member cities; nevertheless, he added, Brown appears to be on "a four-year paid holiday, which is really impossible to comprehend from a taxpayer's perspective."
A request for comment from BC RCMP E Division was not returned. Coquitlam RCMP said it does not comment on members' disciplinary actions at the detachment level.
Stewart said the requirement to suspend an officer with pay is a national one and the detachment has no authority to suspend without pay unless they receive Ottawa's approval.
Brown has launched civil suits against the people he alleges accessed and sent the photos in 2012 and, more recently, against the Pacific Newspaper Group, which publishes the Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers. Brown 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.
