OPP officer wrongfully arrested in Wayne Gretzky hockey stick theft files $6M lawsuit

A long-time OPP officer is suing the Brantford Police Service (BPS) along with several of its officers after she said that she was falsely accused of stealing a signed hockey stick that Wayne Gretzky reportedly used to practice with in the backyard of his childhood home.

A long-time OPP officer is suing the Brantford Police Service (BPS) along with several of its officers after she said that she was falsely accused of stealing a signed hockey stick that Wayne Gretzky reportedly used to practice with in the backyard of his childhood home.

According to a draft statement of claim, Insp. June Dobson was a “long-time close friend” of Gretzky’s late father, Walter, who had gifted her the memorabilia.

The document says that in 2019 she was in need of additional money to support a family member and decided to sell the piece, known as the “Hespeler Stick,” and several other items she owned, to a Gretzky memorabilia collector.

Brantford police arrested Dobson on Dec. 7, 2020 after receiving a tip about a significant amount of Gretzky memorabilia being sold online. She was charged with fraud over $5,000 and breach of trust.

At the time of her arrest, Brantford police, the OPP, and the RCMP were in the midst of a three-month investigation after more than US$500,000-worth of Wayne Gretzky memorabilia was stolen from the hockey Hall-of-Famer's father's Brantford home.

In the statement of claim, Dobson’s legal team alleges that the joint investigation that led to her arrest, which occurred while she was on medical leave for PTSD, was “negligent” and “woefully inadequate,” adding that it was made “without reasonable and probable grounds.”

“The defendants had tunnel vision right from the beginning of the investigation. They were blinded by the fact that the investigation involved the Gretzky family and Wayne Gretzky memorabilia,” it said.