Sex assault charges withdrawn against Ottawa police superintendent

Three years after an Ottawa police superintendent was suspended amid an investigation into his alleged grooming and sexual assault of a female recruit, the criminal charges against him were withdrawn in court Monday at the request of the prosecution.

Supt. Mark Patterson, now 56, was suspended with pay in June 2022 and charged by Ontario Provincial Police in December 2022 with two counts of sexually assaulting the woman, as well as breach of trust for "abusing his position of authority to engage in sexual activity."

It was alleged to have occurred between late 2018 and 2022.

The assistant Crown prosecutor assigned to the case, Vlatko Karadzic of the Kitchener-Waterloo region, explained briefly in Superior Court Monday that the complainant "is no longer interested in participating in the criminal process."

Without a willing witness the Crown had no reasonable prospect of conviction, and asked the judge to withdraw the charges. Justice Anne London-Weinstein complied.

Defence lawyer Mark Ertel, asked by the judge for his comments after Karadzic spoke, said it's "unfortunate it took this long" and that his client has maintained his innocence.

Patterson had been scheduled to stand trial before a judge alone for nine days in early September. He displayed no emotion while sitting in the courtroom gallery, or while walking out of the courthouse.

Still suspended with pay

The superintendent remains suspended with pay.

He has so far collected over $500,000 in salary, according to the province's annual public sector salary disclosure, colloquially known as the Sunshine List.

Now that Patterson's criminal matter has concluded, an investigation under the Police Services Act will resume and could result in disciplinary charges.

The investigation is being led by Ontario Provincial Police and updates will be provided when available, the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) wrote in an email Monday.

Meanwhile, the force is reviewing what happened in court.

'A difficult thing'

Outside the courtroom, Ertel said Patterson can't comment because he could still be charged.

"He feels vindicated today," Ertel said, and hopes that the disciplinary charges "never get off the ground and he can get back to work."

Asked about the complainant backing out amid scrutiny on the justice system's handling of sexual assault cases, as in the ongoing Hockey Canada trial, Ertel said "it's understandable."

"It's a difficult thing, obviously, to go through a criminal prosecution where you're going to be going over some of the very intimate details of your life, the relationships you have with other people, that sort of thing," he said.

"Somebody's got to take a look and this and decide if there's some better way to solve these problems than the sledgehammer of the criminal process, which really destroys everyone involved ... not just the complainant, but the accused as well."

The burden is heavy on the Crown in these cases, Ertel said. They often come down to one person's word against another's, with little concrete evidence to back up a complainant's version. That makes it "difficult if not impossible" for the Crown to get a conviction when the bar is as high as it is: beyond a reasonable doubt.

Chief called allegations 'very serious' in 2022

When the charges against Patterson were announced in 2022, CBC News obtained an email sent by Chief Eric Stubbs to the rest of the OPS.

"I know this information is very concerning to all of us and the community we serve," Stubbs wrote. Patterson had been "immediately suspended" when the allegations were made, he added.

"Our service takes all allegations of sexual assault and harassment very seriously. We have no tolerance of either. It is damaging and debilitating to all those impacted," Stubbs said at the time, without releasing any details of the allegations.

"The allegations and charges in this case are very serious and it is important that we respect the judicial process and for all the facts to be heard."

Patterson previously in charge of recruiting

Patterson has been a police officer for 28 years. At the time of his suspension he was superintendent of the intelligence directorate and oversaw units such as intelligence and surveillance. Previously he had been a public-facing senior officer in charge of recruiting new officers to the service.

CBC had learned the allegations were related to his time in recruiting — specifically a sexual relationship Patterson was alleged to have had with a woman he recruited to be a police officer after meeting her through a local gym.

That gym was the scene of a January 2019 Ottawa police "jobposal," in which police formally offer a new recruit a job.

In that video, posted to social media, Patterson showed up at the gym in uniform to offer a recruit a job.

"She said YES!" an Ottawa police Twitter account wrote.

Patterson's personal Instagram account, which was made private after his suspension, shows he posted congratulatory messages with the pictures of at least five female police recruits who went from the gym to the police service.