3 VPD officers cleared during investigation into disgraced detective withheld information, Crown says

Crown prosecutors have released a lengthy statement explaining their decision not to charge three specialized Vancouver police officers accused of interfering with an investigation to protect their since-disgraced former colleague, revealing details of the allegations for the first time since the case began roughly half a decade ago.

The B.C. Prosecution Service on Thursday said the officers came under the microscope for their responses during interviews about their colleague, former detective James Fisher, while he was under investigation for sexually exploiting female victims of sex crimes.

A special prosecutor found officers could have been more helpful to investigators but that there wasn't evidence to prove any of their behaviour amounted to a crime.

"While the officers may have had ... a moral or social duty to be more forthcoming in the investigation, there was no legal duty that would support a criminal conviction," the 10-page statement read.

The details of the allegations come 2½ years after the Crown declined to approve charges. The statement said the report was withheld from the public until Thursday while other investigations were ongoing.

CBC contacted the Vancouver Police Department about the report but did not receive a response by deadline.

Officers weren't legally bound to volunteer information: Crown

Fisher, once a celebrated detective in the unit, was sentenced to 20 months in jail in 2018 for sexual exploitation and breach of trust after kissing two female victims. 

All three officers worked alongside Fisher before his arrest in the high-profile Counter Exploitation Unit, which led major investigations into prostitution and human trafficking operations.

The officers have not been named because they were not charged.

After Fisher was charged, the trio was called in for separate interviews on Jan. 13, 2017, about their fellow officer.

The statement said one of the officers left out information at least four times during the interviews. The other two colleagues answered questions but didn't provide much more information beyond what they were asked.

"The subject officers did not lie or misrepresent anything. They simply did not volunteer information. Absent a statutory or common law duty to provide the information to the ... investigators, there was no legal obligation for them to provide the omitted information."

According to the Crown's statement, the first officer failed to mention Fisher had been alone with a victim in a police car on his day off or that the pair had been in a minor crash. He also didn't tell investigators about another allegation of sexual misconduct against Fisher or that Fisher had told his colleague he knew the RCMP was "sniffing around him."

The second officer told investigators she didn't think a victim's allegations against Fisher were true, instead believing the victim was "just trying to get a rise" out of the detective.

"After the interview, [the officer] boasted ... that she had been an 'absolute bitch' during the interview, would not look at the investigators and provided one-word answers to questions," the Crown statement said.

The third officer acknowledged to investigators that Fisher had met with victims alone but didn't have much more to say.

Alberta RCMP called to handle case

In July 2017 — seven months after the interviews — the police complaint commissioner wrote a letter calling for an investigation into "allegations of serious misconduct" against the officers.

Alberta RCMP handled the case. They recommended charges of obstruction and breach of trust on Aug. 7, 2019 — the latter of which related to the officers' paperwork.

The officers were accused of breaching their duties as professional investigators because they failed to take proper notes. The special prosecutor agreed their paperwork wasn't up to standard, but it was consistent with the "lax" and "minimal" note-taking habits across the entire unit.

There was no indication notes were poorly done for an "improper purpose," the Crown said.

The special prosecutor declined to lay charges in May 2020.

Union representative also investigated

The Alberta-based investigation also looked at whether the officers' union representative had counselled them to undermine the investigation into Fisher. 

One officer said the representative gave him the advice, "if they don't ask you, don't tell," ahead of his interview with investigators. Another said the union staffer told him not to "say too much" or be the one to "tip the scales" on Fisher. 

The union representative later denied the allegations. He told Alberta RCMP he said the officers should answer all of the questions honestly but not feel pressured to fill the silence with "erroneous information."

The special prosecutor said there was not enough evidence to prove the representative counselled the officers to lie and that his denial created reasonable doubt.

In the months after his conviction in 2018, Fisher faced repeated allegations that he sexually abused several other young women during the course of his investigations into Vancouver pimps. 

There are also allegations that he gave the young women drugs and encouraged them to lie in court and that the VPD was aware of issues with the detective five years before he was suspended from duty in 2016.

At least three men who were arrested as a result of investigations by Fisher and other officers in the Counter Exploitation Unit appealed their convictions on prostitution and human trafficking-related charges.