Judge: Mountie's meltdown just a blip
Monday, February 12, 2007 at 16:23
PUBLICATION: The Chronicle-Herald
DATE: 2007.02.08
SECTION: Front
PAGE: A1
BYLINE: Beverley Ware; Patricia Brooks Arenburgstaff Reporters
ILLUSTRATION: Const. Adree Zahara was placed on probation for a
yearWednesday after she pleaded guilty to a charge of careless use of a
firearm. (Beverley Ware / South Shore Bureau)
WORD COUNT: 741
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Judge: Mountie's meltdown just a blip; Cop who fired 9 bullets during
domestic dispute gets probation
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BRIDGEWATER - A Mountie who had "a bit of a meltdown" and fired nine
bullets from her service pistol into the wall of her home has been put
on probation for a year and will have no criminal record so she can
continue what the judge called "an exemplary career."
Const. Adree Zahara won't have to perform community service as
prosecutor Chris Nicholson requested because Judge Anne Crawford said
Const. Zahara, as a police officer and single mother, already gives back
to the community every day.
The judge also imposed a two-year ban on possessing weapons rather than
the 10-year ban Mr. Nicholson asked for, saying the lesser term would
still be a deterrent but would allow Const. Zahara to continue her
career.
The two-year ban applies only when Const. Zahara isn't working. She is
allowed to carry a gun at work.
"The public interest is best served here by allowing a good officer to
continue her career," Judge Crawford said as she agreed to the joint
recommendation from the Crown and defence for a conditional discharge
and a year on probation.
But RCMP spokesman Sgt. Frank Skidmore said Const. Zahara will not be
given her semi-automatic handgun back, at least until an internal
investigation is finished. He said her future with the RCMP is far from
certain.
Mr. Nicholson said Const. Zahara is now doing administrative work for
the RCMP's violent crime linkage analysis system, or VICLAS, in Bedford.
The prosecutor said outside court he wanted a longer firearms ban and
community service.
"I thought it would be important for Const. Zahara to have the
opportunity to give something back to the community for what she did,
for her serious lapse in judgment here," he said.
But the judge did agree with the joint recommendation for a conditional
discharge, saying "anything other than a conditional sentence would be
grossly out of proportion to the offence." She said Const. Zahara was
under considerable stress at the time and did not put anyone at risk.
Both Mr. Nicholson and defence lawyer David Bright denied that Const.
Zahara was given special treatment.
Mr. Bright said he has worked on cases involving military members who
received a work exemption to a weapons ban.
He said Const. Zahara has an "extraordinarily good record" at work. Both
he and Mr. Nicholson said her sentence reflects her work as an RCMP
officer and as a volunteer in the community, her remorse and the
positive statements that senior officers made in her presentence report.
Last week, two senior RCMP officers spoke to The Chronicle Herald on
condition of anonymity. They said they thought Const. Zahara was getting
preferential treatment, both in the criminal case and the internal
investigation, and that it was damaging to the rank-and-file members and
the public's perception of the RCMP.
"Their credibility is totally destroyed," one veteran officer said of
RCMP management and the force's handling of the investigation. "She
should have no credibility as a police officer. Period."
Const. Zahara's work with the VICLAS unit, at full pay, is a job that
"80 per cent of front-line officers would give their you-know-what to
have," one officer said.
The officers were appalled that Const. Zahara fired her pistol into a
wall nine times in a domestic dispute, not only because of the safety
training they receive but also in light of the types of violent offences
many officers have witnessed.
The two senior Mounties who spoke with The Herald said other officers
have been forced out of the RCMP over court convictions, even if the
sentence was a conditional discharge. Others are being subjected to
polygraph tests to determine who is downloading music from the Internet,
one said.
"And they let something like this go by? It's a farce, that's the bottom
line," the officer said.
Bridgewater Police Chief Brent Crowhurst used to be Const. Zahara's
supervisor when he was a Mountie. He told the court that the policing
community admired and respected her and that he has no concerns about
anything like this ever happening again.
Mr. Nicholson said the shooting incident came to light when Const. Chuck
Simm reported it to his detachment on Oct. 16. Const. Simm had been
living common law with Const. Zahara and their three-year-old son until
a few months before.
He said that on Oct. 15, Const. Zahara invited him to her home in
Chester Grant to talk about their son and they got into an argument. He
was working and in uniform. Const. Zahara was also in uniform, getting
ready for her 4 p.m. shift.
Mr. Nicholson said Const. Zahara got "very upset," went into her room
and started smashing things. Const. Simm reported that he heard a
gunshot, followed by several other shots. He kicked in the door and took
her gun until she calmed down, then gave it back to her and she went to
work.
When she didn't report the incident, he did
http://forums.blueline.ca/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10859"
Was Justice served here?
by AnotherBeginning on Wed Feb 07, 2007 8:06 pm
Personally, I say no..... just my opinion though....
Cop won’t face maximum term
By PATRICIA BROOKS ARENBURG Staff Reporter
A South Shore Mountie who fired her semi-automatic pistol several times into a wall at her home last fall during a dispute with her former partner won’t get the maximum two-year jail sentence and could end up getting both her gun and her job back.
That’s because the Crown has decided to proceed summarily in the case of Const. Adree Mohammed Zahara, who pleaded guilty in December to careless use of a firearm.
That means the most she faces is up to six months in custody, a $2,000 fine or a combination of both, followed by probation, when she is sentenced today in Bridgewater provincial court.
"She has no record, of course," Crown attorney Chris Nicholson said of the decision.
"First offence, not uncommon."
The Crown also looks at the seriousness of the offence, and Mr. Nicholson said Const. Zahara didn’t point her 9-mm handgun at anyone. But he reiterated the importance of assessing her.
He wouldn’t discuss his recommendations before today’s sentencing hearing.
The shots were fired last Oct. 17 during a dispute between the two Mounties, who are no longer together. After Const. Zahara was released from custody, she was ordered to have no contact with Const. Chuck Simm, who was reportedly with her when the shots were fired, or Const. Graham Cooke. Both orders were later changed — the one involving Const. Simm was altered to allow Const. Zahara access to the couple’s young son.
Const. Zahara’s case has raised the hackles of some senior officers who say she landed a "plum job" after committing a serious crime.
"Should she be a police officer? . . . Simply put, no. She stepped over the line," said one police source who did not want to be identified.
Const. Zahara, who is not allowed to carry her gun, has been working on administrative duties in metro Halifax since Nov. 3, RCMP spokesman Sgt. Frank Skidmore said. He couldn’t elaborate, but sources said she is working at the force’s Bedford office doing administrative work for the VICLAS (violent crime linkage analysis system) unit. She is not working as a VICLAS specialist, which would require expert training.
The decision not to suspend the officer from her $72,000-a-year job was made by the country’s top cop, who makes the final decision on all internal disciplinary matters.
Although a firearms ban is not mandatory in this case, it is common with all weapons offences, said Kelly Serbu, a Dartmouth defence lawyer who is not representing Const. Zahara. "It’s my experience that any time that there is a weapon involved . . . that the Crown asked for some type of weapons prohibition," Mr. Serbu said.
A ban is a "clear way" to prevent violence with weapons, he said. The judge could also impose a weapons restriction for a lesser period as part of a probation order, he said.
But Mr. Serbu said a defence lawyer could still argue that a person needs to have a weapon for employment purposes or that a ban would not be in the public interest.
A judge has already changed the conditions of Const. Zahara’s release, including the provision that she remain in Nova Scotia. Her lawyer, David Bright, said that could have restricted her employment.
The RCMP’s internal investigation into Const. Zahara’s actions is still underway and no decision on the future of her employment will be made immediately after her sentencing, Sgt. Skidmore said.
"She’s entered a plea of guilty, but without the sentencing, it’s not complete," he said.
Once the sentence, which could still include an absolute or conditional discharge, is passed, the internal investigation will wrap up, Sgt. Skidmore said. No provision of the RCMP Act states that an officer must be fired for a conviction under the Criminal Code, he said.
"If you’re a regular police officer and get picked up for impaired driving, (you) quite often do not lose your job," Sgt. Skidmore said.
But even a conditional or absolute discharge doesn’t mean life continues as usual for police officers. Former constable Gordon Rendell of Stellarton RCMP was suspended and later fired in 2000 after he received a conditional discharge for biting his ex-girlfriend on the nose in 1997.
