Retired officer says he didn't know call with constable was recorded night of alleged misconduct
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Police and Public Trust, a CBC News Atlantic investigative unit project, scrutinizes the largely off-limits police complaint and discipline systems across the region. Journalists are using access-to-information laws, and in some cases court challenges, to obtain discipline records and data.
A retired Royal Newfoundland Constabulary sergeant told a public complaints hearing this week that officers stopped using desk phones that don't record calls after an incident in which three constables were accused of misconduct.
"They don't want to get jammed up the way I got jammed up," said former sergeant Derrick Cole at the hearing Wednesday.
Cole was testifying at an RNC public complaints hearing in St. John's for Const. Steven Simmons in which it was revealed Cole was also internally charged for his role in the events on Nov. 8, 2017.
Two other officers, Const. Isabel Wagner and Const. Bernard Morgan, were subject to a hearing in 2021. Wagner was cleared while Morgan was found guilty of unnecessary use of force when he hit a handcuffed man in the back of his head. Morgan is no longer with the force.
The complaint was lodged by Dennis and Zackary Ball of Paradise. Simmons has pleaded not guilty to using unnecessary force, being discourteous, and arresting the father and son without cause, all of which are in contravention of the RNC Act.
Cole was the lone sergeant on duty in Mount Pearl the evening Dennis Ball yelled out his window to Simmons at an accident scene to "direct the f--king traffic." Simmons followed Ball home, about a half-kilometre away.
What happened next is in dispute, but surveillance and dashcam video show Simmons and Ball in a struggle before Ball's son was pepper-sprayed in the face.
Cole, who retired in 2021 after more than three decades on the force, said he still "had his coat on" and his shift hadn't started yet when the phone rang the evening in question. It was Simmons, looking for advice.
"I'm going to run this by you," Simmons is heard saying on the call.
He explains that a car came through an accident scene at Topsail Road and McNamara Drive in Paradise "cursing and swearing" to "control the f--king traffic."
Simmons says Ball didn't take the right turn with the rest of the rerouted traffic but instead made a U-turn.
"He guns it through the intersection… he's flying," Simmons says, adding he hopped in his car and followed Ball until he "darts into a long driveway."
Through questioning by RNC public complaints commission lawyer James Strickland, the hearing was told Simmons was driving 110 km/h — 50 km/h over the speed limit — in his attempt to catch up to Ball.
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