SASKATOON — The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial for a Saskatoon police officer convicted in 2015 of obstructing justice.
Const. Steve Nelson was given a 90-day conditional sentence and 50 hours of community service stemming from an incident in 2012.
Nelson took a statement from a woman who said she'd been beaten by her boyfriend, but the next day she came into the station and changed her story.
A taped phone call between Nelson and another officer, Const. Tyler Melnychuk, indicated the woman told police her boyfriend was innocent and that injuries to her face were the result of falling down several times.
That second statement never made it into the record and in the taped phone call, Nelson was heard telling Melnychuk the statement should be ripped up, but during his trial he denied ever getting the second statement.
In a written decision, appeal Court Justice Gary Lane said Judge Hugh Harradence didn't do enough to establish Nelson's intent in convicting him following his first trial.
"It is not sufficient that the accused did something or failed to do something which may have some effect on the course of justice. The accused must have wilfully committed an action or inaction which had a tendency to obstruct or pervert the course of justice and must have intended to obstruct or pervert the course of justice in behaving in this way," Lane wrote.
Nelson remains suspended from the police service while his case is before the courts.
(CKOM)
CKOM, The Canadian Press
