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A Manitoba RCMP officer has pleaded guilty to misconduct in connection with calling a 17-year-old girl “jailbait” in a message he sent her on Instagram after she was pulled over in the car he was in.
The officer, Const. Stephan Shewchuk of the Portage la Prairie traffic division sat in a gray jacket with shaking legs on Tuesday, the first day of an RCMP trial in Winnipeg.
Shewchuk, a seven-year member of the force, has pleaded guilty to three counts of defamation in 2020. He has now been suspended with pay, but will face further punishment.
The administrative tribunal, held at the Delta Hotel before an Ottawa judge, heard on its first day on October 31 that his car was stopped for an emergency inspection.
He later followed one of the female passengers in the car, a 17-year-old girl, on Instagram and told her he looked familiar. He replied that he had dragged her.
He replied, “The driver is only 18 so how old are you lol?” Judge Louise Morel, who is presiding over the case, said as she read the announcements on Tuesday.
“I’m 17 lol,” the girl wrote.
Shewchuk replied “Ah hah oh jailbait lol.”
“Lol yeah,” said the teenager.
The officer asked him if he had turned 18 last year or the year before.
“This is a sexual abuse of a minor,” Morel said after admitting the officer’s actions violated his rights.
“The police have a duty to protect young people and protect them at all times. He failed.”
It wasn’t the first time Shewchuk had done something like that, it was rumored.
Before the traffic stop, on October 20, 2020, he warned a female driver for speeding. He later sent a message to the driver on Instagram, saying he seemed familiar and asking how he knew him. The man did not answer.
Morel said after Shewchuk interacted on Instagram with the 17-year-old, he blocked the officer on the social media platform.
Officer thanked the women
Barry Benkendorf, an attorney for the state Department of Justice, told the hearing on Tuesday that “after he found out that she was 17, he went after her and it became clear that the whole purpose here was immorality.”
Speaking on Wednesday, the second day of the trial, the officer apologized to the two women and called his “jailbait” message “intimidating” and “offensive”.
“I used social media to reach out to random people, mostly women, for some kind of human connection or to have a good conversation,” she said.
“I know that adding random people on Instagram or chatting with people on TikTok is not the best way now. At that time, it was my only connection to the outside world .”
She wept as she described the disturbing events that led to her mental health deterioration, including separation, which the Manitoba police inspector investigated in 2019 for another form of control and solitary confinement during epidemic.
Shewchuk said he attended three major harassment events before posting to the women.
They included a scene in the crawl space, an active shooter call where Shewchuk said he thought he would die and never see his son again, and recovered dead bodies.
Fighting back tears, she said the whole thing made her depressed, and it wasn’t until she panicked in the Sobeys parking lot that she finally got help.
Officer should be dismissed: lawyer
The board of directors heard Tuesday that after the 17-year-old’s conversation, several people at a nearby high school knew about the conversation and then posted it on social media.
Shewchuk admitted to violating the RCMP’s social media policy by posting his identification number in his username and easily identifying him as a member of the force.
The inquest heard that she was pictured with her son in her profile picture on the platform, and the username was Stephan_lights_and_sirens_61781_.
Benkendorf said he was the prosecutor’s role in the trial, and while he refused to take the officer’s emotional statements, he said there was no point in his testimony that affected to him it is 30 years. a year-old police officer who follows the girls.
“As a grown man, he’s chasing girls. I have a 17-year-old daughter. I can tell you if a 30-year-old man tried to get her, I’d be very upset. ,” said the lawyer.
“To find out that person is someone in authority, like a police officer, makes it doubly sad.”
Benkendorf said the behavior was unacceptable and demanded that Shewchuk be removed from the force or resign within 14 days.
Shewchuk’s lawyer, Josh Weinstein, was presented with a certificate of appreciation from the RCMP and an award his client received for saving and preventing the suicide of a teenager in August 2020.
He also sent six letters of reference for Morel to consider his character.
Tara Seel, spokeswoman for the RCMP, said the force contacted the Manitoba police inspector about the incident, but the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba determined that the matter did not fall under its jurisdiction. Investigating major incidents involving the police are on police duty in the state.
The hearing will continue on Thursday.
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